How To Learn 3x Faster

In this video, I’m going to show you how I’m able to learn and develop skills three to five times faster, and how you can do it too. So there are a lot of different ways you can learn, you can hire coaches or mentors, or do different programs, this video is going to be specifically about reading books. If you’re someone who understands that you should be learning more, you want to learn more, but you don’t enjoy reading books, then this video is going to show you how to read books faster, how to get more out of them, and how to do it in a way that’s far more enjoyable.

When I started out in business, I used to read a lot. I would read one to two hours a day. And on average, I read five books a week, so nearly a book a day. And I did that for nearly two years. So I read a lot of different books. However, in hindsight, that’s not how I would have done it. I would have used this new strategy which I’ve been using lately, which would have allowed me to learn more, read more, absorb more, and ultimately, develop my skills faster. So when it comes to reading books, there’s two ways you can do it, you can read the physical book or you can listen to the audiobook. And whilst both are useful, there are drawbacks with both.

If you’ve ever read the book, FLOW, they talk about the fact that the human brain can absorb so many bits of information at a time. So let’s say you’re reading a book. If you’re doing that, let’s say you’re absorbing 50% of the bits of information that you can at one time. What that means is your brain is able to pick up other bits of information and also think about other things, because you’re not using all of the bits of information that you have available. So what happens is when you’re reading a book, you can get these random thoughts, you can think about other things, you can get distracted. And that’s why for some, it’s very difficult to read the book because they can’t present trait just on the reading. The other way you could read a book is by listening to the audio book. And whilst that’s useful, typically if you’re doing that, you’re doing other things as well, right? You’re out and about. And while there’s benefits for that, it means you’re not absorbing the information as well as you could. So there are drawbacks to both of these strategies.

Before I talk about the new strategy that I’ve been using, I first want to talk about how I think about knowledge and skills in general. So what most people do is they try to learn a lot about one specific thing. And whilst that’s useful at the start, ideally, what you want to do is branch out your knowledge into different areas. And the analogy could be like a T shape. So you want to go deep into one area, but you also want to go broad into other areas as well. Because what happens if you only study one area, let’s say you’re just studying accounting, what you find is you start to look at the world through the lens of accounting and it clouds your judgment, it frames all your decisions through that one lens. And I’ve spoken to a lot of accountants, and whilst they’re great at accounting, they don’t understand things like investing to improve the user experience, or product development, or long-term marketing strategies because they’re only looking at profits in versus cash out.

And so, if you’re just learning one topic, and this goes for everything, you’ll only look at the world through that lens. If you just study marketing, you’re only going to look at things through the marketing lens, or if you just study sales, you’re only going to look at things through the sales lens. So yes, you want to have one area that you’re most proficient in, but you also want to go broad in your knowledge so that you’re able to look at things through different lenses. And then you can look at things through the lens of marketing, or accounting, or sales, or team or product development. And by doing that, you’re able to put things together in a unique way. If you look at someone like Elon Musk, part of the reason has been able to achieve so much success is because he doesn’t just understand the world through the lens of engineering for example, or coding, or rocket science, or marketing, he understands all these different things. And because of that, he’s able to put things together in a unique way.

So the first thing you want to understand is that, yes, you want to go deep into one topic or several, but ideally you want a broad range of knowledge or skills that you can draw upon. And the analogy could be, if you’re going to cook something in the kitchen, if you’ve only got one ingredient, let’s say you’ve only got carrots, well, the amount of dishes that you’re going to be able to create, it’s not going to be that interesting if you’ve just got carrots. So you want to have a lot of different ingredients and then you can put them together in a unique way.

So now let’s talk about the three-step process to learning things three to five times quicker. So the first thing you want to do is identify what skill do I need to develop right now? And the best way to do this is simply ask yourself, where am I, where do I want to go, and what is the deficiency in my current skill set that is stopping me from getting there? So let’s say you’re making $10,000 a month and you want to make $20,000 a month, what skill are you lacking that’s stopping you from being at $20,000 a month right now. And this is a really good frame to use in everything, always framing your lack of success as a lack of skill. So what most people do is they just say, “Well, I want to get to $20,000 a month, so let me just work harder.” But more often than not, it’s that you’re lacking a specific skill, which is stopping you from being there.

A personal example is right now, I am studying the skill of hiring, training, and retaining sales team members. Historically in the past, we’ve struggled to have more than two sales team members at a time. And that, I could say, well, there’s just not good salespeople, but realistically it’s because I lack the skill to hire, train, and retain good quality salespeople and build an effective salesforce. So, that is the current skill that is stopping us getting from where we are to where we want to go. So I’ve been developing that skill.

So for you, it might be something else. It might be your marketing, it might be your sales, it might be your lead nurture, it might be your conversions, it might be your delivery, it might be your attention. There’s a lot of different areas that you may be lacking. And so, what you want to do is first of all, figure out what is the one thing that is stopping me from getting to where I want to go. And until you can identify what that one skill is, you shouldn’t do anything else, because chances are, you’ll be spending your time doing something that’s not going to move you forward.

So number one, identify what is the skill that I must develop to get me to the next step. Once you’ve identified the specific skill that you want to develop, the next step is taking some time to research the top three to six books on that topic. And if you know people who are experienced in those areas, I would suggest asking them, what’s your top one or two book recommendations on that specific topic? Let’s say it’s copywriting, asking people who are good copywriters, hey, what are the top two to three books that you’ve read on copywriting? You can also do a simple Google search to find this. What I like to do is ask all the people I know, do several Google searches, find all the top lists, and compile what seems to be the top three to six books on that topic.

So now we know the skill we’re trying to learn, we know the best three to six resources or books on that topic, the next step is going to be to purchase the physical book and the audio book. And there’s a reason that we want both. Like I said, if you just read the physical book, chances are, your brain will get distracted, if you’re just listening to the audio book, then chances are, you’re doing something else, and again, you’re not absorbing all the information. When you purchase both the physical and the audio book, you can play the audio book on your phone whilst reading the physical book. And what happens is you’re taking it in through both senses, you’re listening to it and you’re reading it.

And now, you’re absorbing much more, and what happens is, you kind of put yourself in this bubble, because if you put the audio book at a faster speed, I like to put it at three times speed, you might need to set it at two and build your way up, but you can put it at three times speed, and then you can read the book along with the audio book and it keeps you on track. And because it’s going so fast, you don’t have time for your brains really to think about anything else. And so, you enter this kind of bubble or this zone where you’re able to get through a book very, very quickly. An average book, the audio book is seven hours, but if you listen to it at three times speed, you can read an entire book in about two hours.

And so, what I like to do is I like to find the best three to six books, get the audio book, get the physical book or the Kindle version, I like to get on my iPad, instead of the physical book, because I can get it right away, and I can get through the top three to six books on a topic in one day, because I’m going through it much quicker. And by doing that, I’m drowning out all the distraction, I’m getting into this zone where I’m just listening and reading at the same time, I’m able to get through three to six books in a single day. And you’ll be amazed at how much more you retain by doing it this way.

And if you’re thinking, well, I don’t want to buy the physical and the audio book because that’s more expensive, that is true. However, I would suggest you think about it this way instead, so on average, 60% of books that are purchased aren’t even opened, and less than 5% are finished. So let’s say you spend $20 for a book. Well, realistically, statistically, you’re actually paying $20 for 5% of the book, because 5% of books are finished. So you’re spending $20 for 5% of a book. Or if you bought the physical and the audio, let’s say it’s twice as much, let’s say it’s $40. Well, now you’re spending $40 and it’s much more likely that you actually finish it. So now you’re spending $40 for 100% of a book versus $20 for 5% of the book. In other words, you’re spending twice as much for 20 times the amount of knowledge, and you’re going to retain it more. So it’s a 10X multiple.

So if you’re concerned about the cost, I would encourage you to think about what you’re actually going to gain. You’re going to get through the book, you’re going to get through it quicker. And instead of taking a week or a month to read the book, you can get through it in about two hours. So, you’re saving a lot of time, and you’re retaining it, and you’re actually finishing it. So yes, it is a bit more expensive to get both the physical and the audio, but the benefits far outweigh the cost.

So, that is the process that I’ve been using to learn skills much faster. Number one, identify what is the specific skill I’m trying to learn. Number two, what are the top three to six books on that topic, and then I’ll get the physical or the Kindle version and the audio book, I’ll listen to the audio book on my phone at three to three and a half times speed, and I’ll read the Kindle on my iPad, and the iPad is good because you can take notes as you’re going through it and same with the Kindle, but you don’t need that, you can use the physical book obviously. But by doing that, you can get through an entire book in just a couple hours and you can spend the entire day getting through the top three to six books on the topic. And by doing that, you will have a very robust knowledge on that specific topic. And then you can actually go and implement that into your day-to-day, and over time develop the skill.

So, this is by far the best and most effective way I’ve found for learning new skills and learning new knowledge. I suggest, give it a go, and if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. If you’ve enjoyed this, be sure to subscribe and like it, and if you have any questions about this strategy, leave a comment below. Stay tuned for more videos like this coming soon.