In our little community, there’s a huge focus on self-development. There’s a lot of suggested or required reading, and some of the products from the industry itself are dense and information-heavy. Reviewing all this information for the first time can be daunting, without even thinking about taking the time to properly review it and put it in to action.
With that in mind, I’ve written up my personal system for handling, reviewing, and implementing self-development information…
The Basics
I dedicate an hour a day to self-development literature. 7-8am every morning for me. I used to not think I had the time, and then I realised my priorities were totally screwed. In terms of ‘value for time’, it’s by far the best hour of my day.
Some people make the mistake of starting the day by watching the news on TV, or reading it online. I used to be one of them. Now, rather than plugging stress and negativity in to my brain first thing in the morning, I feed my brain productive and inspirational messages. I woke up this morning with a hangover, and did NOT want to work. Reading through my notes on Michael Jordan’s Driven from Within, however, soon got me itching to get started.
Additionally, I look back at some of the material I’ve read that’s had earth-shattering effects on my productivity and relationships with others, and think: what could possible be more important? From books like Getting Things Done which literally gave me extra hours in the day, to Double Your Dating, which changed the way I interacted with women forever, to Four Hour Work Week which accounts for my current tropical-paradise existance, the gains I’ve made have been tangible and consistent.
Schedule and stick to your hour a day (and we’ll cover what exactly to do with it in a minute). Back when I had a real job, I’d use the hour after lunch - I tended to be pretty unproductive then anyway, so it was a great way of making the most of my time. Eventually, someone complained, so I simply started coming in to work an hour earlier each day (when no-one else was around to check what I was doing) and did it then instead. Now I work for myself, I use the first hour of the day, which is normally 7am.
The System
The basic system is as follows:
1) Read a chapter of your target book, or an article you like from online, and underline (or whatever) the bits you like
2) Type these out in to a plain text file on your computer
3) Reread your notes 3 days later. Repeat this three times
4) Reread your notes 3 weeks later. Repeat this three times
5) Reread your notes 3 months later. Repeat this three times
6) Reread your notes every year after that
This turns out to be surprisingly easy to organize, and here’s how I do it:
Firstly, I organize my notes sensibly:
I have a “Self Dev” folder, which has my index file in it (more on this in a minute), and then a folder for every book, as well as a couple of misc folders (like “Misc Making Money Online”) for putting notes on articles I’ve read online in. Each folder contains a plain text file per chapter (or article), named with the chapter number and name, eg: “SelfDev/PullingYourOwnStrings/4AvoidingTheComparisonTrap.txt”
Once I’ve created that file, I open my index file. It’s another plain text file, and each line has a chapter or article on it, eg:
04.21: Driven from Within: 1 Earned; 21 Jan; 24 Jan; 27 Jan; 01 Feb; 15 Feb; 21 Feb;
The first part is the next date I’m going to read it, the second part is the book and chapter, and the third part is a history of the last times I’ve read it. Note I put the first date in a computer-sortable form - that way I don’t have to shuffle the file around by hand.
Using The System
Each day, I’ll review the notes for the day - it averages out at about three chapters for me at the moment, but rarely takes me more than 15 minutes. Then I’ll go and get a nice cup of coffee, and sit down with a book and a pen.
I won’t always stick to the revision schedule above … some chapters aren’t that interesting, and some are profound enough that I keep them on a daily cycle for a month.
Some chapters have daily or weekly exercises with them - I also keep these in my index file. Who’d have thought if you actually DO the exercises in these things, they tend to be more effective?
More and more these days, I’m coming back to chapters, and being in the fortunate position of not only thinking “that looks like a great idea”, but also: “that’s now something I do”.
A Few Book Recommendations to Get You Started
- Driven From Within - Michael Jordan’s biography, full of inspirational and practical advice and philosophy
- Double Your Dating - the definitive book on dating for men
- Four Hour Work Week - escape your job, live on the beach (worked for me!)
- Psycho Cybernetics - change your self-image and never need ‘willpower’ again
- Pulling Your Own Strings - dealing with conflict, how to be assertive (our review of Pulling Your Own Strings)
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - classic by Stephen Covey
