Jim Kwik outlines a three-phase system: buy, read, apply. He claims a visual pacer technique boosts reading speed and comprehension by 25-50%, saving up to 365 hours yearly. He also shares memory techniques like chain-linking and body-list to retain what you read.
How many of you buy books and they sit on your shelf unread, right? And the old joke that it becomes shelf-help, not self-help. Some of you are excellent, because I know many of you are really— the skill set of buying a book is very different than the skill set of reading a book, right? And some of you can add to cart, really, you're really skilled. And that's the challenge, though. It's just we have unfeathered access to the world's information. through YouTube and podcasts and books and Mindvalley. And so what I would say is I have a to-learn list, right? And things that I have on it, it's always growing, just like you have a to-do list. For me, I think it's so important to schedule this learning. I honestly think that for every hour you spent learning, I think you have to spend an equal hour applying what you learn and get in that kind of mindset. That, you know, start thinking like a person of action and start acting like a person of thought, right? And where it's knowledge by itself is only the potential to be power until we utilize it. Because the truth is, somebody who reads this book and doesn't apply it— because that would be the third phase, buying a book, reading it, and then applying it— because some people read the book but they don't use it. And that's the equivalent, you know, in terms of real-world results as somebody who hasn't read the book or somebody who is functionally illiterate. And so I would encourage people, when I'm at these events, and I'm looking forward to learning from the other speakers today, is ask yourself, how can I use this? And I'm obsessed with this question, how can I use this? Second question, why must I use this? Because it has to go from your head to your heart, right? You have to feel it. If you don't have a reason, you won't get the result, right? And that's more of your purpose and your motivation. And then it goes from your head to your heart to your hands, where you're actually executing and applying it. And getting those kinds of results. And, when you start getting the results, then you have a positive feedback loop, right? You want to do it more and more. The big challenge, though, is I feel like people don't schedule it. They don't schedule their workouts or they don't schedule their meditation or they don't schedule the time that they're going to do to read or something else. And, I think one of the most important productivity performance tools we have are calendars, right? You schedule doctor's appointments or PTA meetings and— When are we scheduling our own personal transformation each and every day? If you've gone through Super Reading, you know my techniques, even something simple like using a visual pacer while you read. And, the reason why, again, when you're reading, you don't have to touch the screen, it's because your visual focus leads your mental focus. Does that make sense? Your eyes are the only part of your brain that's outside of your skull. And, that's why actually a lot of people have mental fatigue because they have visual fatigue. Right. If you're looking at a— how many of you look at screens a good part of your day? And so when your eyes are tired, so taking time to look out into the horizon, doing some kind of palming technique to rejuvenate your eyes. I tend to read and work in 25 to 45-minute kind of sprints in terms of I know my rhythm and my cadence for learning and doing deep work. I break it up with a 5-minute brain break where I move. I think that's important. I do some deep breathing. Whether it's box breathing or nasal breathing, alternate nostril breathing. And then, I hydrate because I feel like just a 2% dip in your water levels will actually greatly dramatically affect your thinking and your reaction time. And so, those are the kind of things to get my state because all learning is state-dependent, right? In the state you learn something in. And so using a visual pacer will help you read this book 25 to 50% better, not only speed. And don't take my word for it. Read for 60 seconds, count the number of lines you read, and then use a visual pacer and then count 60 seconds. That number will be 25, 50% across the board. You know, and that really adds up because you can save 20 minutes on every hour, right? If you save an hour a day over the course of a year, that's a lot of hours, right? How many hours is that? A little math this morning. 365 hours, which equates to 9 40-hour work weeks, you know, just doing something ubiquitous like reading. Memory techniques is really— the first 6 phases. How many of you are familiar with like the chain-linking techniques I talk about or the body list? Very easily, you could take, you know, love and compassion and place it on your body head to toe, right? You can imagine a big heart on your head. You know, gratitude, which which is the second phase, you could just associate that to your nose. Even something that sounds like, something silly like a grapefruit coming out of your nose for gratitude. Forgiveness, which is number 3, you associate that maybe going to your mouth. Vision, having a vision for your life, maybe you're looking or you're putting glasses on your ears. But simple things like that, or even some kind of acrostic. You could come up with a phrase. And I do this, but that starts with each of the letters, you know, L, for example, and like it'd be L-G, let's go, right? And then here, for, you know, and just build that out. But there's so many easy ways because I think we don't use something because we don't remember. Does that make sense? You learn something at an event, like, that's really a great idea, but you don't retain that information. So many different methods. Thank you, Jim.
The Library of Minds: Brain Coach: How to Stay Sharp When AI Does the Thinking | Jim Kwik
