How to Read a Book Per Week – My Unbelievably Simple System

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Reading has been the catapult to my personal growth.

It’s where I get the majority of my ideas, philosophy, and motivation.

I believe it is imperative for anyone who is chasing success.

My Book Per Week Criteria

When I started reading, I struggled to complete my reading goals. I wanted to read one book per week, but it just was not getting done. Then, I decided to create a system.

I had a few criteria that I wanted to meet.

  • It had to be easy. I did not want some complex system that was cumbersome to keep track of.
  • It needed to be forgiving. There are days I know I won’t read because I get too busy.
  • It needed to meet my book per week goal.

Read One Book Per Week System

Most of reading comes down to discipline. It is difficult to develop the habit, then becomes easy once you realize how to implement your reading plan. Once I started to implement this system, I started to read more than one book a week.

So, here is my incredibly simple system.

You need 3 things to put this reading plan into place.

  1. Two sticky notes
  2. A notation app to keep track of the books you read.
  3. A book, ebook, or audiobook.

Step 1

Once you have these items ready, pick up your book and go to the last page.

Step 2

Divide the final page number by 7. This is how many pages you must read each day. If you know you won’t read one day per week, divide the final number by 6.

The book in my example has 244 pages.

244/7 = 34.85 or 35 pages per day.

Step 3

Start reading your number of pages for the day.

Step 4

Once you hit your daily goal, use the first sticky note as a bookmark. Then add your daily page number to where you left off and place the second sticky note. So if you’re daily goal is 35 pages this week, your second sticky note will go on page 70.

Step 5

Repeat. You will finish the book in 7 days.

 Step 6

Write down the book you read on a list so you can ensure you stay on track.

That’s it! It’s that simple. The reason this is so powerful is it gives you a small, daily, attainable goal to achieve your big goal of reading a book per week.

Your page count may differ depending on the size of your book. Yet, I find that the majority of books I read are usually about 250-300 pages (which ends up being 35 – 45 pages per day). If I have a monster book, I may extend my reading days to 10, or just read a little more on the weekends.

If you prefer ebooks or audiobooks you can do the same thing, just virtually. Most digital book providers will allow you to bookmark pages and that will replace your sticky notes.

Why Would You Want to Read this many Books?

Tom Corley, the author of the book Rich Habits, found that the majority of Rich people read. In fact here are the results of his study.

63 percent listen to audiobooks during their commute.

79 percent read educational career-related material.

55 percent read for personal development.

58 percent read biographies of successful people.

94 percent read current events.

51 percent read about history.

11 percent—only 11 percent—read purely for entertainment purposes.

This is telling. The study shows that reading non-fiction books have a correlation to success. In fact, a recent article found that most CEO’s read 60 books per year. If you want to get ahead in your career, learn about a new topic, or just acquire the knowledge I suggest you increase your book count.

A Book Per Week Compounds

One of the main reasons I chose a book per week is due to the massive compound effect. 

1 Book Per week = 520 books per decade

1 Book bi-weekly = 260 Books per decade

1 Book Per Month = 120 books per decade

1 Book Per Year = 10 Books per decade

Imagine how much knowledge has been accumulated for the book per week individual. It is an astounding difference that simple math has shown us.

Conclusion

Success lies in the habits that we repeat daily. Do yourself a favor. Energize your mind, learn new ideas, envision your success through reading. It’s been the best investment of time I have ever made.

Cheers,

andrew
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