Category: Reading

Categories
Reading

The 1 Charge Rule

The ultimate hack to control your mobile addiction/ overuse

“1CR — The 1 Charge Rule.”

You can only charge your phone once overnight.

After you wake up, you only have 100% of the battery on your phone to last for the entire day.

You cannot put your phone on charging.
You cannot use a power bank, either.
(Unless extremely necessary)

I’ve experimented with this Rule for the last two weeks.

And I am never going back to my old ways.

I started each day with 100% battery and, on average, had ~30% battery left by EoD.

And I use a 3.5-year-old OnePlus 7

What makes this hack work?

By adding artificial constraints into your routine.

When you have something in limited quantity, you are likely to use it wisely.

You curb unnecessary expenses when you know your bank accounts are running dry.

You drive your car in economy mode when the fuel tank is low.

Bonus benefits of this hack —

  1. I kept my WiFi & Mobile Data switched off while in Deep Work Mode. It stopped app notifications from disrupting my focus.
  2. I kept my phone on Battery Saver Mode. It stopped background apps from using my data and battery unnecessarily (also stops them from invading your privacy)
  3. I saved money, too – especially from the likes of Swiggy & Zomato – who time their notifications just around the time we start feeling hungry.

You can use 1CR when you are commuting to & from work. Even when you are travelling – this will stop you from doomscrolling and instead explore the beauty of mother nature around you.

What hacks do you use to control your mobile usage?

Will you be giving 1 Charge Rule a try? Let me know in the comment section.

If you loved this, repost it so that more people become aware and control their mobile use and have more time for essential things in their life.

Categories
Reading

Hey ReadARs — It’s time to Self-Read

First things first – This article reaches you few days late. Sincere apologies for that. I’ve been travelling in the state of Himachal Pradesh & haven’t been able to put time to write (Makes me wonder how travel bloggers write amidst the nature’s beauty)

It goes without saying that my biggest project of 2022 for all the ReadARs is to work on our PKM aka Personal Knowledge Management.

And its starts with “Getting Things Done” from 13th June

But before that, I want you to challenge yourself to self-read one of these books.

You can read one of these or anything of your own choice. But please ensure that it’s a light, short read.

Our goal is to Read GTD and these books are warm-ups for it.

Fiction —

A. Animal Farm by George Orwell

Perfect small book that will leave you mesmerised for life. A fun, deep read about all things life & politics.

This will be my preferred choice for you to read on your own.

Buy it here

Non-Fiction —

B. Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

If you still prefer to confine yourself to nonfiction, then this is the short, quick read that will reinforce your understanding about the power of compounding and how it correlates to your life.

Buy it here

Points to Remember while you Self-Read

A. Order your book ASAP 🙂

B. Finish your book before 11th June.

C. Work on your Reading Routine as you read by yourself so that you read your book everyday. This is a warm-up for GTD and thus you need to build in your resilience NOW before we start reading that incredible book.

D. Create your own Daily Portions. Divide it either by 10/15 pages a day format or divide it Chapter Wise (preferred for Nonfiction)

Ensure that you do this division before you start reading the book. Make a daily portion index card or write the same on your Readers Journal. Each day you read that portion, mark a tick against it. This keeps one on-track the most when self-reading.

E. If you finish the 1st, you can read the 2nd too. 🙂
But wrap it up before 11th June.

F. Don’t forget to buy “Getting Things Done” too.
Buy it Here

Go ahead & self-read.
Good Luck. 🙂

Any questions, ASK ME right away on Group or DMs

Categories
Reading World Book Day

I won’t be celebrating World Book Day! But you the ReadARs will.

Read this ASAP. Tomorrow, 23rd April is the World Book Day and I want you to celebrate it with full gusto.

It’s the day to celebrate the hard-work, determination & perseverance you have put-in to create your Reading Habits.

In an era where people are addicted to their smartphones, where their attention dangles like a puppet whose strings are being pulled by the social media giants, you are amongst the very rare category of people on this planet who are fighting against their distractions to build this wonderful, magical habit of Reading.

Many of you are in your First Year as a ReadAR, Some of you are in the Second Year & few of you fast approaching the completion of Third Year as a ReadAR. It’s a feat worth celebrating!

If in case some of you are wondering, this is NOT a Testimonial which I am asking you for. So you don’t have to make it about me.

This is about you. All about celebrating your feat & accomplishments in the World of Books with the World on the World Book Day.

5 Ideas How you can celebrate World Book Day –

You can choose any idea you have. But if you are short of ideas, here are 5 —

A. Write your Journey from Zero Books for X number of Years to One/Two/Three Books in a Month.

B. Share a picture of all the Books you have read ever since you began to work on your daily reading habit.

C. Write how Reading Books has helped you personally, professional or both.

D. Share your style of Reading, your tips & tricks on Reading.

E. Write a book review of the book you just Finished.

You can Write or Speak about it. Here’s how you can choose between the two

Pick one that you have been wanting to do for a long while.

If you have been wanting to Write, Write.
If you have been wanting to Speak, Speak.
If you have been wanting to Write & Speak, then Write & Speak

It’s easiest to write or speak something when you are truly passionate about it, when you have gone through that process.

Because at that moment, you’re not writing or speaking from your mind. Your Mind is the Enemy! It’s the most dubious, fickle, doubt creator, two-faced entity you will ever face.

At that moment, you will be writing or speaking from your Heart. ❤️Your heart is always at the right place, always true to the core & always speaks at the emotional level others can instantly connect on.

Write your Heart out. Speak your Heart out. Period.

3 Steps to Ease your Fears of Writing & Speaking

I wrote this entire essay in 15 mins & Editing took 10 mins.

Heck sharing it personally with each ReadAR will take more time!

Here are the 3 simplest tips you can apply

  1. Set a timer of 15/20 minutes to Write on your Laptop/Mobile. Put your phone on Airplane Mode by default, even if you are writing on your Mobile. And sit where you can see your pile of books you have read.
  2. Now write. When you are writing, do not let your mind interfere. Just write anything and everything that comes out of your mind. Do not correct grammar mistakes, Do not edit any sentence at all, Do not try to beautify right now. Just Write.
    P.S — Welcome to the art called Freewriting.
  3. Now Edit. Quick & Fast
    a. Copy & paste what you have written & put it on Grammarly Free Account (it’s quite effective)

    b. Format it for “Readability in 2022” – Recall James Clear’s Atomic Habits – he had written in big fonts & short paragraphs. Only few paragraphs went beyond 7 continuous lines. Your paragraph should ideally be 3-5 lines long.

If you are going to speak, you should write for 5/10 minutes as above, and then hit record!

Ship your Content!

The world is waiting to hear your story. Share it!

You have done the hard work to writing your story. It’s time to share it with the world. Most people get stuck here.

I have been one of them. I’ve hesitant in sharing my story, in showing my work over the last decade. And I am the one who is still paying for it. Today I have to work 10x harder to share something.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to not be AR.

Share! Not for likes. Not for social media validation. (You will ofcourse get them) Not to become a Social Media Influencer & Definitely Not for AR.

You will be Sharing this for yourself. Present & Future Self.

On the days when your future self feels bad, feels down, all you will have to do is to check these posts and reflect on the incredible progress you have made on this journey.

Some tips & tricks for the platform you choose

If you are sharing on LinkedIn, the best time to post is between 9 AM to 11 AM.

If you are sharing on Instagram, the best time to post is between 9 – 11 AM OR 5:30 – 6:30 PM.

If you are sharing on Twitter, the best time to post is between 8 – 9 AM or 7:30 to 8:30 PM.

Get set go. Write & Ship it!

As aNIKEt says — “Just Do It”

If reading this has inspired you, don’t wait for tomorrow to take the next step. Just start right away.

Once you have shipped it on social media platforms, go ahead and share it with your Group of ReadARs.

And don’t forget to share the link on your Whatsapp Status too. The most powerful discovery tool right now 🙂

If you have any question, ask in the comments OR preferably on the Group (Batch 22/21 or The ReadARs Club)

P.S — If you feel like, you can tag me 🙂 — No compulsion

Instagram – @thereadinghabits;
Twitter – @AniketReads &
LinkedIn – Aniket Rai

Categories
Reading

3rd Book for Cohort-21

Hey ReadARs

It’s time to choose your next book.

One of my favourite all-time Reads — The Alchemist

Please follow these steps when you place your order —

A. Buy it from the Prime Seller by clicking this link below

B. Lot of pirated copies of Alchemist exist in the market which is why there are a number of pirated book sellers on Amazon trying to rip-off the innocent book buyers.

Here’s how you can sidestep even if Amazon gives random seller.

C. Sellers I trust to buy this book —

a. Cloudtail India
b. uRead-Store

You can select the seller by clicking the 21 New from 235 option I have underlined in the desktop screenshot above

Here’s how you can select the seller when buying on Mobile. 👇

Categories
Reading

1st Book Reveal for Cohort-22

Its time to reveal the first book that all of you wonderful ReadARs of Cohort-22 will read as we move on from Level-1 to Level-2 from Monday, 28th March 2022

I selected “Atomic Habits” because —

I want all of you to go all-in with your Reading Habits.
As you read and unravel the insights from Atomic Habits, you will rack your brain into thinking mode so as to apply the learnings to your Reading Habits.

AH is one of the highest sold nonfiction books of all-time. No book has ever sold 7 million+ copies before their 5th Anniversary.

It’s one of the simplest nonfiction books that you’ll ever read. We will increase the challenge, one book at a time 🙂

For your 1st book – I will encourage you to buy a physical book so that the reading techniques, frameworks & styles could be easily applied.

Please note that I discourage Casual Piracy – where people conveniently download a PDF copy of the book from scrupulous websites & Telegram Channels. Buying an actual book is our way of giving token of regards to the writer for his years of hard work that goes into publishing a book.

Please follow the next steps so that you get an original version of the book. If you are ordering a book online from Amazon/Flipkart, there are 6/10 chances that you will end up having a pirated book from an illicit seller.

Points to remember before placing an order for a Book from Amazon —

Step 1 — Choose Amazon over Flipkart. Ensures quicker delivery. Flipkart does a very poor job when it comes to buying books. Quite Ironic that Flipkart, which started by delivering Books, has lost its way.

Step 2 — Order with an Amazon Prime account. Free & Speedy delivery of books.

Step 3 — Do not order from “lowest priced seller”. You will – (a) not get the book in time and to make matters worse, (b) you are likely to get a pirated book, especially for a megaseller book like AH

Step 4 — Buy from “Prime Seller” – to get original books.

The two Prime Sellers on Amazon are uRead_Store or Cloudtail_India

In case of Atomic Habits, its not showing me any other seller on my browser than “Cloudtail India” which is a good thing.

Here’s the Amazon link I am pasting here for you

Endnote – I prefer to buy books from an Independent Book Store. An Indie Book Store is not the likes of Crossword etc. Example of Indie Book Stores in some of Cities of India

Mumbai – Kitab Khana, Fort; Granth Book Store, Juhu; Majestic Book Depot, Thane

Pune – Pagdandi, Baner ; Solanki Booksellers, Camp

Bangalore – Blossoms Book House, Church Street; Champaca; Vasanth Nagar

Delhi – Bahrisons & Faqir Chand & Sons, Khan Market; Oxford Bookstore, Connaught Place

Chennai – Higginbothams, Triplicane; Words & Worths, Besant Nagar

But when time is a constraint like in your case or when I know I wont be able to visit them maybe until next 3-4 weeks and I need the book before that, I choose to buy them online.