Scientists have long figured out how to maintain mental clarity throughout life: you just need to constantly develop your brain. One of the best ways to do this is to read regularly and thoughtfully. And not necessarily the instructions for the Hitachi 210 excavator, for example. People who read have a higher chance of building a successful career, better family relationships, they look younger and live longer.

On the other hand, improperly organized reading can be harmful: suffer, as a rule, vision and posture. Discomfort while reading also scatter attention and make it difficult to perceive the text deeply.

In the busy city life, few manage to organize ideal conditions for reading, but I will nevertheless describe them here in order to determine what is worth striving for.

1. Get yourself a favorite place to read. For different texts, you can choose different places: for example, read professional literature at the table, and fiction - in an armchair or on a sofa.
2. Relax and calm down: extra body movements are distracting. Also, do not combine reading with food and drink.
3. The text should be well lit. It is advisable to use an additional light source for this. If you are right-handed, install the lamp on the left, if you are left-handed, then on the right.
4. Position the book at a distance of 35-40 cm from the eyes. It is best to keep it at an angle so that all lines are equidistant. It is good to use a book stand or other support. If you are holding a book in your hands, try to relax them as much as possible.
5. Prefer paper books to electronic devices, despite the fact that it is so out of date. The resolution of text printed on paper is several times higher.
6. Avoid reading on the road. During the movement, the vibration from the transport is transmitted to the book, and the eyes get tired more. If you feel sorry for wasting time in traffic jams, give preference to audiobooks.
7. Read in silence: unnecessary sounds inevitably take away some of your attention, since the human brain is not sharpened for multitasking.
8. Train yourself to read in the same, most comfortable position. Modern scientists recommend sitting at an angle of 135 degrees, leaning your back on a support, opening your chest and placing your feet on the floor. It is best to sit in a comfortable chair, and not on a hard chair and, if necessary, put pillows and cushions. The main thing is that it does not look like this.
9. Pay attention that the neck does not stretch forward while reading. The posture should be symmetrical: without distortions to the right or left.
10. Take logical breaks at least once an hour. Get up, pour yourself a glass of water, eat some fruit, do eye exercises, think about what you read.

• Make lists of books you would like to read. Collect recommendations from friends, celebrities you respect, write out references from books, songs, films.
• Spend a fixed amount per month on books. This investment is guaranteed to pay off, because it is aimed at your development.
• Exchange books with friends. It makes no sense to keep something that you do not plan to return to a second time.
• Alternate styles: after business literature, it’s nice to “eat” fiction, after psychology, read poetry.
• Read with a pencil. Recording the thoughts, ideas, facts, and events that interest you along the way significantly improves the quality of assimilation of the material. If you don’t have a notebook at hand, you can leave notes in the margins and mark fragments in the text.
• Re-read your notes - it inspires you to read even more and helps you understand which book will be relevant now.
• Set aside special time for reading. Ideally, it would be nice to find an hour or two a day. It is difficult for a busy person to carve out all of them, so divide this time into small segments. For example, read for 20 minutes after lunch and dinner and at least half an hour before bed.

What do you think will happen if two people say different things to you at the same time? One in the left ear and the other in the right? And a very curious thing will happen: no matter how hard you try, you will be able to be aware of only one text. The other one will be unavailable

Your hearing works perfectly, and you can hear everything perfectly, but you will hear only one of the two proposed options. The second you also hear, but do not realize it.

Cherry, working with two sources of signals that a person listens to at the same time (using special headphones for this, which feed different tape recordings into two ears), discovered the "party effect" (cocktail party effect), - the ability to listen and remember only one of two conversations.

The subject had to listen carefully to one of the recordings, and, upon completion, he could easily retell what he heard. But from another recording, he did not catch almost anything.

The same effect was found in the field of visual signals: when different movie scenes were presented to the retinas of the right and left eyes, the subject could perceive only one of them.

But. There are two important things. Even three. First: your subconscious mind hears both (!) texts.

You can compare this to a telephone security system that "listens" to all conversations and automatically starts recording when "terrorist" words like "bomb", "act of terrorism", "detonate" and so on appear on the air.

This system is a myth, since all conversations are recorded without exception, and the tapes are tapped if there is a reason for that.

I also highly doubt that terrorists use such words as "bomb", "act of terrorism" or "detonate" on the air. But that's not the point. It is important that a person has such a protective system called "subconscious", which controls all the sounds of the ether. This is the first.

Secondly, when these important words appear on the air, consciousness involuntarily switches to this channel, which until that time was not realized. For example, a representative from the FBI faction sits and listens to telephone conversations of potential terrorists. There are a lot of lines, but physically you can only listen to one. Here he sits and listens to how the worst terrorist orders pizza, and suddenly - bang! - hears the word "bomb", which sounds on the other line. Attention automatically switches to this conversation, and the pizza order "falls out" of consciousness.

Third, we can arbitrarily switch from one channel to another. For example, the FBI listens in on a conversation about a "bomb" and realizes that the would-be terrorist is talking about a beautiful woman. Only and everything. Now he can "return" his attention to the pizza if he wants to. Or keep listening to the conversation about women.

If you ask an FBI agent what was discussed in the second conversation before the word "bomb", then he will not be able to remember anything. And if you ask the agent what was discussed in the first conversation after the word "bomb", he will not be able to remember anything.

No matter how psychologists say, there are no "tape recorders" that record everything in a row in our head. And if you haven't listened to the conversation, you won't be able to remember it.

Even under the condition that your subconscious "heard" it. For his "behavior" resembles the aforementioned system of protection against terrorists. As soon as the keyword sounds, the recording starts. But if such a word is not heard, the conversation is ignored. The agent will be able to recall the conversation about pizza before the word "bomb" and the conversation about "bomb" after the word "bomb". The second part of the first conversation and the first part of the second conversation do not exist in his memory.

Why am I talking about this in such detail? Because, through the efforts of neurolinguistic programming, an obsession appeared in advertising to "program" the client's subconscious with the help of special keywords. It's called the "inserted message technique". Another text is artificially inserted into the advertising text, which is written in a different size, color, bold or italic. When the client reads this text, the "inserted" words subconsciously (!) add up to a separate text, and the client actually reads the hidden message. Most of the time, it's an imperative. For example, buy from us. Here is such a theory. Does it work? Let's figure it out.

Embedded Message Technique

The ancestor of the inserted message technique was the outstanding psychoanalyst Carl Jung (a student of Freud, the author of the famous theory of the collective unconscious, which was also reflected in advertising). Jung offered the client a certain set of words, to which the client had to respond with free associations. For example, the word "mother".

And the client says what associations he has. But the meaning was not at all in what associations the client offers to the word "mother", "father" or "childhood".

Jung noted which words caused unexpected difficulties with associations.

If the client cannot find an association for the word "cat" for a long time, Jung assumes that the cat is somehow connected with the client's painful experience of the past. For example, when the client was small, the cat frightened or scratched him severely. And if the association comes easily, then there is no problem.

In this way, Carl Jung was bringing out traumatic experiences from a distant past, and without the knowledge of the client. And while other psychoanalysts were "looking for" the problem, Jung found it in a few minutes, which then allowed him to work with precision.

In 1936, Milton Erickson, the world-famous psychotherapist and hypnotist, wrote an article in which he spoke about the result of an experiment with the Jung test. The subject was a young woman with a fear of pregnancy.

In his study, Erickson presented her with the stimulus word "belly", and received a story in response, and some words from this text were, as it were, in bold type. For example, the tone has changed. Or an involuntary gesture was made. In general, it was obvious that some words were more emotionally charged than others.

Erickson separated these words from the rest of the text, and he came up with a coherent story about an unwanted pregnancy (and subsequent abortion): sick, anxious, baby, afraid, operation, illness, forgotten. Thus, the woman unconsciously told Erickson the story of her past experience, which was later repressed and forgotten.

But Erickson went even further. He suggested that this process could be reversed. That is, to emphasize some especially important words with a gesture or intonation. And then the therapist will be able to send hidden unconscious messages to the client. Here is such a theory.

A marked message is transmitted to the client in the form of any message that is emotionally neutral and, as it were, in no way connected with some topic that is traumatic or painful for the client. However, there are nested words in this message that are marked in one way or another.

For example, a simplified verbal message to a client suffering from a headache: "Our mayor decided that this light color would look very good if the fence was painted, especially when the weather is fine." In this case, we have an inserted message head bright clear, which can be underlined either with gestures, or intonation, or even in a different font, if it is, let's say, written.

Head is clear

Thus, the client receives not one message, but two. The first is consciousness-oriented – it is realized and understood by the client. The second message is addressed exclusively to the subconscious, and remains unnoticed by the attention (consciousness) of the client.

In psychotherapy, this provides an invaluable opportunity to communicate directly with the subconscious at a very deep level, without any trance, and at a time when the client and the therapist talk nicely about flowers or the advantages of one car over another.

Therefore, insert message therapy can take place absolutely anywhere, and not just in the psychologist's office. And this amazing opportunity did not pass by the views of advertisers. If it works anywhere, it will work in advertising.

And to tell the consciousness that “Titkin’s cast-iron batteries are very reliable,” and to tell the subconscious that “Titkin’s cast-iron batteries are very reliable,” you see, are far from the same thing. I would like to immediately in the subconscious. And, preferably, without the knowledge of the client.

Therefore, today, when you open any advertising guide, newspaper or magazine, you will find advertising texts with obvious signs of an interstitial message. It is implemented by the method of color, font or any other difference that is visible to the eye in certain words of the advertising message.

For example? For example, here.

We produce

Supply of components

Gather all the words (bold, italic, and capital letters) and you'll get the second text. Quite meaningful.

Addressed to the client's subconscious.

Psychotherapists confirm: this technique works.

Erickson, when the secretary complained of a headache, asked her to urgently type the letter. He dictated, she typed it. When the secretary finished typing the letter, her head no longer hurt.

Special words addressed to the subconscious were inserted into the text of the letter. "Lightening", "it will soon pass", "dissipates", "feel good". And the head goes. The real thing.

Does this technique work in advertising? No. And if you haven't figured out why yet, read this article again. Key words: Jung's patients (who were tested), a woman with a fear of pregnancy, Erickson's secretary with a headache. Why does it work in the cases listed but not in ads? Any ideas?

Bomb for the subconscious

Remember the phone call tracking system?

If words such as "bomb", "bin Laden" or "jihad" are spoken, the system automatically starts the recording. The system has a certain set of words to which it reacts. Something similar happens in Young's test.

Each person has a set of "painful" words to which he subconsciously reacts. The only problem is that each person has a unique set of words. For a woman who is afraid of pregnancy, these words are "sick", "operation", "disease", "baby" and "stomach".

But turn this situation to the opposite, and see what we get. The FBI agent hears the word "belly" and the woman hears the word "jihad".

And then what? And nothing. The FBI agent will not hear this conversation, and the woman will not pay attention to this advertisement. Because these words are emotionally neutral for them.

The difference between a psychotherapist's client and an advertising audience is that in the first case there is always one client, and in the second case there are always many of them. And everyone has their own list in the subconscious. One has a cat, another has a stomach, the third has a poker. And this list will be equal to the volume of the largest explanatory dictionary in the world.

How many times will a recording device go off to record a conversation with the word "jihad"? Let's say once in a million conversations. And how many times the subconscious will "work" for the word we produce (see the advertising example above) or chairs. Also about one time per million readers of this advertisement.

Does it make sense? No point.

Accents in text and accent proportions

Why do you suppose the manufacturer put a box of Tide in your new automatic?

So your automatic will give you the cleanest clothes possible!

We produce reliable Russian FURNITURE FOR YOUR OFFICE.

Chairs, armchairs, cabinet furniture. Supply of components

to assemble chairs. We carry out delivery and assembly.

Flexible system of discounts, low prices.

I do not seek to set you up in a mystical way, but count the number of words in each text.

There will be exactly 25 of them.

Now look at the proportions of the accents. Tide has 25/1, and ours has 25/12, that is, almost every second word is highlighted in the text, and besides, three types of accent are used: this is the text in capital letters, italic and bold.

If Tyler (Fight Club) started pasting the 25th frames into Cinderella, based on this proportion (25/12), then it would not be so much a cartoon as a porn movie.

I'm not saying that frame 25 exists, but that the number of amplifications in the text should not be excessive, otherwise they begin to "crawl into the eyes" and annoy. Yes, and it becomes more difficult to read such a text. It acquires a semantic fragmentation, like a hairstyle after the work of a bad hairdresser: instead of a beautiful smoothness, we get "steps".

The normal proportions of accents for homogeneous text are 25/3, well, a maximum of 25/5 (although this is already a bit too much). In the Russian ad that I cited above, the normal course of events is to highlight the last two words (low prices), the extreme is to highlight the last sentence.

Ideal: acentate a single word reliable.

In the words "we produce", "furniture for your office", and the items of production (chairs, armchairs, cabinet furniture) there are no emotions and no value, so it is not worth highlighting them. published by econet.ru

Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita

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Marquez Garcia: One Hundred Years of Solitude

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George Orwell: 1984. Animal Farm

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Herman Melville: Moby Dick, or the White Whale

Herman Melville is a writer and sailor, in whose work and destiny the experience of a traveler and the mythopoetic worldview of the artist surprisingly organically melted. The realization of the magnitude of Melville's talent did not come immediately, and only a quarter of a century after the death of the writer, the outlines of the enormous contribution that he made to the treasury of world literature became visible. Melville's work - the grandiose "Moby Dick" - became one of the pinnacles of American literature.

Francis Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment

“ Crime and Punishment” is a novel about one crime. A double murder committed by a poor student for money. It is difficult to find a simpler plot, but the intellectual and spiritual shock that the novel produces is indelible. And the question that the main character set for himself to decide: “Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right?” - terrifying.Abyssthe fall is explored by the writer in order to rise to the heights of the spirit.

Ray Bradbury: Dandelion Wine

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Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon

This fantastic story has amazing psychological power and makes you think about universal questions of morality: do we have the right to experiment on each other, what results can this lead to, and what price are we willing to pay to become “the smartest”. What about lonely?

Alexander Pushkin: Eugene Onegin

Novel "Eugene Onegin“ – “encyclopedia of Russian life” – presented in thisbookwith the famous comments by Yu.M. Lotman, allowing the reader to better understand the spirit and customs of the era and the novel, whose heroes have been loved by readers for the third century. The book is illustrated with drawings by A.S. Pushkin, made by the poet on the handwritten pages of the novel.

Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea. Beyond the river, in the shade of the trees

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Jonathan Swift: The Travels of Lemuel Gulliver

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Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace

Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is a book for all time. It seems that it has always existed, the text seems so familiar, as soon as we open the first pages of the novel, many of its episodes are so memorable: hunting and Christmas time, the first ball of Natasha Rostova, a moonlit night in Otradnoye, Prince Andrei in the battle of Austerlitz ... Scenes of “peaceful” , family life are replaced by paintings that are important for the course of the entire world history, but for Tolstoy they are equivalent, connected in a single stream of time.

Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind

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Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

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Daniel Defoe: The Life and Wonderful Adventures of the Sailor Robinson Crusoe

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Alexandre Dumas: The Three Musketeers

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Ilf, Petrov: Twelve chairs

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Ray Bradbury: 451° Fahrenheit

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Charles Dickens: The Life of David Copperfield as Told by Himself

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Jules Verne: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

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Arthur Doyle: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

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Antoine Saint-Exupery: The Little Prince

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Strugatsky, Strugatsky: It's hard to be a god

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Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland

Five minutes with a good book is like five minutes with someone you like. Interesting and energizing. This article is for those who clearly understand why to read more, but do not know where to get the time and motivation to do it. I'm going to talk about little tricks and life hacks that will allow you to find time reserves within the day and make your reading more efficient.

Get yourself motivated

1. Keep track of the books you read. So you can track progress and dynamics. Only then will you be able to understand what “more” means to you. For example, how many books did you read last month? And since the beginning of the year? Once you start writing down all the books you've read, you'll get excited to read more.

2. Set a goal for the year. Everyone has their own plank. For someone, 25 books a year is a lot, but for someone, 100 is not enough. The main thing is to set yourself a goal. For a year and a month. By itself, having a goal increases the likelihood that you will read more.

3. Set yourself a daily minimum volume. Minimum 20 pages per day. In general, you need to proceed from your goal for the year. Raise the bar periodically, so you will read more books year after year.

4. Make a wishread list. Identify 8 topics in which you want to develop your skills and knowledge. And write at least 20 books in each area. What would you like to study deeply and in detail? It is useful to be aware of what books successful people read. Add these books to your wishread list. Hang the list in front of your eyes or keep it always at hand. In this case, you will never be tormented by the question "What to read?".

5. Use this psychological technique. If you had only six months to live and during that time you could only read ten books, which ones would you choose? Write down their names. Include there not those books that you should read, but those that you are really interested in. Have you written? What are you waiting for?! Read!

6. Schedule an appointment with… a book in your diary. This way you will win time for reading from all other things. By writing down the time of going to the dentist, you do not plan anything else for this period. It's the same with books. Do this regularly and then one day you will feel that you no longer need to make time for reading.

7. Collect, save and buy books, even if you don't plan to read them right away. Books are patient. Books will stare at you from the shelves and silently beg you to read them. And you will read them.

8. When you don’t feel like reading, but you need to, use this technique. Put a book next to you and sit with it for 5-10 minutes. Just sit and do nothing. Don't force yourself to read, just watch yourself. Your reluctance to start studying the material will magically evaporate, and your hands will reach for the book, open it, and you will calmly start reading.

9. Read proactively, not reactively. Our feeds in social networks are full of reposts of articles from popular sites. Copywriters have learned how to write catchy headlines and leads, click-click, and you are already captured by an article about 33 secrets of sex that you were never told about, or 20 places on the planet where you must visit at least once in your life, and another hundred or five hundred tabs that you have opened while browsing the web. This is called reactive reading. Proactive reading is more conscious. This is when you have a plan for the books you want to read and you follow it. The next time you catch yourself reading another “useful” and terribly interesting article, ask yourself: is there something more important that I need to read?

10. Add fun. Do you know how to get your child interested in reading? Give him a book about what he likes. Football? Okay, let there be a book from a football coach or a colorful almanac about the world championships. The same applies to adults. What do you like? Find a book about it. For example, if you enjoy traveling, here are books that immediately come to mind: Finding Yourself, Suitcase Mood, My Travels. Read for entertainment fiction, humorous stories, poems.

11. Set a deadline for completing the book. Ask yourself when you would like to finish this book. By doing so, you will reduce the likelihood of procrastination. It's like a mini-promise to yourself. Do you keep your word? No not like this. And you keep your word.

12. Borrow books from the library and return them read. There is a certain period by which they will need to be returned. It's a pity to return an unfinished book, so you will try to read them.

13. Argue with someone or make a public promise. For example, “I will read 200 books by the end of the year. And if not, I will donate 200 books to the local library.”

14. Get a job at a book publisher. Get a job as an editor, copywriter, or project manager for a book publisher and you'll have plenty of opportunities to read. As a rule, the working library is available to all employees. In addition, a lot of reading - most likely will be part of your duties. I am telling you this as a copywriter of the MYTH.

16. Make a timekeeping of your free time and understand what activities can be replaced by reading. Take some time away from other things (TV, the Internet, forums, social networks, glossy magazines, hanging on the phone, etc.). What does not bring you joy, pleasure and the desired result? Replace such activities with reading fiction or special literature.

17. When there is absolutely no time, read stories. They don't take that much time. Chekhov, Bunin, Murakami, Bradbury, Twain...

18. Have you finished reading the book? Start a new one the same day. Don't take breaks between books. On the same day that you finished reading the book, master at least 5 pages of a new one. Thus, you have an open gestalt and you will strive to close it.

19. Bonus motivation. By reading a lot, you will set a great example. If you read more, then your environment will read more - your children, your employees, your friends. Would you like it? Read more!

20. Don't read just for the sake of reading. Give yourself some motivation. Yes, for themselves. Write down 5 benefits you will get if you start reading more. Will you become a more interesting conversationalist, expand your vocabulary, level up like a professional in your field? Imagine how much you can learn if you read 500 valuable books in the next decade, or even the next two years.

Make yourself comfortable

21. Read in the place where it will be most convenient for you. Do not read serious books in bed. Sleeping place is clearly associated with sleep in our brain. Productivity and reading speed in bed is lower than on the couch in the living room or in an armchair at the table.

22. Take care of the lighting. If you want your eyesight to remain in order until old age, please always read with sufficient light. In addition, with good lighting, you will be more alert and included in the reading process.

23. Periodically check how comfortable your body is. If you sit hunched over, you won't be able to read for long. How do your shoulders, back, neck feel when you read this article?

24. If you read at the computer, use "computer friend" glasses. They weaken the effect of those light waves that most irritate the eyes. Keep them always near the monitor, so you will reduce the fatigue from reading the screen and save your eyesight for a long time.

25. Take breaks every 20-30 minutes. It’s great to alternate reading with physical activity - let the brain rest and the body work - tilts, squats, running in place. Try not to think about anything during the break. Your brain requires large amounts of oxygen-rich blood. Even when you just get up from your chair, oxygen supply to your brain is increased by 20 percent.

26. Periodically let your eyes rest. If your eyes are tired, do palming. Rub your hands vigorously, then close your eyes and press your palms against them in a heap, keeping your fingers clenched together so that no light comes through. For three minutes, imagine how energy flows from the center of the palms into the eyeballs. This exercise effectively relieves tension from the eye muscles. Then slowly remove your hands from your eyes.

Read eBooks

27. Stock up on a digital library. If you read books electronically, make sure you have an ample supply of books for every occasion and mood. Keep your library organized so you can quickly find the right book. The easiest way is to sort them by genre and by the areas that you have indicated in your wishread list.

28. Optimize your browser for reading. Browsers are not readable, that's a fact. But there are extensions that will make reading from the screen more comfortable. For example, Readability and Clearly remove all "extra" elements on a web page, focusing on the text.

29. If the book is electronic, customize its format for yourself. Choose the font you like best, adjust the size and color. Break the text into columns so that you can read it vertically.

Listen to audiobooks

30. Listen to audiobooks. If you give this lesson an hour a day, in two weeks you can listen to a book lasting 15 hours. For a year - plus 20-25 books.

31. Find good voice acting audiobooks. They are more pleasant to listen to. In this regard, I like the way Kirill Radtsig voices books.

32. Listen to books while doing your homework: do the dishes, tidy up the room, mop the floors, clean the bathtub, mow the lawn. How do you not have a lawn? Hooray! Instead of a lawn, you can read!

33. Listen to books while cooking.

34. In order not to distract your family, you can buy good wireless headphones. For example, DNS ALT-877NC has been pleasing me for many years.

35. Listen to audiobooks in the car.

36. And listen to good motivating books even in your soul!

Raise your attention

37. Take 5 deep breaths before reading. This will stop the flywheel of thoughts and tune in to reading.

38. Say no to distractions. If you need to focus, eliminate all external stimuli. Turn off the TV, Internet, phone. In the literal sense - turn them off and let the whole world wait while you are busy with important business for yourself.

39. Set a goal before reading any book. Why am I reading this book? How meaningful and important is this book to me? What information do I want to take from this book? In what area do I want to use the acquired knowledge? For example, “I want to get an answer to the question ___”, “I want to remember interesting facts about ___”, “I want to find 10 ideas on how to improve my product”, “I want to learn 3 ways to motivate”, etc. When you set these goals right before reading a book, your brain will tune in to find answers and keep your attention for a long time.

40. If you need to read, but you feel sleepy, use aroma oils. At the airport in Bali, I first saw balms in small jars - for concentration and vigor. No shamanism and magic. Orange, eucalyptus, clove. Indeed, it is invigorating. I use it for reading and for exercising when my energy levels are low.

41. Treat a book like a wise teacher, which does not always tell you exactly what to do. Look for the hidden meaning, it will increase your mindfulness. Thanks to her, you can read more. And most importantly, make more sense.

42. Treat a book like a friend."Hi. I know you have a lot of good and interesting things in you. Let's get to know each other better." Such a psychological attitude will allow you to get maximum pleasure. And what brings us pleasure, we want to do more and more.

43. Use a metronome. If you need to quickly read a book without being distracted by anything, do it under a metronome. Set the speed to 120-150 cycles per minute. And for each beat, stop about 1/3 of the line. This will help keep the rhythm and not be distracted.

44. If you notice that you are distracted, use the three-breath technique. Take three breaths in a row to fill your lungs with air. Then pause, then exhale sharply and repeat your reading purpose. You will provide blood with oxygen (3 breaths), carbon dioxide (pause), cheer up (sharp exhalation), focus (repeating the goal).

45. Use the golf ball technique. while reading includes your attention to 100 percent.

46. ​​If you need background music for reading, choose calm music without words. According to the results of Dr. Lozanov's research, baroque music is most suitable for reading and learning: works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi. These composers used very specific time signatures and rhythms that seem to automatically "synchronize" the mind and body. In situations that involve mainly the left hemisphere of the brain (for example, when learning new material), music awakens the intuitive creativity inherent in the right hemisphere and connects it to the overall process of cognition. It is the right hemisphere that is “guilty” of the fact that you are distracted, just as you begin to dream and think about something else where you need to concentrate. Music is able to distract the right hemisphere of the brain, thus increasing the efficiency of the left hemisphere.

47. Make sure nothing is moving in your field of vision. Our brain has a program of involuntary attention. If a bird flashes past the window, be sure you will be distracted by it. It's not because you are inattentive. On the contrary, this is due to the hyper-attentive brain, which in any unexpected trifle is ready to suspect a saber-toothed creature that threatens your life.

48. Drink water before and while reading. Experts found that people who drank two glasses of water before solving complex mental tasks, the brain works 14 percent faster than those who did not drink water. Even a slight thirst affects the decline in mental performance. Drink at least one glass of water before reading.

49. Guide through the text with your hand or pointer. It improves your attentiveness and reading speed. The main thing is to follow the rule - the eyes follow the pointer, and not vice versa. You set the speed with your hand, and your eyes only keep up with the movements of your hand. If it seems to you that the reading speed is slow, just increase the speed of your hand movement.

Read in the company

50. Create an environment where people read more. Meet people who read a lot, communicate with them. You will be imbued with their habit of reading more.

51. Join a book club.

52. Join the reader challenge. You will learn about many interesting books and be amazed at how many interesting things you can read in one year. Here, for example, is a book challenge from “It's interesting to live!” for 2015 and 50 amusing criteria for choosing books.

53. Read to children. If you have children, you simply must read to them. By developing the habit of reading, you will lay in it this desire to develop further. While the child is small, read to him at least 20 minutes a day.

54. Read books from your child's school curriculum and discuss them with him. A nice side bonus - you can get closer.

55. Make a deal with a friend and read the same books. And then discuss them.

56. Read to your significant other. This is a great option for joint evenings.

57. Make a friendly bet. How many books did you read this week? Three? And I'm four, dinner at your expense.

Read different books in different places

58. Read on public transport. Travel time can easily be wasted in rambling thoughts and looking around. Do not waste time, read in the subway, buses, taxis.

59. We went into the transport and realized that we forgot to take a book with us, but the phone went dead? Dont be upset. Find the passenger with the book and sit next to him. Voila, you have something to read!

60. Read in a beauty salon. While your hair or nails are being taken care of, take care of your brain.

61. Read while waiting for an order in a restaurant.

62. Read while eating. Some advise never to do this. Justifying this by the fact that you need to concentrate on food, feel the taste of food, do not miss the moment of saturation. But, sorry, these are different processes and you are not three years old. You chew with your mouth, you taste with your tongue, you feel full in your stomach. You read with your eyes and mind. Just chew your food a little longer than usual, and ... read on !!!

63. Read while your car is being cared for at a car wash.

64. Combine reading and yoga. Most importantly, remember to read correctly. And reciting mantras will help suppress articulation. (Sorry, the professional deformation of the speed reading coach makes itself felt ...)

65. Read in lines. In any queue - for an appointment with a doctor, in a store, for tickets at the box office.

66. Read in the toilet. For a few minutes people leave you alone. So many books and so little time. But stay there within reason. You should not delay until the moment when a note “Come back to me, I will forgive everything” is thrown under your door.

67. Read something heartfelt and soothing before bed. Before you fall asleep, give yourself 5-10 pages of literature for the soul. For example, I now read the therapeutic fairy tales “Rain Melodies on St. Petersburg Roofs” in the evenings. So that you have enough choice and do not have to get out of bed, keep books on your bedside table.

68. When you have insomnia, read boring books. This is a great way to read more and fall asleep faster.

69. Download books to your phone. Your phone is always with you anyway.

70. Carry a book with you always. Anytime and anywhere. The phone tends to discharge, the book does not.

71. Read while you are expecting a child from the section or from school.

72. Read with morning coffee and tea.

73. Read on vacation. There are useful selections. and here, for example. It is easier to find time for reading on vacation than in ordinary life. You can read at breakfast, on the beach, on trips, before going to bed, while kissing your legs with fish.

74. Read on the plane. And in the waiting room. And in line for registration.

75. Use a magazine hack. If you don't have time to read the magazine, you can skim through it in 5 minutes, find those articles in it that are worthy of careful reading, and cut them out. Yes, just cut with a clerical knife. And when you are going on a trip - take clippings with you, read on the road.

76. Read ... in a bookstore. One teacher regularly gives students such a task. They need to go to the nearest bookstore and read two non-fiction or non-fiction books. The trick is that you can not buy these books. They should read each book in about fifteen minutes. The fact that they are in the store under the watchful eye of a salesperson helps them maintain a high reading speed.

77. Read professional books during quiet moments at work.

78. Read during pauses in the work of the computer. During computer slowdowns, do not slam the mouse on the table, but rather relax and read a book.

And 13 more ideas how to read more

79. Learn to speed read. In any case, you will distinguish a mediocre book from a great one. And if so, then it makes sense to read it quickly in order to meet in your life with as many great books as possible. Do you agree?

80. Skip everything that seems useless. If what you are reading does not meet your goals and does not solve your problem, mercilessly skip parts of the text.

81. Read with a stand. Use the school bookend and knee pads for convenience.

82. Give up the TV. At all.

83. Stop watching TV shows. Read. The tandem of a good work and your imagination is worthy of an Oscar.

84. Partner with a book publisher. To read more, you need more books! If you write reviews and reviews well and you have a large number of readers of your blog or site, let the book publishers know about it and they will send you new items for free.

85. Arrange a forced march. Read 30 books in 30 days. This is real.

86. For your birthday, ask your friends to give you a certificate to buy books.

87. Stop sleeping. Seriously. "Oh, Max was a man who had good… sleep…." Do you know what people regret who, due to their age, are already looking into the eyes of death? The fact that they slept a lot and did little of what they loved. If you love to read, consider waking up half an hour earlier and reading good books.

88. Separate the process of reading from everything else. The fact is that the human brain is quite cunning. Once you start outlining a book, you won't be able to stop, especially if it's really full of ideas. Then you will read it for weeks, and maybe months. The maximum that can be done is to stick bookmarks in order to work them out later. But to take notes or go into reasoning in the process of reading is not worth it. What to do if the book sucks and you can't read it fast enough? Set yourself a rule - for one book no more than a week.

89. Arrange yourself from time to time information hunger strike. Here, in fact, everything is like a couple in love. After 2-3 days without reading, you will be crazy about sex books.

90. Complete book gestalts. This does not necessarily mean finishing the book by all means, even if it is deadly boring. Sometimes it means allowing yourself not to finish reading. The 50 page rule applies here. If after page 50 the book doesn't grab you, don't read it. The maximum you can quickly see what's next, spending no more than 15 minutes on it.

91. What to do when there is nothing to do? Read. Maybe something easy. Make a list of "What to read when you don't feel like doing anything." It can include short books, funny books, books by your favorite author, graphic novels.

People have been writing books for thousands of years. It's a whole book parallel universe. Myriad universes. I want to look at them at least out of the corner of my eye, perceive wisdom and feel the whole gamut of emotions that is hidden in them. That is why I devote almost every free minute to reading books.

And yes, if you are not willing to make a real effort to repeat and comprehend what you have read, then the knowledge gained - like water in a bath without a cork - will be wasted. Attention directed inward encourages new ideas and responses to arise in your consciousness and helps to give new meaning to observations, facts, ideas and experiences. Read, develop, learn the world. Good books are waiting!

Self-instruction manual of wisdom, or a textbook for those who like to learn, but do not like to be taught Kazakevich Alexander

What should you read to become smarter?

Read not everything, but necessary. The advice to read more means not reading everything in a row - TV programs, sports or tabloid newspapers, glossy magazines or yellow literature - unassuming detective stories and love-erotic novels. We are talking about fiction and developmental literature.

As ancient wisdom teaches, “do not read anything that you do not want to remember; don't memorize anything that you don't want to apply." An excess of information makes a person knowledgeable, but incompetent. The pursuit of quantity leads to a deterioration in the quality of knowledge, making it superficial and "idle". Therefore, reading, uploading to the head should not be any information, but only that which will serve us in good stead in the form of benefit or joy. The more you read good and useful educational literature, the less you will be influenced by various kinds of pseudo-artistic surrogates - books, music, films, TV programs. The more demanding, independent and independent person you will become.

Fiction will develop and hone your taste, acquaint you with the best and ideal examples of human behavior, and help you define and strengthen your inner moral values ​​and guidelines. Educational literature will tell you how to survive and how to achieve personal and professional success.

What is fiction, I think, no need to explain. The only thing I want to draw your attention to: read what has already been tested by time and the tastes of past generations. That is the classic.

The first names that come to mind: Dickens, Burns, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Gogol, Maugham, Wells, Balzac, Zola, Maupassant, Stendhal, Poe, O. Henry and everything that you like from the very first fifteen - twenty pages. Why exactly fifteen or twenty?

Some time ago I started reading Wells' book Wheel of Fortune. I started reading and began to yawn. I thought: “Well, that’s it, a couple more pages, and I’ll close the book”, “okay, I’ll read it to the fifteenth page and, if it continues to be the same boredom, I’ll leave the book until better times.” And from the fifteenth page, interest suddenly appeared. And then - even more. And when I finished reading, I realized that this is one of the easiest and most enjoyable books that I had the opportunity to read at that time. The same story happened with Thackeray's Vanity Fair, with some novels by Balzac, Hamsun, Zola. Therefore, my advice to you: do not rush to drop the book without waiting for the moment when you become interested.

Developing literature is (only the main):

Biographies and memoirs of famous people (and about famous people). Someone else's life experience, the reasons for success or failure can be both instructive and interesting.

History books, classical treatises. The "History" of Herodotus, "Comparative Lives" of Plutarch, "The Life of the Twelve Caesars" of Suetonius, the books of Mommsen, Tarle, Thucydides, Tacitus and many, many other authors, historians and chroniclers will not only reveal to you the most important part of human culture, the experience of outstanding people and whole generations, but also enrich you intellectually and spiritually.

Books on self-education and moral self-improvement. Here are Chesterfield's Letters to the Son, and Seneca's Letters to Lucilius, and Franklin's Autobiography, and the notes of Marcus Aurelius, and Ralph Emerson's essays, and Leo Tolstoy's diaries, and Schopenhauer's Aphorisms of Worldly Wisdom, and Letters to stranger ”Andre Maurois, and a great many books devoted to the education of character, the development of mental and spiritual qualities and talents. It is impossible to become not only a sage, but also a person without character, without will, without self-knowledge and the ability to control oneself. Therefore, this section of the literature is the most important. As the ancient Indian treatise Srimad Bhagavatam says, “Nothing hinders the achievement of the goal of human life so much as the thought that there are more pleasant activities than the realization of one’s true nature.”

Books on esotericism and the history of religion. Another important section in your personal library of books that must be read and studied. You cannot live meaningfully without knowing why life is given to you, this physical body, and why you must one day die. Knowledge of the meaning of life is the answer to the first and most important question of man: why live? What happens to a person's soul after death? Where does the soul go, where does it live, when does it return to earth again and what is the meaning of its existence - all these questions are answered by modern "heart" science, as I call it - esotericism. ("Mental" science is physics, chemistry, biology and other natural and computational sciences that study the visible physical world and improve physical technology.)

The history of religion has something in common with esotericism, but in order to have an idea of ​​the truth or falsity of certain religious postulates, one must first master the basics of esoteric knowledge and only then study the history of religions (at least the most massive ones). Just as one should not rush to conclusions after reading one or two or three books of the esoteric direction.

A clear understanding of the laws of the universe is made up of a huge baggage of esoteric knowledge, most of which may not only not coincide, but sometimes simply contradict each other. But don't let that confuse you or scare you. Read, evaluate, compare - and one day, from this motley mosaic of multilevel knowledge, one grandiose and quite clear picture of God's world and His laws will appear before you, according to which everything and everything develops, including man.

Start with “easy” books: “My Posthumous Adventures” by Julia Voskresenskaya, “Letters from the Living Dead”, “Letters from the Living Dead” by Helen Barker, from the books of Raymond Moody, from “Journey of the Soul” by Michael Newton, from the books of Osho. Then be sure to read the best, in my opinion, in our esoteric library, books by L. Seklitova and L. Strelnikova - everything you find (just don’t start acquaintance with these authors from their “Laws of the Universe” - leave this book for the time be prepared for it). If some book or author seems too complicated to you - do not read, take up reading those books and authors that are more or less understandable and accessible for perception.

Books on the psychology of communication and success. To the same section, you can add: books that reveal professional secrets and subtleties (of the profession to which you decide to devote your life). Without the ability to communicate usefully and effectively with people, one cannot learn wisdom. Without an answer to the question "how to live?" - namely, this question is answered by these books - one cannot count on not only a successful, but simply a normal, productive and responsible human life. All Dale Carnegie, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Laws of the World by John Templeton, books by Robin Seeger, Anthony Robbins, Live Easy! Andrew Matthews, books by Robin Sharma, Rami Blekt, John Maxwell, Maxwell Moltz, Nikolaus Enkelman, Norman Peel, Dhammapada, lectures by Victor Ruzov and others.

Books on the history of music, theater (cinema), literature, painting. These are books "for extracurricular reading" - books designed to cultivate a person, instill in him a good aesthetic taste and understanding of beauty, teach him to appreciate and enjoy works of different types of art. This does not directly apply to wisdom, but one cannot truly appreciate and understand what is “good” and what is “bad” in terms of content, quality, morality, without knowing and understanding the numerous external manifestations of beauty, natural beauty, bodily beauty. , colorful, sound and its other diverse physical forms.

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