Being productive is not the same as being busy; it is going beyond busy by focusing on how to direct attention and not simply fill up time. Any Productivity Ninja would tell you the weapon of choice for a Think Productive dojo trained Productivity and Knowledge Ninja, is reading. Wait a minute? Did I just say reading? Yes, but not just any reading, QUAKE book reading.
OK, but what is a QUAKE book?
A QUAKE book is not just any book. In fact, to be classed as one on the QUAKE Books Richter Scale it has to shake the floor to such a degree that even the niftiest of ninjas tremble in their boots. It also has to immeasurably move you to the point that you cannot possibly continue the same way.
A book that has that kind of impact will change more than thoughts and actions. It will literally save you a lifetime of mistakes and errors. It will challenge the very credibility of the phrase “I don’t have time to read” precisely because it will take you back in time, to another place different from your own, compress your timeline and simultaneously extend it further down the line.
A QUAKE book is more than a lifetime of productivity
Before you switch internet tabs or google something else, think about it. What must be learned and experienced in a lifetime of say 60 years, or more, can be written down in a year or two and read in a week. If you really want what you read to be integrated into your mindset and day-to-day activities, most of the effort will take between 30 days and six months. The jury is still out on the exact number of months needed but even with the most conservative of estimates that is still a saving of 59 years.
How productive is that? And that is just one book. Imagine the possibilities if you read one book a month… It is not only Dr Who or Doc with the DeLorean who can seemingly bend time, and there is no cooler image than that of a Tardis full of productivity ninjas who know that books amplify their training and enhance their effectiveness.
Reading Productivity is a Question of Purpose and Priorities
Whilst many people state a lack of time as their main productivity or knowledge barrier, anything you want in life really comes down to priorities. And how does one prioritize? By having a clear purpose. Only with a purpose can you prioritize and automatically start to experience real productivity and knowledge gains.
Using knowledge more efficiently heralds solutions and reading feeds into that cycle by further scratching your own itch. Reading a QUAKE book represents massive gains in time-saving and productivity, not to mention ease. Life is not meant to be hard, so why make it harder on yourself, when reading could make it all so simple?
By Kai Whiting
Kai is a fellow Productivity and Knowledge Ninja and founder of the book review site Quakebooks.net