Theoretical knowledge is the basis for success in practice. Reading is one of the most important pillars for acquiring theoretical knowledge. Especially in the early years as a trainer and trainee, one of the most important sources for further training are books. In my early years as a coach, I read for several hours a day. Get up half past five, read until eight. Half past eight practice. From ten jobs. And another hour during the lunch break. That's how I came up with over 200 books a year. On a wide variety of topics, from training, nutrition, supplementation and business to biographies and personal development guides. Acquiring theoretical knowledge is crucial. As a basis for success in practice. However, the transfer of theoretical knowledge to success in practice takes time. As well as:
Reading takes time.
Knowledge is important chapter. Acquiring knowledge takes time. However, time is a scarce resource. One of the key solutions to this, which I found through an ad in one of those inflight magazines in 2010, is GetAbstract . A service offering structured summaries of books, primarily in the fields of business, careers, biographies and some classics of world literature. Each summary is five to eight pages long and logically structured. In less than 10 minutes of reading you know the core idea of the book and get the most important content. GetAbstract has over 15,000 books in the archive. 50 new ones are added every month.
However, GetAbstract does not replace books. GetAbstract complements reading books. And makes reading and especially the selection of books more efficient. Summaries are summaries. Precise explanations or explanations of the content are of course omitted. However:
GetAbstract is efficient.
Regular reading of a book takes 8 to 10 hours. Reading a book via speedreading takes 45 to 90 minutes. Reading a summary takes 8 to 10 minutes. In addition to this significantly lower expenditure of time, with many books I read the summary first and only then decided whether to order the book or not. 9 times out of 10, reading the synopsis saved me the purchase and time investment of the whole book.
With a time commitment of 8 to 10 minutes per summary, it is possible to read 12 "books" within two hours. Efficiency is the key to gaining a broad base of theoretical knowledge. And as a basis for success in practice.
More information about GetAbstract here
Good luck reading more with GetAbstract!
Image: An excerpt from the GetAbstract folder on my Ipad.