Getting to a deeper understanding of a subject

Learning is a two-step process:

• Read/listen: feeding ourselves new information.
• Process and recall what you’ve just ‘learned’: connecting new materials to what we already knew.

You should not waste your time by committing unimportant details to memory. 

Your focus should be on understanding the bigger picture, on how things relate to each other.

Audiobooks allow the listeners to get the meaning without the use of their eyes, which books require.

Reading as a skill is 'skipped' while listening to audiobooks, though it is ideal for people with dyslexia, those who cannot 'decode' the written word.

The reading act, which requires focus, and which makes us stop, think and re-read is somehow only confined to books, as a study proves that retention is higher with books than with podcasts.

The audio format also misses some key visual aspects of fonts paragraphs and headings, that are available in books.

To get better results in life you need to learn constantly. And the best way to learn is to read effectively and a lot.

A new idea, outlook on life, mental model, is all it takes for something to click inside your brain.

Your brain will start making connections between books that seemed to be on different topics. The more you read, the more links you form and the richer your understanding becomes.

Prioritizing tasks at work involves getting all your tasks and commitments in one place.  Take a piece of paper and make a list of everything you need to get done. Questions to help you:

• Do you have commitments to others like your boss, partner, kids, or clients?
• Do you have anything you need to submit? 
• Do you have any financial tasks that need to get done? 
• Do you have any planning that needs to get done? 
• Do you have any administrative tasks? Legal, insurance, staffing, or training?
• Do you have any professional development tasks that need to get done? Training, areas to research, skills to develop, books to read or study, or classes to take?

Find your goals. Without them, it is impossible to prioritize your tasks. Try to set 90-day goals, which is long enough to make meaningful progress. Questions to prompt goals:

• What’s the one thing you could do that makes everything else easier or unnecessary?
• If you were giving advice to someone else in your position, what 1-3 things would you tell them to focus on?
• What do you want to have accomplished over the next five years?

• Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.
• "I’m not smart enough to figure everything out myself, so I want to master the best of what other people have already figured out."

• Become better at probing other people’s thinking. Ask questions. Simple ones are better. “Why” is the best.
• Slow down. Make sure you give yourself time to think.
• Probe yourself. Try and understand if you’re talking about something you really know something about or if you’re just regurgitating something you heard.

Testing yourself, so you have to retrieve the information from memory, works much better than repeatedly reviewing the information, or creating a concept map (mind map).

After the first time learning the material, spend the subsequent studying to recalling the information, solving a problem or explaining the idea without glancing at the source.

• Mock tests and exams that are identical in style and form.
• Redo problems from assignments, textbook questions or quizzes.
• Generate your own questions or writing prompts based on the material.

“A 985 study found listening comprehension correlated strongly with reading comprehension — suggesting that those who read books well would listen to them well. In a 1977 study, college students who listened to a short story were able to summarize it with equal accuracy as those who read it.”

Olga Khazan

Simplifying, two basic processes happen when you read: There is decoding, or translating the strings of letters into words with meaning. And then there is language processing, or comprehension.

Decoding is specific to reading but by about late elementary school, decoding becomes so second-nature that it isn’t any additional “work” for your brain. It happens automatically.

The real cause of reading too few books is that you don't enjoy it enough.

Don't feel compelled to finish a book that has become boring, predictable or unhelpful. Start a new one. You can have many books through various states of completion. Some won't be finished, and that's okay. Reading less is worse than having a few go unfinished.

An obstacle to your reading habit is not having enough interesting books waiting to be read.

Create a list of potentially good books. If you have a Kindle or eReader, get samples of any book you might want to read — Source your wishlist from suggestions from other writers and authors. When someone recommends a book on a blog or tweet, add it to your wishlist.

The most common fear is the fear of the unknown, where uncertainty and lack of knowledge of the forces at play can lead to a feeling of gambling away one’s money.

This fear can be overcome by expanding one’s knowledge about trading by taking a course or reading relevant books.

We are hardwired to be right and are awarded throughout our life pursuing what is right while being punished if we are wrong. From an early age, we learn to avoid the embarrassment of being wrong.

Trading success does not rely on one being right all the time or even on the IQ of the person. The outcome is equality reliant on the emotional makeup of the person.

By staying challenged you do not slip into the dangerous comfort zone. You can stay challenged by:

• Doing anything that you don't know how to do.
• Doing more than you have time for.

This makes your brain cells work in creative ways for you to figure out new things and how to incorporate them into your life.

If your goals are mediocre and small, you will slip into distractions and routine work. It's always better to have an audacious goal.