Instead of having my morning coffee over my inbox, I sit in the cafe and read. It’s one of the best parts of my day and I highly recommend it.
Pollenizer currently has more than 10 live web businesses that we’re working with, and another 10 at least that we’re talking to about starting. We’ve got a fast growing marketing team and endless amounts of projects to work on.
But I still find time to read.
Whether it’s audio books, eBook readers or actual real books (with paper, for Gen Ys reading this), books are still one of the best ways to really learn something new. The increasing trend towards shorter, smaller, briefer, 140 characters is great to get a sense of what’s going on, but it’s insufficient to actually change the way you think.
Committing to a book generally means immersing yourself and reading about the same thing over and over and over again. It’s only after those 300 pages or five listens of an audio book that it actually sinks in and makes a difference. That’s why book summaries are crap. It’s not about a little gem of an idea that you can plug in; it’s the slow and steady addition and evolution of how you think.
My days are busy from the moment I get up. New emails, meetings to prepare for, things to research, news to read and ideas to conjure. Despite this, I prioritise between 20 and 30 minutes each morning (or most mornings to be honest) to sit in the cafe and read. I get my caffeine, some time to think and some time to read.
Yes, I also read at other times and listen to audiobooks as I walk to work, but I find that it’s the time in the cafe when I don’t just read but I think about the content, make notes and take actions as a result. It’s the most powerful reading I do.
If you’re in the crazy tornado of a startup, young web business or billion-dollar enterprise across 200 countries, carve aside some time to really read. I guarantee it will be worth it.
Mick Liubinskas is one of Australia’s leading web strategists, having served in head marketing roles at Kazaa, Zapr and Tangler. He now runs Pollenizer, the business incubator he co-founded with former-Kazaa colleague Phil Morle.
