The Goal: Spend 5 min on each book, for a total of 25 min reading.  I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. I didn’t have time to read the whole book or even a whole chapter. There was only enough time to get the big picture.

I had a specific strategy for understanding the main point and finding something that would add value in 5 minutes.  Begin with the last sentence. (30 seconds) Next read the chapter titles.  Find a chapter of whose content is most interesting to you. (30 seconds – 1 minute)  Finally, read that chapter as fast as you can.  Be looking for that one little nugget that you can take with you. TIMES UP!  This process was more helpful than I planned.

What did I learn?

1st book
The Green Book
Not sure why I picked two books on “how to be green.”  Sometimes I like to read things that are just different than my usual.  Two things I walked away with were: Will Ferrel drives an electric car.  He explained why and how it makes him feel (p 33). The next thing that I learned will be helpful to my speech at the BUG Conference. There are 1.6 billion homes in the world.

2nd Deep Survival
Different than I expected, but the author was very creative and painted a picture well.  Sometimes too much. So many adjectives and metaphors, I didn’t know what he was actually saying.

365 Ways to live Green
Their goal is to get you to spread the word about going green. (I know this because page 365 said now that you know, go teach your friends.)  I found a section that would help me as I remodel my new house.  It was titled “How to make your house more green.”  Now I’m thinking about buying energy efficient light bulbs and rethinking the interior decor.

After staying on schedule perfectly, there was 5 minutes left. I saved the best for last.
Field Guide to African Wildlife.
I read about each of the animals I saw in my recent trip to Africa. Skipped all the birds. They just don’t interest me. And even learned about the different types of giraffe.

My take away. I had less than an hour and I learned something. It was time well spent.  Obviously, I had to read fast and do a lot of scanning.  But this technique helped me understand the main point and have something to take away.  I have read a whole book without accomplishing those 2 things.

This process goes fast. It was fun.  I wouldn’t recommend it all the time but next time you have a few minutes to kill in a book store, give it a try.

What time saving ideas do you have?