What prevents you from studying business literature?

Many people are skeptical about  business books . And it’s not surprising: it’s not easy to navigate through the diversity of such literature and find something useful. There are other difficulties:

• Information in books becomes outdated faster than in articles or blogs.

• Books take longer to read than shorter formats.

• It is not always clear how competent the author is and whether the book was published just for the sake of PR.

• The reader does not always have a clear request. Inflated expectations arise - you want to find a solution to all problems at once in the book.

Still, you shouldn’t give up business literature. There are competent authors and good books from which you can learn new ideas, learn more about other people's mistakes and achievements, approaches and tools. The recommendations below will help you choose truly useful books and get the most out of your reading.

How to Read Business Books Effectively

Decide on the purpose of reading. What do you want to know? What question should I answer? The more precisely you formulate this, the easier it will be for you to find the book you need. Also consider whether a book is the best format in your case. For example, if your goal is to learn about trends in your field, the media may have more current information.

The main criterion is your goal, but there are other important points. Study the author's biography: is he really competent in what he writes about? For example, if a blogger knows everything about  online promotion , this does not mean that you should trust his book about advertising. Read reviews, talk to people whose opinion is important to you - they can recommend a book or comment on your choice. But remember that with reading, everything is very subjective.

Often, just by looking at the table of contents, you can see how the author has covered the topic and whether you will find anything useful. But don't stop at the table of contents. Flip through the book and pay attention to the structure. Are the main ideas highlighted in the text? Is the section structure clear? Is the format for presenting information suitable for you? Many publishers and  online stores publish free sample fragments - if possible, read them too. This will give you an idea of ​​the book's content and help you make a more informed decision about whether it's worth your time.

The result largely depends on your mood. If you sincerely believe that all business literature is useless, then it is unlikely that even the most interesting book will be able to convince you. So, as you start reading, try to pacify your inner skeptic. But don’t expect a miracle—not a single book will answer all your questions at once.

Whether in the book itself, on stickers, on your smartphone or on your blog, write down your thoughts about what you read. You can highlight the main ideas of the text, controversial passages, theses that you completely share or with which, on the contrary, you disagree. All this will help you structure the information, assimilate it and understand what to study next.

Firstly, this is another way to get information into your head. Secondly, any discussion is an opportunity to exchange experiences, find out what other people took from the book and how they use the knowledge they gained. You can talk with friends and colleagues, organize discussions on social networks, or join a book club - the choice is yours.

Let's say you learned about a new way of organizing a business process and immediately wanted to implement it in your department or company. Take your time. Consider how your situation differs from the one described by the author, especially if he is from another country or wrote the book a relatively long time ago. Will the changes be beneficial? Are there conditions for them? And if not, is it possible to create them? An idea may be useful, but that doesn't always mean it will work for you without adaptation.

Let's say you've finished reading another book. You have notes with the main points, the results of discussions with like-minded people, options for adapting your favorite ideas. The next step is to use all this to bring the idea to life. Make a plan, determine the order of actions - and go ahead! In fact, at this step you will achieve the goal that you defined at the very beginning.

Periodically return to the books you read, especially if you have used ideas from them in practice. This way you can reflect on your experience - think about whether the idea worked or not, why, what should be done differently next time, and what worked well. You may also notice information that didn't seem useful when you first read it.