I close the book mid-chapter

When I'm reading a marketing book and something connects to what I'm working on, I stop. I close the book mid-chapter and brainstorm. I don't push through just to read more pages. That doesn't make sense to me.

I bought 7 books specifically because of projects I was working on at the time. Not to "become well-read." Each one had a job: help me move a specific thing forward. The book Hooked from Nir Eyal, for example. Every chapter, I'm checking whether something can be applied to Edicek or not. That's how I read it. Not cover to cover like a novel.

Two things happen when you read this way. First, you get direct value. The book actually changes something in your work, not just in your head. Second, because you're applying it to yourself, you remember it. Try to recall something from a book you read passively two years ago. Good luck.

This works for content creation too. Once you start filtering everything through "can I use this," ideas start showing up everywhere. I save 10, 15 ideas a day just from consuming someone else's content or living my life. Not because I'm creative. Because I'm looking.

If I feel the urge to stop reading and jump to work, that's not a problem. That's the book doing its job.