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Hi, it's Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 451 of the Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of over-caffeinated uncommon sense for anyone who wants to start, grow, and love their own tutoring and coaching business the same way as mine.
My aim is to bring you the ideas that have helped me in my business journey and life, as a teacher, property investor, mentor, and parent (even in a no-nonsense no-BS kind of way), in the hope that it helps you to ave as much fun at work and in life as I do.
Although I'm here to share, I'm also here to listen. If you have any ideas that you think might be of interest on the show, or any questions, then get in touch. It's info@neilcowmeadow.com or you can find me on X, where I am @TutorPodcast. Maybe you can help me to learn something new, something different, something better maybe, and maybe I can help you and share what you learned.
I don't have all the answers and nobody does. Maybe you got a some better answers that would be helpful to myself and to others. Again it's info@neilcowmeadow.com or @TutorPodcast on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Regular listeners to the show will know that I love to read – every single day I can – about almost everything: finance, politics, business, marketing, the arts, music, science, engineering, biographies, human behaviour…. And much more. Nothing is off-limits and I go where my restless and curious mind thinks is a good idea… consequently there are too many books and too few hours in my day…
There are two real problems with this situation: the need to sleep (which I generally consider to be a waste of valuable learning/geeking-out time) and the many books which beckon me from my bookshelves…
Now I’ve debunked the “8 hours sleep” dogma on the show before, so I’ll leave that dog unkicked – at least for now, anyway.
What I want to share with is my simple solution to managing the book-based shenanigans: my daily stack.
I’ll allow myself to read no more than 4 books at a time, split across 4 disciplines or areas of interest. Whatever else is in the long queue of TO READ books – well, that has to wait whilst I grind through the current “live” books in what I call my Daily Stack.
My Daily Stack is just what it sounds like: four current reading books which live on my private study desktop. Every morning – before the world can ask me to do it a favour or demand my attention – I sit down to write my self-programming journal, and then hit The Stack.
The journal has been a part of my life for over twelve years – and I’ll dive into it next week, because it has changed my own life for the better and I believe it can help anyone. So that’s next week taken care of!
Back to The Stack…
The idea behind my Daily Stack is to gradually educate myself – ever such a little – every day, in areas I’m interested in, whatever it happens to be. For example, The Stack currently comprises:
Philosophy - The Daily Stoic – Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman – a daily dip into Stoic Philosophy, taking quotes from Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Diogenes Laertius and others, then discussing the quote and the message behind it, one page a day. Nibble a Stoic, baby!
Biography - Common Sense Rules – Deborah Meaden, from Dragon’s Den on the telly, giving me the benefit of her entrepreneurial journey and life experience.
Business & Finance - No Money Down Property Investing – by my mate Kevin McDonnell – this is on its second go-around, because it’s always worth revisiting a book you found powerful the first time
Health and Fitness - Freaky Big Naturally – by Wade McNutt & Matt Gallant – natural bodybuilding and training methods – because I want to stay strong and healthy without any drugs or medicines of any type – not even a paracetamol. That means I have to eat right and train properly, keep my mind on the game and follow the programme I’ve developed to help me.
Why four books?
Because if I’m too deep in One Thing I tend to get bored – especially when I receive the same idea from multiple authors. I can also become too focused and narrow.
Conversely, if I have ten or so books on the go I’m spread too thin and nothing seems to stick. I’m scattered and my attention is everywhere and nowhere, all at once.
But four books seem to be a good number for me – and maybe for you too…
There’s enough to keep me interested, and not so much that I lose focus.
I have a pages target to read each day (because I’m a geek who thrives on targets, not because I HAVE TO read so many pages). – whatever the natural division of the book lends itself to.
The Daily Stoic is one page a day, because that’s the whole point of its 366 pages of Stoic philosophy. The other books are all read in chunks of 10 or so pages per day, or one chapter, one strategy
Notations and marginalia are allowed and encouraged in all the books – because the books are tools. (Speaking as an author myself, I can tell you theres’ no joy in seeing one of my books in pristine condition, no: I want to see them dog-eared and tatty from use, pages marked-up and spines broken – any author wants that for their books)
As each book in The Stack is completed it is replaced by another: it’s a strict one-in, one-out thing. The old book goes to shelf, the new one joins The Stack.
So if I’ve ever been thought of as clever or bright in some way, that’s probably due to the books in my Stack… rather than any objective measure of my mental capacity!
And – full disclosure - there is always another book in the loo – or, as I like to call it “The UnIversity of Armitage Shanks”… talk about a seat of learning!
So, if you want to keep on growing, learning, expanding and increasing your knowledge and understanding of life, the universe and everything – you don’t need a “brain the size of a planet”, you just need to keep on filling up the leaky bucket of your mind with new and interesting “stuff”.
Start your own stack today, maybe with just one book, or two… then add more over time as you find your level. For me it’s just four books (tiny, pea-sized brain and all that) but a little every day… makes a world of difference over time.
This works for me, but how do you manage your reading life? Get in touch and tell me how you do it – where, when, how much, and what are you reading at the moment?
We're going to wrap it up there because I’m trying to keep this brief. If you enjoyed the show, please like or subscribe. Feel free to send any questions or feedback to info@neilcowmeadow.com. Leave me a message on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and all being well, I'll see you in the next show. I hope this talk has been useful to you. Till next time, remember that you're always loved and you're never alone. Stay healthy, stay useful. Have a fabulous day.
