How I absorb business books in 30 minutes

I have an embarrassing confession.

I didn’t read any books until I was 21 years old.

I was that kid in third grade hiding behind pillows in the library corner, hoping the teacher wouldn’t call on me to read aloud.

The first book I actually enjoyed was Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I was studying abroad junior year of college. I was 21 years old.

Before that? CliffsNotes is how I survived high school English.

👉 The Problem

You have a list of books you want to read.

Maybe they’re on your nightstand. Maybe they’re on your Kindle. Maybe they’re in your Amazon cart.

Books that would help your career. Books everyone keeps recommending. Books you genuinely want to read.

But between work and your family, you don’t have time to read a 300-page business book.

So the book list keeps growing. And the “book guilt” keeps building.

👉 The Big Small Thing

4 things I wish someone had told me earlier in life:

1. Go easy on yourself if you don’t have time for everything.

Recently a friend, who is a VP at a pharma company said, “Jenny, I don’t have time to read your book.” I felt so validated. Because I didn’t have time to read either when I was at Google.

Someone once told me: You can have it all, but not all at the same time.

2. Use tools that help you work smarter.

Recently, I found a way to get the knowledge from top personal and professional development books without the 10-hour time commitment.

It’s called ​Shortform​.

Shortform isn’t CliffsNotes or surface-level summaries. It’s chapter-by-chapter breakdowns, key concepts, critical analysis, and exercises. (Basically everything you’d get from reading the full book, but in a fraction of the time.)

I told my 10-year-old son Ari about it. This was his actual reaction:

His response? “Mom, could I PLEASE have that in school?”

Books like Never Split the Difference and Atomic Habits? I can absorb them in 30 minutes instead of spending 10 hours reading the full versions.

​(Try Shortform free for 5 days, then get $50 OFF an annual subscription here.​)

3. Circumstances change.

I read constantly now. I’m currently sneaking away from my family in the evenings to finish Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin. I can’t put it down.

I had no time to read at Google, but I have time now. Priorities shift. Life changes. If you don’t read now, that doesn’t mean you never will.

4. Don’t stress about what your kids hate.

Ari hates reading as much as I did at his age. That might change. Or it might not. And that’s okay too.

I hated reading. Now I’m a New York Times bestselling author. The thing your kid hates now might become the thing they love later. Or they’ll find tools that help them work around it, like ​Shortform​. Either way, they’ll be fine.

👉 How This Helps You Get What You Want

Prioritize what matters. Outsource what you can, and release guilt about the rest.

Be brutal about your priorities. Accept that you can’t do it all.

Use tools that help you work smarter.

P.S. Shortform is the #1 tool I’m most excited about right now. I just finished the summary of Never Split the Difference and immediately used a tactic in a client negotiation.

​Try it free for 5 days and get $50 OFF here.​

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