Forget CliffsNotes, this app will boil down big books into bite-sized pieces

I love books. I can’t remember when my affection for the little paperback beauties began but I know for sure how I feel about them now. I love all types of books, including crime, thrillers, and historical novels, but the problem is that there are more books out there than I could possibly read in a lifetime.

More often than not, I read for pleasure but there is a whole genre of productivity and leadership books that I struggle to make enough time for, Books like ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or The 5AM Club. It’s books like these that my friends are always recommending and I respond, “Yep, it’s on my list; I’ll get around to it soon.” Unfortunately, I never seem to.

That is until now. I’m probably late to the game but I’ve recently discovered Headway, an app that summarizes books into 15-minute text reads or audio clips. By boiling all the main points down into a helpful digestible chunk, people like me can get all the salient points of a book without reading the whole thing.

The app experience begins by asking you a series of questions designed to narrow down your set of recommended book results. I choose productivity, leadership, and family, but you could also choose self-growth, negotiation, or sports. I decided to pick book subjects I’m usually too busy to read.

These categories can be adjusted at any time or you can use the ‘Explore’ tab. This provides you with all the latest summaries or you can choose a new category and scroll through the resulting options. I’m a big fan of the ‘Collections’ section. It groups similar summaries together so you can do a deep dive across similarly-themed books. These include Think Like a CEO for learning how to plan, achieve, and succeed, or Sales & Trading Hacks for how to win big.

The final part of the explore tab is an intelligence-type test. This is an ingenious little test that helps you discover your strengths and weaknesses. It isn’t foolproof, but it does help identify dominant intelligence types and enable you to focus on filling in gaps in understanding.

With my subjects set, exploration carried out, and an intelligence test performed, I was now ready to jump on the bus towards reaching my full potential. This required a little intermediary step where I had to work out when and where I was going to listen to the 15-minute summaries. Even with a whole host of good intentions, I knew they would all be pointless unless I found a way to integrate them into my routine.

I opted for a two-pronged approach and ended up listening to summaries before bed and reading them when out and about during the day. The ability to listen, read, and watch makes it possible for almost everyone to fit them into their day.

I found the summaries incredibly useful and they seemed, at least on the face of it, to be accurate representations of the books themselves. The challenge for me was putting what I was learning into practice. It was no use listening and forgetting; I needed some doing! The simple habit of making notes and coming up with action points is enough to turn content into habits, which then become truly life-changing.

Another option built into the heart of the app is the ability to highlight phrases, which Headway then transforms into interactive flashcards. You can go back to these at any time to help cement them into your memory. Finding a way that works for you is the key.

To keep you motivated along the way, Headway lets you collect achievements, track progress, and build up streaks. The collection of these rewards gives a real sense of momentum and progress. By setting goals, Headway keeps you accountable and motivated to keep moving toward them.

The free version includes one book summary per day and daily insights but offers nothing beyond that. If you think you’ll want more summaries, you’ll need a Headway plan, which is available at $12.99 / £7.99 per month or $89.99 / £35 for the year.

Download the Headway app on iOS or Android.