Shortform: My favourite App for Book Summaries

Shortform: My favourite App for Book Summaries

tech-tools

Shortform condenses the main ideas & lessons of popular books into easy to read and valuable texts of pure joy.


Table of contents

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I already used Shortform as a paying customer. Now Iโ€™ve partnered with them as an affiliate! ๐Ÿ“— Use my link for a 20% discount on the annual subscription. (2 and a half months of the service for free.)

Over the past 6 years, I've tried almost every paid and free book summary app on the market.

I discovered Shortform about a year ago from Youtuber and author Ali Abdaal. Since then, I have been using Shortform weekly. (My mom, too bought it and cannot stop reading ๐Ÿค“)

shortform books like "deep work", "atomic habits" etc.

Shortform vs. other book summary apps

What are the features of Shortform that make it stand out from other book summary apps?

"Way more than book summaries" - Shortform

๐Ÿ’Ž Quality over quantity: By offering only a carefully chosen selection of book summaries, decision fatigue is reduced.

๐Ÿ”„ Book comparisons: The Authors' statements are analyzed and compared to other literature and current research.

One of the best things about Shortform is how it checks if what authors say actually makes sense.

Think of it as having a smart friend who reads tons of books and tells you, "Hey, this author says this, but actually, three other books say something different." The app looks at what each author claims and compares it with other books and the latest research. So if you're reading a health book from 2015, Shortform will let you know if that advice is still good today or if new studies show something else.

It's super helpful because you don't just get one person's view - you get to see how different experts think about the same topic. This makes it much easier to understand the big picture and form your own opinion about what you're reading.

Screenshot of a Shortform note discussing the cultural perspective on work. It expands on Fisker's idea, suggesting that work has become a modern religion for many, especially white-collar workers. The text highlights Derek Thompson's argument that some view work as the ultimate reward and life purpose, making early retirement unattractive as it would mean losing their primary source of meaning.
Book comparison example

โ“ Reflection Questions: Acquired knowledge is tested through self-reflection questions helping to implement the learnings into your daily life.

Screenshot of an exercise encouraging readers to plan for early retirement by brainstorming lifestyle adjustments to reduce expenses. The exercise outlines three levels of savings adjustments: extreme, moderate, and easy. Examples provided include selling a house for a cheaper one (extreme), learning to fix your car instead of hiring a mechanic (moderate), and using a library card instead of purchasing books (easy).
Self-reflection question example

Since Shortform allows you to download summaries as PDFs, you can answer the questions after each chapter directly in the PDF. Here's an example from the book "The One Thing" by Gary Keller.

Exercise worksheet from Shortform's summary of The One Thing book showing reflection questions about discovering personal and company goals with a write-here prompt field
PDF download Shortform

๐Ÿง… Shortforms unique content structure: Shortform rarely follows the table of contents of the summarized book. They create their logical content structure.

๐ŸฟWeekly Book Guides: Shortform drops/publishes new book guides and articles every week, and subscribers get to vote on what books to cover.

๐Ÿ–จ Printable PDF downloads: Shortform offers printable PDF downloads. Full subscribers can access 3 new PDF downloads every 7 days.

๐ŸŒฒ Offline mode: Shortform has an offline mode that allows you to read without an internet connection.

๐Ÿ“Œ Recommendations feature: Shortform has a โ€œRecommendationsโ€ feature that suggests books based on interests and reading preferences.

๐Ÿ‘โ€๐Ÿ—จ Sentence View feature: Shortform provides a โ€œSentence Viewโ€ feature which allows you to read through a sentence-by-sentence breakdown of the book.

๐Ÿ“™ Send to Kindle: Shortform has the option to send books to your Kindle device. I love this feature because I take my time to read the Shortform summary when social media isn't one click away, like with the phone.

My idea to improve Shortform's book summaries

I don't want to give the impression to possess the competence to do a better job than the people at Shortform. However, I have noticed 2 things that could be improved.

๐Ÿ“น A short 3-minute video summarizing the overall concept of the book.

๐Ÿ”Ž When clicking the table of contents, no subheadings or headings are shown. Having a table of contents with hyperlinks to the corresponding paragraph would be nice.

Table of contents

Can you imagine having the key idea of so many great books just one click away?

A few books I have been reading lately (24.07.2024) are:

A book I want to read next, which Ali Abdaal highly recommends is:

This post is not sponsored by Shortform. However, if someone from Shortform reads this, I am happy to collaborate :) - edit 27.10.23

I've been using Shortform for about 2 years and now Iโ€™ve partnered with them as an affiliate! Use my link for a 20% discount on the annual subscription. Thatโ€™s about 2 and a half months of the service for free.

Shortform

Shortform Book Summaries I am currently reading

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Book Summaries I am currently reading (shown on computer browser)

Have a look at the post on my favourite book of 2023: The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey.

3 genres I personally love to read on Shortform are

Shortform's book categories interface showing 27 yellow icons representing different genres including Business, Psychology, Health, Science, and more on a white background with navigation menu
  • entrepreneurship ๐Ÿ’ฐ
  • productivity ๐Ÿš€
  • health ๐Ÿฅ—

Reviewing Shortform's Summary of "Four Thousand Weeks" by Oliver Burkeman

I recently read through Shortform's summary of Oliver Burkeman's "Four Thousand Weeks," and I must say - it was both eye-opening and somewhat liberating. The summary did an excellent job of distilling the book's core message: we need to stop deluding ourselves that we can perfectly control our time.

Screenshot of Shortform book summary introduction page for 'Four Thousand Weeks' by Oliver Burkeman, showing the book's main premise about time management delusions and human limitations in controlling time. White text on dark background explains the book's core message about accepting finite time constraints

๐Ÿ—๏ธ Key Takeaways from the Shortform Summary

The most powerful insight I got from this summary was understanding why we're all so obsessed with productivity and time management. Burkeman traces this back to the Industrial Revolution, which transformed time into a resource to be exploited. Suddenly, this historical perspective made our modern productivity obsession make so much sense!

Another fascinating point was how technology actually makes our time management worse, not better. Every time-saving tool we adopt raises our expectations about how much we should accomplish, creating an endless cycle of trying to do more and more.

โค๏ธ What I Loved About the Shortform Summary

What really stood out was how Shortform organized the material into three clear sections:

  • The delusion (why we think we can control time)
  • The reality (why we actually can't)
  • The solution (how to work within our limitations)

This structure made the concepts easy to grasp and remember.

Practical Solutions Worth Trying

The summary offered several actionable tactics that felt genuinely useful:

  • Limiting yourself to three projects at a time
  • Making time for critical tasks first instead of waiting for "free time"
  • Aligning your free time with friends (which actually makes you happier)
  • Developing patience for the current pace of life

The Reality Check We All Need

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of this summary was its brutal honesty: we'll never feel like we've mastered our time, and that's okay. Instead of chasing the impossible goal of "getting everything done," we should accept our limitations and work within them.

Final Thoughts on the Shortform Summary

Shortform did an excellent job condensing a complex philosophical book into digestible, practical insights. The summary retained the book's core message while making it more accessible and actionable. It's particularly valuable for busy professionals who want to understand the key concepts without reading the entire book.

The format included helpful "Shortform notes" that provided additional context and connected ideas to other relevant sources, which I found particularly valuable for deeper understanding.

This summary definitely changed my perspective on time management and productivity - less about trying to control everything, and more about making peace with our limitations while focusing on what truly matters.