I have been asked multiple times: “what is the one thing that if I do it regularly, it would significantly enhance my career?”

Every time, my answer is to spend about 1 hour everyday to read.

It seems so easy,one hour a day out of 24 hours, how can anyone not able to do it?

Well actually to me, doing this consistently is no small feat. I struggle to keep it everyday, some day I win, there are certain days that I lose. There are so many things that could get in the way. It could be as simple as I wake up slightly late and have to rush to work, or some family maters, some emergencies (or not) at work, an early conference call/meeting, or simply feeling too tired to read at night etc…

So reading consistently is tough, choosing what to read with your limited time is no small thing either.

I will share with you what I read often, may not be daily but certainly weekly or at least a few times per month.

First of all I would divide what I read into three sections: reading for work, for leisure and for personal development.

• With leisure and personal development, I would often leave them to weekend, where I have more than 1 hour to read. I find reading fiction books is a very rewarding exercise as well. To be able to appreciate a great novel, to immerse yourself in another world for a few hours is such an exhilarating experience.

For work, I would try to scan through the following everyday:

(The list below is very long so if you want to have all the feeds, please use my opml file and upload to feedly or other readers.)

1. News app:

I use the following apps:

• The Wall Street Journal app: this is to update business news in Asia
• Bloomberg app: business news in Asia
• The Straits Times for iPhone: general news in Singapore
• Techcrunch: latest update on tech news.
• Campaign Asia: to update on marketing in Asia

2. Digital Analytics:

• Google Analytics Blog: Google Analytics is getting to such scale that it’s important to keep up with it everyday.
• Occam’s Razor By Avinash Kaushik: everything I learn about Analytics, I learn from reading his blog and his books.
• comScore: they provide updates about Digital marketing landscape across the globe.
• Numbers Rule your world & Junk charts: if you are nerdy and like to express complex insights with beautiful graphics, you need to read these blogs.

3. Industry blogs:

• Re/code
• Seth’s Blog
• Marketing Land – Internet Marketing News, Strategies & Tips
• Search Engine Watch – Latest
• Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim
• ClickZ
• We Build Pages
• Posts from the Econsultancy blog
• Copyblogger
• Conversation Marketing: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon
• ProBlogger Blog Tips
• Microsoft Advertising Blog
• Quaero Blog
• The eMarketer Blog

4. Search Engine marketing updates

• Search Engine Roundtable
• Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing
• SearchCap: Daily Search Engine News Recap
• Inside AdWords
• Kenshoo
• John Battelle’s Searchblog
• AdWords Agency Blog
• DoubleClick Search
• MediaPost | Search Insider

5. Search Engine Optimization

• WebmasterWorld
• Online Marketing Blog
• SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog
• Aaron Wall’s SEO Book.com –
• SEO by the Sea
• Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
• Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
• Michael Gray – Graywolf’s SEO Blog
• Stone Temple Consulting Articles on SEO Topics

6. Social media:

• Mashable!
• AllFacebook
• Inside Facebook
• Likeable Media – A Social Media and Word of Mouth Marketing Firm
• Facebook RSS Feed
• Socialmedia.biz

7. Biddable Display and Paid Social:

• AdExchanger: News and Views on Data-Driven Digital Advertising
• Twitter Advertising
• DoubleClick Advertiser Blog
• Microsoft Advertising Blog
• RTM Daily (MediaPost)

8. Updates about China and Southeast Asia

• Tech in Asia
• PEdaily Latest News
• Digital Marketing Inner Circle
• TechRice

9. Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital

• Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship corner
• Scott Weiss
• Jeff Jordan
• pmarca
• ben’s blog
• Andreessen Horowitz
• LUMA
• Peter Levine

Again all of my feeds could be found here. It’s in .opml format so you need to use readers like feedly to import the file.

Cheers,

Chandler