Warren Buffett Spends 80% of His Day Reading. I Tried to Find Out Why – and It Changed How I Think.

Warren Buffett spends roughly 80% of his working day reading and thinking. He's been saying for decades that you should read 500 pages a week, because "knowledge compounds like interest" – the more you put in, the more it earns. His business partner Charlie Munger lives by a simpler version of the same rule: go to bed smarter than when you woke up. And Todd Combs, who now sits next to Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, reportedly tracked between 600 and 1,000 pages a day before he got the job.

I read none of that. My "reading" is mostly headlines I half-absorb while waiting for coffee to brew, and whatever's burning in the group chat.

So I gave myself a challenge: 30 days of trying to read like these people – or at least in the direction of these people. My tool was Blinkist, the app that condenses 9,000+ nonfiction books into reads or listens of around 15 minutes.

Even Apple recommends Blinkist for those who are lifelong learners, naming it one of the best apps in the world. And Apple CEO Tim Cook — himself a Blinkist user — even stopped by the Berlin office to see what the fuss was about.

More than 43 million people are now expanding their horizons with Blinkist. The app is loved by everyone from The New York Times to Forbes.

"Blinkist encourages you to read more nonfiction books. The app contains cleverly written digests — called blinks — where books are broken down into their main arguments." – The New York Times

So, what did I actually find after 30 days of trying to learn like Warren Buffet?

1. A Whole Book, Explained in 15 Minutes

The first friction I hit on day one was obvious: Buffett can read all day because he has a schedule built around it, a staff that filters his world, and decades of accumulated context that makes new information land faster. I have a commute, a lunch break, and a gym cooldown that I usually spend staring at the ceiling.

That's exactly where Blinkist fit. Morning coffee before anyone else was awake. The walk to the subway. The ten minutes after a workout when I'd normally be scrolling. None of those slots felt like "reading time" before. They all became reading time.

2. It’s Backed By Science (and I Was Skeptical)

My honest concern going in was retention. A 15-minute summary felt like the intellectual equivalent of eating a protein bar and calling it a meal. Would any of it actually stick?

By week two, I had my answer. I was in a conversation about economic history and found myself pulling out a specific argument I'd encountered in a Blinkist session – not just a vague impression, but an actual idea I could articulate. The format had held. The title that made it click for me was Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. I'd owned a physical copy for two years without finishing it. In 15 minutes on Blinkist, I finally understood the sweep of the argument – and then I went back to the book.

The reason this works isn't accidental. Blinkist's content is built using neuroscientific research methods designed to make insights easy to understand and retain. And the whole thing started from a deliberate choice. As co-founder and CEO Holger Seim put it:

‘When we started most apps were for social media or gaming. We wanted to do something different and build an app that would add genuine value to someone’s life’ — Holger Seim, Blinkist co-founder.

Take a look — here's the explainer to international bestseller Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

Sapiens

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by Yuval Noah Harari

1. 28 min reading time
2. audio version available

Get the key ideas on Blinkist

Buy on Amazon

1. 28 min reading time
2. audio version available

Get the key ideas on Blinkist

Buy on Amazon

3. Somewhere Around Day 10, It Killed My Doomscrolling

I noticed it first in a queue at the pharmacy. My thumb opened Blinkist before I'd consciously decided to. A week earlier it would have opened Instagram.

The shift makes sense once you feel it. Social media is frictionless in a way that feels bad afterward; a 15-minute blink has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and you finish it feeling like you did something. The dopamine hit is real, but it's attached to something that actually happened.

What happened to me is apparently common. 80% of Blinkist users say they are more likely to spend time on Blinkist than scroll through social media. Two App Store reviews said it better than I could:

“This app should be in Essentials category: One of the best app purchased. I have been a member for 6+ years and I don’t think I will ever stop. This is a learning experience that truly enhances my life.” –5 star review on the Apple Store

“This has been the biggest boost to my productivity / lifelong learning ever. Honestly, I can’t think of a better habit to start than Blinkist.” –5 star review on the Apple Store

4. By Week 3, I Was Listening More Than Reading

Somewhere in week three, I stopped reading and started listening. The drive to see my parents. The dishes after dinner. A long walk I'd been putting off. Blinkist's audio format isn't a backup option – it's a first-class way to use the app, with human narration that holds up over 15 minutes without feeling like a lecture.

Buffett can sit in his office in Omaha and read for six hours. Most of us have to sneak learning into the cracks of the day. Audio is the crack.

The app became particularly popular when the audio feature was introduced. It made it possible for curious people to listen to every title in the app, which means learning never has to wait until you have time to sit down. Today, listening is the most popular way to consume the packs of actionable insights, with around 70% of users opting to listen to Blinkist. This is no surprise – over 30% of people learn and retain information better when it's heard rather than read.

5. The Commute, the Kitchen, the Long Walk – People Are Fitting It In Everywhere

I started noticing a pattern in the App Store reviews: the same two moments kept coming up. Audio. Everyday situations. People fitting books into the life they already had rather than carving out a separate reading life..

“Perfect for populating your mind with smart thoughts and the latest research. I use the audio format while in transportation.” – 5-star review

“Very informative and insightful. I can cook dinner and enjoy the knowledge over audio.” – 5-star review

6. I Started Buying Fewer Books – and Better Ones

There's a version of reading culture that fetishizes volume – the person who posts their stack of 40 books with a "currently reading" caption and never finishes any of them. Buffett and Munger are actually the opposite of that. Their whole edge is knowing what to ignore. Selective attention, not indiscriminate consumption.

I used to impulse-buy books I'd never open. Something would get recommended, I'd order it, and it would join the pile. Blinkist became a test drive: 15 minutes to decide if a book had earned a place on my shelf – and if it had, I bought it and read it properly.

“I’ve found that if a book is still interesting after reading the highlights I end up buying the book anyway. I now buy half as many, the ones I do buy are higher quality and more impactful.”– @DaleyErvin

Entrepreneur and author Hitha Palepu described the same pattern:

“Blinkist has helped me read more — period. I love that I can get the key learnings from 10+ books a week, and immediately implement them in my own life. Blinkist has also helped me filter the books I purchase — if I couldn’t get enough of the Book-in-Blinks, I buy it.” – Hitha Palepu, entrepreneur, author and Blinkist user

7. Then I Found Out Apple Thinks It's One of the Best Apps in the World

Halfway through my experiment, I mentioned Blinkist to a friend and she said: "Oh, Apple recommends that one." I looked it up.

“Blinkist is one of the world’s best apps.” – Apple

Blinkist has won numerous major awards from Apple, Google, and even the United Nations. It's loved by everyone from The New York Times to Forbes, along with its millions of users.

What's more, Apple recommends Blinkist for those who love to learn. The tech giant named Blinkist one of the top 20 apps for lifelong learners.

8. Somewhere Around Day 25, It Became a Habit

Around day 25, I noticed I was reaching for Blinkist without thinking about it. Not because I'd set a reminder or made a rule — but because the slot was there and the habit had filled it.

Curious people are drawn to Blinkist because they know they can quickly access the knowledge they want — exactly when they need it. This no-fuss, no-stress approach to learning removes the time and strain that might otherwise go into research.

“Blinkist is a lens to kick off thinking, a surveying tool. I can, for example, quickly review a few of the best books on negotiation.” – Adam Gries, Founder of OKpanda

9. The People Who Built It Actually Care

Many people find out about Blinkist by hearing about the inner workings of the company itself. It’s proven itself a great place to work with a unique company culture. LinkedIn named Blinkist the best startup employer in Germany and 95% of its employees on Glassdoor would recommend the company to a friend.

Employees love the startup’s culture and feel like they’re taken care of. This has led to a low attrition rate where staff has stuck around for the long run to help make the app even better.

“I moved to Berlin after living in New York City for ten years to work at Blinkist. I knew I would be working alongside some amazing people, building a revolutionary product. This, mixed with an exciting new culture and the way of life Berlin offers, made the move an easy decision.” – Carlos Alvarado, Country Manager at Blinkist

10. 30 Days Later – What Actually Changed

I'm not Warren Buffett. I didn't read 500 pages a week. I didn't restructure my schedule around learning, and I didn't emerge from 30 days with a fundamentally different worldview.

What I did do: I read – and listened to – more nonfiction in those 30 days than in the previous year combined. And I noticed it. Not in a dramatic way, but in a small, practical one. Conversations felt a little different. I had more to bring to them. I was less likely to reach for my phone in a vacant moment and more likely to reach for something that left me better off afterward.

With a community of 43 million people located across the world – from tech entrepreneurs to full-time parents to top CEOs – Blinkist has a loyal fanbase of users who are all discovering powerful ideas in nonfiction books on the app. I'm one of them now.

“With Blinkist you can boost your knowledge and gain new perspectives so that you can be a better professional, a better partner, or a better you—and finally get through your book list or make sense of the increasingly big and busy world of ideas.” – United Nations

If you've been meaning to read more – and most of us have been meaning to read more for years – this is the easiest on-ramp I've found. Download the Blinkist app now and join the 43 million curious thinkers who also love to learn.

Curious to learn more about the sources we have used for our ad creatives? Click here. ⁠ ⁠References (1)