Because I am often seeing carrying / reading / recommending a book, I frequently get asked a question which is always around the lines of: "How does one get time to read?"
Recently, I was asked this question yet again and I thought to crystalize my take on the matter and put it up here for posterity.
Why it is costly 'not to'
As I see it, there is no alternative to 'reading', to:
Build an anti-fragile mental framework
Scale-up robustly using other's experiences - predominantly their 'mistakes'
Combine aspects from various sources to develop a signature blend which is called as 'originality'
The bent I seem to naturally have towards various things in life, gets so badly crushed to a bad place if I don't read.
This fact makes 'not reading' a darn costly affair for me which I just can't afford.
The realization of this situation on an innate level develops in me a habit which kills any excuse which my procrastinating brain might try to throw at me.
These 'excuses' generally emerge in the form of a concatenated version of a complaint + self-pity + delusion. How, you ask?
Complaint: "I don't have enough time"
Self-Pity: "I lead a darn busy life, which is a creation of my external environment"
Delusion: "Others, who read, have it easy generally - they don't walk on the nails which I do"
I would not waste any bit-space expanding much on the obvious futility of these excuses and would rather like to list out a few actionable recommendations.
Actionable Recommendation
1. Lex Fridman with Tim Urban
A kick-starter to define both the 'Why' and 'How To' of reading by two of the most 'clarity-seeking' minds I have come to follow, in under five minutes:
Section title: How to read 1000 books in 50 years
2. Alex and Books
Alex Wieckowski's supremely effective website, around the habit of reading, keeps dropping engaging and helpful content on how to read more and read good.
A very popular, back-of the envelop calculation which he once shared on twitter has become my personal go-to place whenever I am posed with the question, "How do you get the time to read?"
Do subscribe to the newsletter as well:
3. Good Reads
A social-media-tized place for figuring out what to read, what to read next, who is reading what, and all the other shenanigans of having a profile, 'like'-ing stuff up etc.
But an extremely effective way of becoming a part of a community which takes pride in and enjoys the process of reading.
4. App. Time Tracker
Most of our complaints become straw-men and blow themselves out when confronted with plain, cold data.
The complaint of 'not having enough time' is no different.
So when we activate an App. Time Tracker on our smart-phones and regularly check how many minutes we spend in a day on which particular apps., it automatically starts getting clear to us as to where we can cut down on mental junk food and add more of an organic diet 'app.-wise'.
This can then be concretized by setting scores and ratios for deciding which app. should garner more of your attention throughout the day, and doom-scrolling once can be replaced by EPUB readers, over a course of time.
5. System
The wife and I once followed a system for making sure we read a book cover to cover without letting 'life' cut in and derail us.
We had the same book as:
A paperback form lying around in our study
An audio book for listening in when we commute
A PDF file on our PCs
An EPUB file on our phones
The environment sort of never allowed us to 'not read' and nothing has been the same since.
Closing bit - Time and Focus
No one ever in the history of human kind was ever gifted the 25th hour in a day which can be set aside for 'Reading'.
More than 'Time' management, the ball rolls to the court-side of 'Focus' management. If the habit is as essential to you as is having three meals a day or having a bath twice a day, you will make sure that you read the moment you get the chance to.
Focus can be managed and can be directed. And if done well, being able to read more and more often would be the smallest of the problems which this achievable super-power will resolve for us.
Happy reading.