(not) Becoming the Reading Robot

I find myself struggling to get excited about this trial. It may be due to the mundanity of simply reading every day. A major factor I believe that has made this difficult to commit to is something I realized about myself a few months ago. I seem to go thru phases of how I like to consume media. When starting this trial, I was feeling strongly about books as a primary source of entertainment. I was actually in the middle of reading another book when I decided to take on the three in this trial. Currently, I am heavily invested in online media, things like YouTube videos, blog posts, and forum threads are how I seem to spend a couple hours each night.

Reading at least a little bit every night has been something I’ve been able to stay on top of, for the most part, give or take a couple days. I’m simply not getting thru the 35 pages I intended a few weeks ago, but overall, I’m still hoping to all the books I sought out to in the beginning. With just a week left, I will probably need to spend a day or two really getting thru some pages.

Last week, I mentioned an additional trial I would partake, in which I would try to schedule/plan out my days to the extreme. Fortunately, I haven’t been as robotic as was formed by my initial vision. Major tasks, I’m scheduling, but chunks of free time I’m letting myself figure out how to spend it. Last week, I fully intended on going full robot, but that was mostly due to my disappointment with how I was performing when it came to reading. I figured trying to program my day would be the only way I could accomplish all the reading I wanted to. After a fantastic weekend surrounded by plenty of friends, I realized how ridiculous this plan actually was. Perhaps I could have tackled everything that came my way in the most efficient and productive way possible, but would I have enjoyed that at all? Based on the couple days I tried to schedule everything, I highly doubt it. This concept of robotically programming your life came up on the most recent episode of the CIG Podcast, at about 34 mins, they answer the question, “Why not put everything into Anki (or similar systems)?”.

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve learned the importance of recognizing personal patterns and utilizing those patterns. I’ll use an example I see in myself to illustrate my point. This may be extremely stereotypical to say, but at work, I suck at getting tasks done on Mondays. Flat out SUCK. What I choose to do instead, is plan out the rest of my week, possibly create a rough outline of the month, or plot out my team’s current projects. This helps me stay on top of tasks and responsibilities throughout not only the rest of the week but months ahead. I like many people out there, have an ever-expanding list of books, movies, TV Shows (yes one day I will finally watch Stranger Things and West World and Twin Peaks and…) Where was I? Ah yes, knowing I have a tendency to pursue and, more importantly, enjoy consuming certain types of media during certain times, it will be best for me to do so when I feel the need to scratch that itch.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to this trial, and of course, to hear what I will be starting next. I have a couple ideas, possibly start something to shake up the formula a bit…