Saturday, January 08, 2011

Resolved: I Will Read (and Learn) More

I like reading. It's calming, I learn stuff, and I feel like it's something I ought to do with my limited time on this earth. Sadly, my list continues to grow longer and the notion that someday I'll retire and have time to read all these books seems a bit silly.

So, I'm going to be more intentional this year with my reading, both in getting caught up with my magazines (Reader's Digest, Architectural Digest*, Consumer Reports, Fast Company, Inc., Entertainment Weekly**) as well as my books list.

*Not currently subscribed, I have a few unread from the last time I subscribed that I still need to read. But, they keep sending me these incredible offers, so I think I will resubscribe once I'm caught up.

** I used to regularly read this. Now I skim looking for movie and book recommendations.

My problem is that my backlog of reading is spread across a number of places... my nightstand, my bookcase, my car, my computer back and my desk at work. I started by clearing off my nightstand. Only the stuff I'm currently working on is now on the nightstand. About six books and a few back issues of Fast Company and Inc. I put all that stuff into Remember the Milk in a "Nightstand" list. For the books, I put a different task item for each chapter. This is allowing me to currently be reading three different books at once. This helps with two problems I often encounter:
(1) Keeping track of what I'm reading (every magazine on my nightstand is partially read)
(2) Sometimes when I'm reading non-fiction I don't feel like reading. Seeing the list, and reading several at once, both will keep me on track. Fiction, on the other hand, I devour.

I hope to later inventory my computer bag and desk and car -- those are the ones I read while walking at work. The bookcase will keep the backlog of magazines. I won't inventory them until I read the ones on my nightstand and move new magazines to the nightstand. Yes, a complicated system. But I think it will work.

No comments: