Experiment: Read visually (rather than aurally) for 20 minutes every day for 30 days.
Ok, so why…
- The pandemic was highly destructive. But like most things that radically impact our lives and culture, it produced some positive effects. One was an increased opportunity for many of us to introspect. To clean house once again, both literally and spiritually, by doing more of what brings us joy and following less of the other noise.
- Also, in Dan Pink’s fascinating book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, he explains that common milestones – birthdays, holidays, the new year, or even the weekend – provide natural opportunities to start or stop a habit. With my 38th birthday approaching, I felt ready to challenge myself again and keep trying new experiences.
- For example, I was inspired to try drag for the 1st time for my birthday this year, which was a blast: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPgsfGBnyMZ/
- While I’ve become an avid reader, finishing a couple of books each month for years, I do nearly all of this aurally via Audible. Audible is a godsend because I can read with my ears while cooking, cleaning, eating, walking, and working out. I’m not planning to stop this anytime soon, because there is so much I want to read—about 300 titles on my ever-growing To Read list—and I can soak up way more information at a far faster rate this way.
- However, there is an argument to be made for uni-tasking when reading certain materials. I recently listened to and loved the book Essentialism, which argues for focusing on the one most thing most important thing right now before moving on to the next. When my husband asked me what the book was about, I found myself struggling to give him a quick summary of all the key points. It’s a straightforward book. But I realized in that moment what I’d long suspected: my comprehension, and more importantly, retention are better when I read—and only read—visually. So, this is an attempt to build that habit and see what happens.
“New goals don’t deliver new results. New lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is a process, not an outcome. For this reason, your energy should go into building better habits, not chasing better results.”
James Clear, author of highly recommended book Atomic Habits
Uh oh…
- When am I going to fit this in? Morning seems the obvious choice to ensure it gets done, but according to Dan Pink’s book mentioned above, I’m a 3rd bird. This is the catchall group that’s neither an early bird nor a night owl, i.e., a 3rd bird somewhere in between. At this stage in my life, my ideal sleep time would be 11pm-8am, but I already shift it an hour or so earlier for work and to meditate and/or workout before work.
About that…
- I chose a number of minutes rather than pages as my success metric because it’s simple, achievable, and more consistent from book to book. It’s much harder to plan around something with a more nebulous time requirement, e.g., reading 20 pages. That could be a few minutes for a simple book with lots of dialogue, large font, and a small page size or much longer for a book with dense content, small font, and textbook-sized pages.
- I researched habit trackers to help keep me on track. Ultimately, I realized I could just use Asana, which I already leverage for my personal To Dos as well as shared family To Dos.
- If you don’t have a something like this already, the two that sounded best to me are Habitify, mainly for its simplicity, and Coach.me for its community features, including a discussion thread with tips from others who have worked on the same habit. Both are available on Android and iOS and their basic habit tracking features are free.
- Here’s how I set up my daily task tracking for the month in Asana:
I betcha…
- I expect to enjoy this habit and want to continue it. I will most likely choose personal development and other nonfiction for visual reading, i.e., the stuff I most want to retain. For fiction, biographies, and other lower stakes books, I’ll continue to use Audible and crank up the speed to 1.5-2X.
Here’s how it went down…
- At first, it was a lot like starting an exercise routine. It is something I value and enjoy, and yet I also find making time for it to be a chore . This soon changed though. I chose material I enjoyed, e.g., Tim Ferriss’ behemoth Tribe of Mentors or a surprise birthday gift from my sister, The Art of Drag. This helped it shift from feeling like an obligation to feeling more like a “Treat Yoself” moment.
- I struggled to fit it into my morning routine on days when I was also trying to meditate and work out before work, so I became more flexible with when I did it—as a lunch break or after work.
- As you likely know, it can be hard to find the mental willpower after a full day to exercise, especially to do so alone.
- In contrast, reading later in the day was far easier due to having material I enjoyed.
- When first building a habit like this, it’s not the best time to take on War and Peace, though I would like to get to that book eventually. Set yourself up for success and choose wisely! In short…
“Read what you enjoy reading until you enjoy reading.”
-Adam Gray
- I still listened to some audiobooks during this experiment, while cooking, eating, and exercising. I just made sure to do this for books I didn’t need to take notes on, like the latest from my favorite writer Malcolm Gladwell.
- I enjoyed and would recommend this book, The Bomber’s Mafia, which he originally produced as an immersive audiobook—with historical audio clips throughout—and later published in print.
- You don’t have to be a war history buff to enjoy it either. I’m not one. It focuses more on a smart, scrappy brotherhood, a riveting rivalry, and intriguing ideologies around the most effective and humane way to bomb another country.
Where I Failed…
- Asana. This was an “it’s not you, it’s me” sitch. I realized that I typically only use Asana on the weekends for things I want to get done then. I also avoid push notifications from nearly every app on my phone (sorry, not sorry ‘bout it). So, I wasn’t getting the daily alerts that would have been useful in this case. Since I’m a Slave for Goo…gle Calendar, I ended up just creating a recurring daily time block there.
Where I Won…
- Mission accomplished!
- I ended up doing my reading in the morning or at least by midday most days. This gave me an early win, a sense of productivity, and honored my lifelong learning principle.
- I finally made some significant progress on Tim Ferriss’ Tribe of Mentors and read over 1/3 of a book on Zen Buddhism I’d heard good things about: Dropping Ashes on the Buddha.
What Surprised Me…
- Two things used to happen when I’d try to read:
- I would frequently daydream, sometimes rereading the same line or paragraph, unaware until I snapped back into the moment.
- I’d get sleepy and start nodding off.
- Over the course of the month, I’ve found my ability to stay present, especially while I was timing myself, has improved. Meditation also helps with this. I’ve also stopped falling asleep, for which I credit both my reading selections and focus on sleep health—which could of course be another whole post.
Whoomp, there it is…
- Full circle moment: I went back through the digital bookmarks I saved in Audible for Essentialism to review the key points of the book. In the first bookmark I’d saved, the author recommends starting your day with 20 minutes of reading. My conscious mind had completely forgotten this part, but perhaps my subconscious mind had not.
- Side note: saving digital bookmarks in Audible and going back through after you finish the book to take notes on these is a great way to retain more of what you hear when you read by ear.
- I enjoyed the experiment enough that I plan to integrate this habit as a regular part of my lifestyle.
“Once you stop learning, you start dying.”
Albert Einstein
Thanks for reading! Please leave me a comment with any feedback and/or what you think my next experiment should be.
Did you dig this experiment?
Re(Sources) & books mentioned:
Loved the comments on developing a lifestyle by working on habits.
Thanks Heather for the comment. I definitely recommend Atomic Habits for more on that. Cheers!