Read on, readers!
Joanne | Monday, May 14, 2012 at 6:03PM Reading is fundamental. At least, that’s what I was taught growing up. Plus I love to read. I’m an avid reader of all types of books, and belong to a book club to boot. I also enjoy reading about business news, especially since I started my own business. Since my profession is organizing offices, I find it fun (really!) keeping up-to-date on the latest and greatest tools for organizing, whether they be tactile or digital. I sometimes drink my morning tea or coffee perusing websites, or I read the Business Journal over lunch. It’s kind of relaxing to me because I see research as a little break from work.
Or, maybe I should be using past tense. It WAS relaxing, I USED to find it fun. And I realize it’s because I USED to have more time to do it all.
In the past month, I have gotten B-U-S-Y. I enrolled in 2 business classes that have a lot of work involved with them, including reading. I have discovered other sites with lots of information for my business I need to be reading regularly. My client base is beginning to increase. And oh yeah, I’m traveling more often. I might have bitten off more than I can chew.
As I think of ways to potentially cut my workload down (which I really can’t), or maybe back out of one of the classes (which I won’t), I realize this is a great learning tool. It’s my profession to help people find the time to do the things they need to do. I need to do all of it. So I need to make it work. (kind of a “duh!” moment for me).
First, I list all of the magazines, websites, and newspapers I need to read on a regular basis. I have things like the Business Journal, some tech blogs, Inc Magazine, etc. Then I list all of the emails that are business related that would drive me to their website to read their stuff. Finally I list the things I like to read that are not really for my business but more of a distraction. I stop listing these because there are too many.
For the first list, I start assigning times to each piece about how long it takes me to read it, and how often it gets printed/updated. The tricky part is that, let’s say, the Business Journal gets printed every 2 weeks, but their website gets updated almost daily. Very similar to most printed materials now that have a website. But it’s not necessary to look at it unless I’m following a particular story, in which case I will get an email from the Business Journal informing me of such. So my chart is starting to look like this:
Biz Journal – 1 hour to read – every other week
Inc Magazine – 1-2 hours to read – once a month
Mashable and other blogs – 3 hours – each week
And so on and so forth. My list began to get pretty long, but I started to look more critically at what I was once reading and discarded the stuff that never really gave me anything worthwhile. I went through the same process with my emails, except this time I created a rule that automatically puts them in a folder – out of the inbox where I will be tempted to read it on the spot.
I then made a calendar of when each piece comes out (daily, every other week, etc) with the time I need to read it all. The total time I need to spend reading still looked a little overwhelming, so I broke it down to make it more manageable. Now I assign myself times during the week to read specific things, and I give myself 1.5 hours each day. Sometimes I break that 1.5 hours up and do 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at lunch, and 30 in the afternoon to help break up the day. I allow myself a little flexibility in an increasingly structured work day/week.
I’m now more relaxed about getting everything done, and not missing out on news that can help me further my business. And with the time limits, I find myself wandering less to other sites that are not important (you know how it is, you’re reading something online, you click a link, read something else, click another link, and before you know it, 34 hours have passed?).
I have 30 minutes leftover in my time allotment today, so I've got to go read Cosmopol...er, Entrepreneur Magazine. Gotta stay on top of this!
Reader Comments (8)
Joanne,
I find what you wrote interesting. I have a different system. I use Google by setting up "alerts" on certain keywords or phrases, which get emailed to me... this way the important articles come to me on the topics I most want to read. I also subscribe to various peoples newsletters and sometimes read them and sometimes visit their blogs.
I think it would be difficult for me to divide my time into chunks, but I know that it would certainly take less time and be more productive. It's worth a try...
Susan
Susan, the alerts would work for me if I had them being sent to a folder, and then reading those emails at the allotted time. For me, the inbox email needs to be read as soon as I open my email reader (Outlook). The alerts not going to a different folder would be a distraction. I always say that not every system works for everyone, and if your system works for you, then that's what's important. But as you said, if you need to be more productive, then maybe this would work. Let me know how it goes if you try it!
What a fun idea to schedule your reading. I generally have very few paper things I read anymore but read the journals every day for at least 10 minutes. I'm a very addicted to reading and after getting my iPad now prefer the online versions. Thanks Joanne.
Hugs
http://sheevaunmoran.com
Brilliant! I often find that I don't have time to get through my latest stash of magazines. I currently have last months issues of Fortune, Harvard Business Review and Entrepreneur stacked on my nightstand. I look at them with a little guilt each day, but there isn't any time! I have started downloading magazines on my iPad to make use of idle time (waiting to pick up kids, at a hair appointment) but haven't thought of a schedule.
Can you share your calendar with us?
Amanda Miller Littlejohn
@amandamogul
http://blog.mopwaterpr.com
Amanda, I would suggest you throw old magazines away that you haven't gotten to yet, along with that guilt you are feeling. Now, start off fresh.
Here is a link to my calendar for reading:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/79264979/reading%20calendar/reading_calendar.htm
If the clicking on it doesn't work, just copy and paste it into your url.
Understand when looking at this calendar that I will be moving times around when I have client meetings. This is the htm version of my outlook calendar, so I superimpose my reading calendar onto my business calendar, and make adjustments. Obviously, clients come first, so don't think you have to be really rigid with your times. Just do what works best for you.
Online versions of magazines are great, but for some people (sometimes me!) there's too much temptation for distraction. Put some of your reading materials in your car for those down times. Hope this helps!
Joanne, I love your approach here-straightforward and organized so you get everything that needs to be read covered without overwhelming yourself! I keep a pile of the few non-digital journals and schedule reading time as part of each day. I do the same with the digital ones...and ONLY read those that I feel are needed. If something keeps arriving in my in-box and isn't getting read-I get off the mailing list! :-)
I just love this reminder. I've taken out some of my business books and making this extra effort to simply read. 30 minutes a day shouldn't be that difficult. And, can you imagine how much we can gain from all this reading.
Now, for the pile of magazines and newsletters that I want to "read" someday. However, the pile is extremely overwhelming and I just can't throw it away. What do you recommend?
thanks,
April
If you have a pile of old magazines and newsletters, looking at them is overwhelming, and maybe even a little guilt-inducing because you feel you "should" read them, but you don't. If you can't throw them away, how about giving them to someone else? Donating them is good too. I believe that if you don't start off fresh, then you'll always have this backlog of things to do, and never get caught up. And you just won't get productive the way you need to.