What I'm reading
I am currently in the middle of 5 books. Most people think this is crazy. I get questions like – how do you keep it all straight? How do you remember what you’ve read? My usual response is – how do you stream several TV shows each week and keep all of it straight? How do you decide what to watch each night? Don’t you have to be in a certain mood to watch different genres of movies or TV shows? Well, I find the same to be true for books.
I am definitely tempted by the mindlessness of watching TV, but I try hard to make reading a habit instead. Below are some thoughts on what I’ve been reading so far in 2020 and why you should check them out.
1. The New One Minute Manager. My boyfriend Steve gave me this book for christmas. I have been in a new leadership role for the past year and a half, which has been one of my biggest challenges in my current role at work. Steve has gone through similar challenges and told me this has helped him in the past. This book is making me think about the attitude I bring to work every day and how it could affect those I am leading.
2. I purchased Atomic Habits by James Clear on audible and finished it within two weeks. It has given me great tips on how to improve my habits and how to get rid of habits that I know aren’t helping me achieve my goals. This is something I constantly work on, so I plan on listening to this audiobook again in a few months as a sort of check-in for continuously improving my habits.
3. Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths. This book has given me quick wins like stop filing emails away in my Outlook to the perfect subfolder. More often than not, it takes longer for you to decide how to file an email than it takes you to find it later by simply using “Search.” When you file an email in a three-tiered subfolder approach, you’re forcing your future self to remember exactly what you might have been thinking when doing so. You may even drive yourself to copy an email into two or three different folders because you know your future self may pick any of the three. What a waste of time! Stop filing away your emails, and read this book instead.
4. Eat, Pray, Love By Elizabeth Gilbert. I love the movie, and last year, I read Eat, Pray, Love Made Me Do it, which was a collection of stories about people who attributed their revelations and big life changes to Eat, Pray, Love. I wanted to dive into the details that may have been left out of the movie and see Elizabeth’s insights on the pages of a book, so I began reading a hard copy, which again, I plan on going back to in the future for inspiration for going after what I want in life.
5. Food Whore by Jessica Tom. This is a guilty pleasure. I use novels like this to quiet my mind before bed. Even the biggest nerd cannot wind down for the evening by reading about how to improve habits or how to live by certain algorithms. This book is entertaining - I’m amazed how a book about food can be so seductive.
I know it’s tough to find time to read. If you want to learn more about what I got out of these books, so you don’t have to make time to read them yourself, please comment below about which one and why you’re interested. If you want to make more time for reading, I can help with that, too. Schedule a call to work with me on optimizing your time.