Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that reading magazines or blogs or books,
Speaker 1: it's probably not your job. If any form of undone
Speaker 1: recreational reading sparks guilt for you, just abandon it. You
Speaker 1: don't have to read it. I hear from a lot
Speaker 1: of people about how they use their time and how
Speaker 1: they feel about their time. People with demanding careers and
Speaker 1: personal lives sometimes report feeling behind because they have unread books,
Speaker 1: unread magazines, and blog posts hanging over their heads. They
Speaker 1: feel pressured to get caught up on their reading. The
Speaker 1: stack of books and magazines by their beds, or the
Speaker 1: newsletters in their inbox, the needs from their favorite blogs.
Speaker 1: They become like nagging tasks on their to do lists.
Speaker 1: But you know what, they really don't have to be.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of things we have to do
Speaker 1: in life, but pleasure reading is not one of them.
Speaker 1: When you are reading something that is not for your job,
Speaker 1: it is supposed to be fun, and that means if
Speaker 1: you stop enjoying what you are reading, you should probably
Speaker 1: stop reading. It turns out that unread magazines don't have
Speaker 1: to be read, blogs don't have to be visited. Newsletters
Speaker 1: can be deleted. Unopened books can be returned to the library,
Speaker 1: even if you've never cracked them open. Magazines, blogs and
Speaker 1: books are intended to be a source of pleasure or
Speaker 1: a diversion. So if undone reading makes you feel guilty,
Speaker 1: you need to find a way to remove it from
Speaker 1: your personal list of expectations as soon as possible. Now
Speaker 1: Here is a perspective that might help. There are close
Speaker 1: to infinite amounts of content out there. You are only
Speaker 1: one person with exactly twenty four hours a day, no more.
Speaker 1: If you managed to read a book a week, which
Speaker 1: is a lot, that is fifty books a year. If
Speaker 1: you are going to live for forty more years, that
Speaker 1: is only two thousand more books in your life. There
Speaker 1: are generally more books than that, and even the smallest
Speaker 1: of branch libraries. You are never going to get through
Speaker 1: all of it, let alone all the blog posts, magazines,
Speaker 1: or dare we say it, podcast episodes out there. Now,
Speaker 1: I know that is one thing to know rationally, that
Speaker 1: doesn't change that many people feel the weight of their
Speaker 1: own unmet expectations. I mean, you really do like the Economist, Hey,
Speaker 1: so do I You would, in theory like to read
Speaker 1: it cover to cover, to say nothing of all the
Speaker 1: amazing novels and helpful blog posts and yes, podcasts out there.
Speaker 1: So that leaves the question, if you do feel guilty
Speaker 1: when you see unconsumed material piling up, what should you do? Well,
Speaker 1: if you have the space for physical things here, one
Speaker 1: option is to just let it pile up and accept
Speaker 1: that there will be a big pile there waiting for
Speaker 1: you to glean the finest bits during a future time
Speaker 1: when you might create a little more availability. Whenever we
Speaker 1: go on vacation, my husband and I take a stack
Speaker 1: of about a dozen issues of The Economist with us
Speaker 1: and plow through them. You can then do a purge
Speaker 1: every few months or so, dumping anything that is more
Speaker 1: than a few months old. If there was a really
Speaker 1: important article for your industry or that mentioned your company,
Speaker 1: guess what somebody would have told you about it. You
Speaker 1: might carve out a few hours on a ken to
Speaker 1: peruse the unread pile and read anything you are particularly
Speaker 1: drawn to. One story per issue should do it. If
Speaker 1: nothing looks good on the cover, well into the recycling,
Speaker 1: then it goes. Then you can also consider whether you
Speaker 1: might be better off unsubscribing to things. If you don't
Speaker 1: seem to read an email newsletter anymore, we'll go ahead
Speaker 1: and get off the list. If a particular magazine never
Speaker 1: quite catches your eye when it comes, or hit constitutes
Speaker 1: most of the bulk in that unread pile, well maybe
Speaker 1: better to let it go. If you find yourself continually
Speaker 1: putting off starting a book, give it to someone else.
Speaker 1: If you desperately need to read it in the future.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing you could get it back, or you could
Speaker 1: buy it again. And much as I love book clubs,
Speaker 1: if you don't really enjoy having to read books, co
Speaker 1: find a bridge club or a running group, or a
Speaker 1: book club where no one actually reads the book and
Speaker 1: you just drink wine judgments. For me, few kids like homework,
Speaker 1: and guess what, few adults do either. So when something
Speaker 1: that is supposed to feel like pleasure starts feeling like
Speaker 1: homework or even just a source of guilt, dispatch it.
Speaker 1: Pleasure reading is supposed to be about pleasure, which means
Speaker 1: a lot of it is to some degree interchangeable for
Speaker 1: that purpose. After a while, the pleasure is the point,
Speaker 1: not the content, of the particular article itself, you probably
Speaker 1: won't know what you are missing, and you will be
Speaker 1: just as happy reading some future magazine article that comes
Speaker 1: in as you would be reading one in the pile,
Speaker 1: a magazine spread featuring a gorgeous garden, or let's say,
Speaker 1: an article about innovations in business class seats on planes.
Speaker 1: Both can be interesting when you've got some downtime, so
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter if you read one or the other.
Speaker 1: Your favorite blogger will probably keep posting, and if you
Speaker 1: find yourself with a little extra time some night, you
Speaker 1: can go back through and read what you missed or not.
Speaker 1: You are in charge of your time, so fill it
Speaker 1: with experiences you value and enjoy. No need to feel
Speaker 1: guilty about this. Expectations are infinite, but time is finite.
Speaker 1: We are always choosing. That's just the way of the world,
Speaker 1: not a reason to feel bad at all. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at before for Breakfast pod. That's b the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
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