Why I decided to read one book a week, for a year
If you’ve met me in 2019, you’ll probably have heard me mention that my goal was to read one non-fiction book a week in 2019 –for a total of 52 books in the year[1]. I’ve completed this goal in October and wanted to reflect on why I started this goal to begin with.
The rules:
1. Read 52 books in a year –it doesn’t have to be one every week. This forces some planning, if I’m stuck on a longer book for over 2 weeks, or have given up a book halfway, it means I have to make up time. This can be done by reading more, or a shorter book (it just sounds much more succinct to say you’re reading 1 book a week vs. 52 books a year);
2. All the books read must be non-fiction;
3. If I’ve picked up a book in the past, have to start from the beginning and finish it;
4. Track all books in an Excel document, documenting the key points I learned and what I would rate the book.
Why the goal?
1. We live in a very distracted world, I wanted a goal that would teach me to focus. –I work in a professional services firm and the work often has many long hours and tight deadlines. I and many others have described it as putting out one fire (a request or email) after another, but the last one’s still slightly burning, and you’ll have to get back to it later. I found myself being out of focus, stuck on tasks which had me thinking about the next email, tasks that were in general not value creating.[2] The idea is that sticking to a goal would require me to focus, and reading would teach me to better focus in life in general.
2. Learn to celebrate the small wins and see them as furthering my goal – I wanted to learn to celebrate the small victories. I aimed to develop the mentality to see that each word read, page read, and book read, would ultimately help me in achieving my goal. Charles Duhigg, in his New York Times bestselling book “The Power of Habit”, talks about the “small wins”, which are the small keystone habits that fuel bigger changes. My hope was that even if my day had gone bad, I can read 1 page, and say that I’ve made progress in my goal today, and that is a win.
3. Be ambitious, set big goals and stick with it –I started this goal at a time when I couldn’t see much direction in my life and I wanted this to be a reminder that I could achieve big things if I wanted to. Note that in 2018 and 2017 I’ve read 1 book and 3 books (overall, not too big a reader), but I’ve probably started many that I never finished.
Criticisms
When I’ve told people of this goal I’ve received both support and criticism. I wanted to address the primary criticisms below:
1. You’ll never be able to retain any of that information, why bother? –I think being exposed to more viewpoints, ideas, and knowledge is always a benefit. Let’s say you retain 3 pieces of new knowledge in each book you’ve read. Having read 50+ books in the year, you’ll have learned perhaps 150 new things! I also made an effort to highlight the book in my ereader, take notes (which I export to email), and record the pros, cons, and rate each book in an Excel document. So overall, some efforts have been made to retain what I read. I’m not going to say I remember everything, but it’s a learning process.
2. You’ll never have the time –I think a better question is, are there better things to do with your time? That’s a highly personal question, but I think it’s good to know there are many prominent thinkers and successful people which have big reading habits (Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, George Bush, Mark Zuckerberg for example). Many of these people have attributed their success to their reading, but I think this attribution can be a “survivorship bias” so I won’t get into whether I think reading makes you more successful[3]. On whether the goal is achievable, there are also countless YouTube videos on people having done this challenge, so it’s clearly achievable. It’s also a common misconception that it takes a lot of time to read a book. If I read 50 pages every day (25 pages on a ~45 minute commute back and forth every day, and some minutes before bed, which is pretty average reading speed) I’ll have read 350 by the week, which is over the length of a lot of non-fiction books. Most people would have this time, or can make this time. Whenever you’re tempted to go on social media, or waiting in line –just pick up a book.
I plan to make another series of posts in more detail on how I think I was able to succeed at this goal (and why I think everyone else can too), and the list of books that I’ve read and what I’ve learned.
As always, thanks for visiting.
[1] There’s conflicting evidence on whether announcing your goals is has any efficacy in achieving them. Often cited in the internet is Peter Gollwitzer’s 2009 study, which is presented as evidence that sharing one’s goals leads to a sense of pride and pre-mature reward, and would ultimately decrease the chances that the goal is met. Others seem to disagree with this. For example, Tim Ferriss, popular entrepreneur, productivity hacker, and podcaster has advocated for setting up stakes in achieving goals. Or “skin in the game”. For example, StickK an application that donates money to friends, foes, charity, or an anti-charity when goals are not met. Similarly, one can view that announcing one’s goals would add an element of accountability which would be helpful in achieving goals. Further, I’ve read (very briefly) Gollwitzer’s work and I think that he admits that there are many factors (i.e. intention) which would influence whether one would achieve their goals. So if you’re stressing over whether you should announce your goals or not, do what you think is best for you as it’s probably not a significant factor. From my experience, I would say that it definitely helped me. I also found that announcing big goals is a great conversation starter.
[2] Cal Newport, Ph.D, in his bestseller “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World” defines “deep work” as one which creates value. This differs from “shallow work” which is distracted and non-value adding work.
[3] If success came down to just reading there would be a lot more successful people. But I think from experience, reading more can give you more to think about and say.