Do you not have the time to read... even a blog post? After reading this one, I bet you will.

Can you read one whole book per week for fifty-two consecutive weeks?

That’s the easy equation for reading 52 books in a year. I really don’t have a set way to measure how many books I read per week, or the number of pages I consume, but I can tell you it's not that many. I’m a full time college student, so when I’m reading, I’m really just trying to pack the pages in or relax. This morning, I wondered if I might be able to maximize my reading space in a day so that substituting things that I know to be bad habits might actually avail me more time to consume books.

So, this morning, I started off really strong. I popped on my headphones as I normally do and headed out to the gym, where normally I start my day. On any given day during this time, I’m listening to my gym playlist on repeat, attempting to get amped up. But I think I discovered the forbidden preworkout today: mental stimulation… okay hear me out.

I’m currently reading Leaders Eat Last, by Simon Sinek. It’s not Simon’s fault, but I’ve been experiencing a little mental exhaustion in getting through the book. It’s easy enough to read, but I just can’t seem to get through more than a few pages at a time because either my brain is overwhelmed with my schoolwork, or I’m just not in the right mindset to absorb information without a storyline. However, on my way to the gym, I knew that even if I got through three or four pages, it would be a win, and I could check the reading for the day off my list.

Now I’m sure I looked tremendously smart and attractive walking to the gym while reading, but actually the experience wasn’t that bad. While I swayed a little bit, I found it really easy to get into pace. While I don’t recommend reading everywhere you go, I do now believe that thinking about downtime as an opportunity to stretch is possible and may be a key in allowing you to find that time to achieve the goals you set outside of school, work and the hard obligations of life.

Books like Atomic Habits by James Clear have shown me just how much our minute, split second mental engagements can add up. I didn’t even realize how much time of day I wasted until I actively set a goal for myself to use up every minute living it to the fullest. It’s only 4:30 right now, and I’ve seemingly gotten through more than I would have normally to this point. I’m sitting down to start my homework, when normally, I probably would have started this process around 8 or 9:30 this evening.

Here are some things that I learned:

1. Power through your evening slump. Usually when I get home, I hang out with my roommates, watch a tv show and spend ages cooking dinner. Now: these events are essential to your mental wellbeing so DO NOT skimp on them. However, I got home early today, so instead of using my free time to goof off just because nobody is watching, I cleaned up, sat down and got to work.

2. Set some physical breaks. This might be a personal one, but I recently have been attempting to learn how to do a handstand. Now, not everyone is in the position physically (if you’re at work, I wouldn’t recommend doing a handstand at your cubicle), but variations of this could be pushups, walking about the room, stretches, attempting to get a split, reading a page. I found that actively engaging my body refreshed me faster, but also made me feel like I was working towards some small goal.

3. Prioritize active rest. When I feel stressed out, I usually just go grab a bowl of ice cream to motivate me through the rest of the grueling task at hand. Instead, I’ve discovered what I call active rest. It’s as simple as going outside for a look around your porch, walking into your roommates room for a hug, or to touch every single thing you can. Make up a little task like attempting to stack a house of cards out of the mail that is just laying around. Do anything that helps you feel refreshed, not just ‘rested’.

Ultimately, I wondered if reading was like working out. When I read for too long, I just get tired and don’t feel like working out anymore, but then how do the law students in the library sit for hours on end, actively absorbing information? I did some research.

Your brain controls your muscles, so why can’t you improve it just like them. First, I found that educators actually encouraged college students to absorb information through self help books outside of school (Kudos you n me!). But for the past six weeks, I have actually been reading them, and the result is quite interesting. I’ve noticed the feeling of a mental flexibility--no, I’m not smarter or anything, but now things that were abstract, like why leaders work, or my incessant need to check my phone have answers. Now, I’ve read a book that broke down the science so I understand the world a little better, or have a set of tools that I might not directly remember, but I know where to find.

You’ve always heard that we live in an age where our attention spans are shortening because the pull of our phones has fundamentally changed how we think. Whether you buy into that or not, this can be somewhat proven by how well you can achieve and stick to the tasks that you start. Working harder, not longer.

I’ve discovered the benefits of attempting to get my work for class done in a set period. When I sit down for work, I endeavor to enter it with the mindset that for the next period of time, which feels open ended, I must achieve this project. I can gauge the feeling of how that is going only based on how far I get. In order for me to make this pain of focusing without distraction end, I really need to sit down and bang it out. The more times that I do it, the less scary it seems for me to focus for a set period of time. Variations on this mindset include putting your phone outside of the room or locking it in a box in your closet, but what I think you’re really doing is taking control of your mindset back. You are rewiring the pathways that have been trained only to accept quick doses of dopamine and serotonin from checking the four same apps on your phone over and over. A more long term, and even more head rushing feeling will begin to emerge when the fear that is releasing cortisol, the stress signal, into your body occurs when you get used to the discomfort of working through something to completion, knowing that there is a positive incentive of that natural drug rush, but also the stack of time that you’ve saved for better things, just sitting there waiting for you. This is an active process. In the discomfort, it’s going to hurt a little bit until you get it down, but trust me. You will get this down, and you’ll feel so much better once you’ve done it. Soon your habits will put you on a healthy autopilot where you’re in control.

So, let’s return to the two fundamental questions of this musing. Firstly, would it actually be possible to read 52 books in a year? I say - yes. I’ve never done it, and think that it would be a daunting task to try, but will absolutely endeavor it someday. Just like my walk today proved, life is about your priorities. You don’t actually know how much time you have until you force yourself to experience and fill it properly without the noise that a fast society has filled it with. Time is yours. Take it back. Secondly, what about the mental muscle? I think the first step of getting back in the driver’s seat is understanding that nothing makes decisions up there except you. If you want to get something done, seriously, you can write down the steps that you need to take and accomplish them. What you’re missing is discipline.

My greatest challenge to discipline lies in the ‘what if’ factor. I have such F.O.M.O. of losing the medial discomfort that I currently feel in favor of a short period of actual discomfort (getting something done). I know that the dopamine will reward me in the end, I just need to choose to start the grueling process now. Trust me, it will be worse later when you pick your comfort habits over your project and are just doubly stressed later.

So, lesson of the day. Just do it. No, seriously, stop reading this and go do what you need to do with this mindset. Let me know how it goes in all that extra time that you’ll have.