2020 - A Year of Reading and Learning in Review

By now, most everyone has agreed that 2020 was an exhausting year.

But when it comes to my reading and learning, 2020 was an amazing year. Not having to commute into an office due to my job being remote and the subsequent Covid-19 quarantine helped me complete 26 books and 24 digital courses last year - my highest annual totals ever, although this includes three books I started in 2019.

If you'd like to see the full list, feel free to browse my Google doc where I track all of my reading and learning. If you want to see an even more impressive database, check out James Raybould's list: https://bit.ly/z2D1sX.

What I Read in 2020

Although most of my reading usually focuses on business, productivity/systems/self-help, and culture/food, I was pleasantly surprised to step into social policy and politics (The War on Normal People, Why We're Polarized), RVing, and philosophy (The Obstacle is the Way).

Average time it took me to read a book: 62.3 days - a shade over two months.

An average not helped by several books that took me well over 200 days to read (lost interest, got distracted, or had to wait until certain library books became available).

• The War on Normal People
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
• Prepper's Long-Term Survival Guide - hey - it was March. I thought zombies were coming.
• The Day the World Came to Town - an uplifting tale of one small Canadian town that hosted over 10,000 stranded travelers on 9/11 and a reminder of the generosity of the human spirit.
• Shake Shack: Recipes & Stories
• The Firm
• Be Our Guest
• The Ride of a Lifetime - clearly with this book and the one before it, I was riding a Disney wave in the summertime.
• White Fragility
• Whistle Blower
• Atomic Habits
• RVing - if you haven't jumped on this bandwagon yet and are curious as to what living (or heck even traveling) in an RV is like, this needs to be your first read.
• How to Be an Antiracist
• Dark Towers
• Why We're Polarized
• Confessions of the Accidental Career Coach
• Pixar Storytelling
• Shoe Dog - I'm not a diehard Nike fan, but even I appreciated Phil Knight's biography and the stories of how he built Nike into the goliath it is today.
• Political Tribes
• America for Americans - an important reminder that xenophobia has defined American history at every stage...the only differences are who is the target of the era.
• The Obstacle is the Way - quite possibly the best book I read all year. Many thanks to my friend Ross Henderson for sending me this gift.
• Co-Active Coaching, 4th Edition
• Free to Focus
• Franny and Zoey
• The Four Tendencies - really intriguing view on how people respond to internal and external expectations and how to adjust one's style of communication and action to account for those differences.
• Designing Your Work Life

What I Studied in 2020

I also completed a record number of digital learning courses on LinkedIn Learning, MasterClass, and Udemy. I went from 7 courses completed in 2019 (a subpar year due to my son being born) to 24 last year.

I started a LinkedIn Learning Club and together with eight people had a chance to learn and apply that knowledge on a number of powerful subjects.

Average time to complete each course: 99 days.

And if you remove the three outliers that took me 393, 424, and 775 days to complete (started and forgot about them), then the average time to completion goes down to 38 days.

• LinkedIn: Working Remotely
• LinkedIn: Developing a Diversity Inclusion and Belonging program
• LinkedIn: HR and Digital Transformation
• LinkedIn: SAP ERP Essential Training
• LinkedIn: Diversity Recruiting
• LinkedIn: How to Feel Less Busy
• LinkedIn: Learning to be Promotable
• LinkedIn: Transitioning to Product Management
• MasterClass: David Axelrod and Karl Rove
• LinkedIn: Time Management: Working from Home
• LinkedIn: Design Thinking: Understanding the Process
• MasterClass: Aaron Franklin - just remember that if you watch this, you're going to get hungry - and fast. So either have the grill or a sandwich ready.
• LinkedIn: Storytelling
• LinkedIn: Becoming a Product Manager - incredibly long but thorough look into how products come to market and what PM's do
• LinkedIn: How to Engage Meaningfully in Allyship and Antiracism
• LinkedIn: Confronting Bias: Thriving Across our Differences
• LinkedIn: Inclusive Mindset for Committed Allies
• LinkedIn: Advocating for Change in Your Organization
• LinkedIn: Difficult Conversations: Talking about Race at Work
• LinkedIn: Driving Change and Anti-Racism
• MasterClass: Chris Voss (Negotiations)
• Udemy: Automotive 101: A Beginner's Guide to Automotive Repair
• LinkedIn: Aaron Dignan on Transformational Change
• LinkedIn: Learning Data Science: Tell Stories with Data - one of the sharpest courses I've ever taken and links to many other texts/sources for follow up learning. Highly recommended.

What I am reading and learning right now

This leads me to today. It's the first workday of 2021 and my reading list has only grown - especially with Amazon Prime Day loading up my bookshelf and a number of Kindle sales adding digital texts to be read. If cost is a challenge for you, please get familiar with the Libby app, which enables you to check books (Kindle and Audio) from your local library - no charge! You just need your local library card.

I've got a lot of things I want to read and learn for the year. There are the books I plan to read slowly and each day - the "Everyday Books." Then there's my reading list, of which I have included my top 11 priorities. And last, there are the courses I plan to take online this year!

Everyday Books

I am trying to read something new every single day. And that doesn't include the newspaper, which I also aspire to read consistently. My everyday books are meant to be quick grabs - and I am reading about Stoicism (probably not what you think it is), drawing something new every week, and learning about food through exceptionally cheeky infographics. I also keep a gratitude journal in which I write twice a week about things for which I am grateful.

What I plan to read over the next year

I have a focus list for the next few months. It's a mix of books on society, being human (Breath and Why We Sleep), with some fun around food (Dirt) and sci-fi (Ready Player Two) awaiting me.

• Breath
• Why We Sleep
• The Room Where it Happened
• Ready Player Two
• Better Allies
• A Life Worth Living
• Range
• The Fifth Risk
• Dirt
• The Product Book
• The Miracle of Mindfulness

What I plan to learn (digitally) over the next year

Some things merit visual learning. And that is definitely the case with the ukulele, hold 'em poker, and a refresher course in using my Nikon DSLR. I'm also going way deeper on diversity and inclusion this year.

• MasterClass: Jake Shimabukuro
• MasterClass: Daniel Negreanu
• LinkedIn: Learning Your Nikon DSLR Camera
• LinkedIn: Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging for All
• LinkedIn: Confronting Racism, with Robin DiAngelo
• LinkedIn: SQL Essential Training
• CreativeLiveDYL Class
• The Science of Well Being
• LinkedIn: Becoming a Male Ally at Work
• MasterClass: Tan France

Why am I telling you all this? Because I want to share a truth I have learned over the last five years:

Reading is a gateway to satiate the mind, feed one's curiosity, and empower one's life.

As I have learned to love reading, I've come to realize how much clarity and power it gives a person. You get to choose what you read. You can stop at any time. And while you're engrossed in it, it enables you to find that tranquility of mind that meditation often provides. You can be taken to far off lands or down the street, using the power of words. And regardless of whether you have a Kindle, a hardcover, or a paperback - you get to become that person for a brief period of time.

And non-reading learning has a valuable role to play as well. Some, including myself, do well when we are taught subjects or can both see and hear the content at the same time. Some topics demand visual learning - like the class I took on automotive maintenance and repair! But do what works for you. And if 2021 has spurred you to taking a long look at your goals and resolutions, I hope you'll consider putting reading and learning at the top of your list.

What's stopping you?