Drop the Phone, Pick up a Book: My Year of Reading

While hiking in Tasmania last December, I came up with a crazy New Year’s resolution:?read a book a week in 2017. Let me explain.

For most of my working career, I put myself last, ran myself ragged, and had zero boundaries. This started when I worked in politics and manifested into a bunch of terrible habits. Answering my boss’s call at midnight??Sure!?Writing a last-minute speech on Christmas morning??Why not??Leaving friends stranded at dinner??Something came up!?For years, my world consisted of rapidly responding to emails, calls, and text messages for a solid 18 hours a day.

I slept with my phone by my side and became despondent when I occasionally couldn’t access it. Once, while traveling with my then-boyfriend in rural Virginia, I dropped my phone, breaking the screen into a mangled and unusable mess. I started to cry. “It’s just a phone,” he sweetly said. “You just don’t get it,” I shouted back.

It’s embarrassing to admit, but my phone obsession stroked my ego:?I am so important I have to be on call 24/7, and my high school friends will never understand!

I loved my time in D.C., but let’s be honest, it has a weird culture - one that I, unfortunately,?bought into it. Washingtonians (the transients, not the locals) are obsessed with status, and proximity to power?is?power. I loved having “important people” depend on me.

My terrible phone habits also helped me deal with my anxiety. I’m an introvert by nature and social situations — especially with new people — can be hard for me. If I ever felt the slightest bit awkward or nervous, I would immediately reach for my phone.

But then a funny thing happened. I moved to San Francisco and started working in tech. Suddenly, people found my digital obsession irritating and rude, not impressive or admirable.

And as I walked around Tasmania, with its breathtaking views and crisp, clear air, it hit me. I have one life — one—, and I don’t want to spend it glued to my phone.

Sure, there are still times when I take late night calls or cancel plans with friends to meet a deadline. I work at a fast-paced start-up and have aggressive deliverables. But I’m no longer obsessed with my job, and my phone is no longer my crutch.

I’ve also ditched online browsing and have strict limits for things like social media, texting, and internet surfing, which has made me significantly more productive. It’s pretty incredible how much time we can waste doing, well, nothing.

So did I reach my goal?

I exceeded it. I read 68 books this year, and it was pretty easy. Apparently, not spending endless hours online gives you lots of free time to focus on more meaningful activities.

And for those of you who are interested in kicking off the New Year with some solid reading goals, here’s how you can do it too:

Turn Off Your Phone: Yes, the entire post is about this very thing, but it’s worth repeating. Pick a time, say 9 pm, and turn off your phone for the evening or have “phone free” Sundays. For the political people that need to be on-call, have a separate number where your boss can reach you for emergencies, and give it to no one else!

Stop Mindless Internet Surfing: The internet is endless, and that is why web surfing is so addictive. Track your internet browsing and social media time by setting a timer. There are also?helpful apps?like Offtime that help you monitor your phone use and reduce your overall usage. Yes, we all love to text, troll Twitter, and read about Brangelina in The Daily Mail — just make sure to give yourself a set time to indulge so you don’t go overboard.

Pick a Reading Day:?Set aside a day where you can get a good chunk of reading done. Sunday is my day. After hiking and running errands with my best friend Tammy, I usually read from 3 pm to 7 pm at a local coffee shop. It’s nice to start the week with a good chunk of your book already done.

Skip Movies on Planes: Flights are a great way to get in tons of uninterrupted reading. Seriously, how many times can you watch?Ricki and the Flash?on a United flight? Flying across country? Pick something fun and entertaining (there is nothing worse than trying to read a wonkish or boring book on a long-ass flight).

Speaking of…

Branch Out, but Read What You Like:?I tried to get into classics like?Pride and Prejudice?but reading those felt more like a chore.?“Her teeth were tolerable,” Mr. Darcy said.?Yeah,?no thanks. I branch out, but I also stick with books I’m confident I’ll like, which is non-fiction, biographies, and political tell-alls like Nixon’s last days in office (The Final Days) or Bob Dole in the 88' presidential election (What it Takes). FYI, Bob Dole is a?great?American, but that’s a separate post.

Honor your Time: Yes, it’s cliche, but true: time is our most important resource. We’re all going to die. Hopefully not until waaaaayyyyy in the future, but yeah, it’s going to happen. And when you think about it like that, you start to become protective of your time. Lunch with that person who’s kinda shitty to you? Nope. Endless hours on social media comparing your life to people you barely know? Not anymore.

Instead, focus on high-impact activities that help you learn and grow. And spend and invest time with close friends and family, research shows this?leads to a better and more fulfilling life.

Sure, there is no one right way to spend time, and maybe reading more books isn’t for you. But you can use the extra time you gain from limiting your phone time for writing, listening to music or podcasts, catching up with your grandma, traveling, or volunteering. When you unplug, the possibilities are endless.

And as you enter 2018, remember this wise old saying from a hilarious and young-(ish) woman who gave up her phone in the pursuit of happiness.

“I wish I had spent more time on Twitter,” said NO ONE EVER.

Jamie’s 2017 Book Tracker:

January?

1. Confessions of an Economic Hitman, by John Perkins

2. The Biography of Elon Musk, by Ashlee Vance

3. The Happiness Equation, by Neil Pasricha

4. Swing Time, by Zadie Smith

5. My Life on the Road, by Gloria Steinem

February

6. The Circle, by Dave Eggars

7. Evicted: Poverty + Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond

8. Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics, by Jonathan Chait

9. The Underground Railroad, by a Colson Whitehead

10. The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s + Farm Fields, by Traci McMillan

11. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, by Amy Schumer

12. Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen

March

13. Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks, by Nicholas Christakis

14. Bluets, by Maggie Nelson

15. Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austin

16. What it Takes, by Richard Ben Cramer

April

17. Originals, by Adam Grant

18. The Sleep Revolution, by Arianna Huffington

19. The Sellout, by Paul Beatty

20. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

21. Americanah, by Chimamanda Adichie

22. Shattered, by Amie Parnes and Jon Allen?

23. Sprint, by Jake Knapp

May

24. Option B, by Sheryl Sandberg & Adam Grant

25. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

26. The Upstarts, by Brad Stone

27. The Rules Do Not Apply, by Ariel Levy

28. The Bridge: The Life & Rise of Barack Obama, by David Remnick

June

29. A Long Way Gone, by Ismael Beah

30. Milk & Honey, by Rupi Kaur

31. The Red Pony, by John Steinbeck

32. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, by Steven Pinker

July

33. The Autobiography of Malcolm X

34. The Heart, by Maylis de Kerangal

35. Good Prose, by Tracy Kidder

36. The Man that Feeds the World: Norman Borlaug + His Battle to End World Hunger, by Leon Hesser

August

37. The Final Days: The Last Months of Nixon, by Bob Woodward + Carl Bernstein

38. Strength in What Remains, by Tracy Kidder

39. The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

40. Trail Fever, by Michael Lewis

41. Slouching Toward Bethlehem, by Joan Didion

42. Naked, Drunk, and Writing, by Adair Lara

43. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ingram Kendi

September

44. All Over But the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg

45. My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent

46. What Happened, by Hillary Rodham Clinton

47. A Truck Full of Money, by Tracy Kidder

48. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder

49. The Gatekeepers, by Chris Whipple

October

50. The Course of Love, by Alain de Bottom

51. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Harari

52. Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

53. The Boys on the Bus, by Timothy Crouse

54. Love Illuminated, by Daniel Jones

55. We Were Eight Years in Power, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

November

56. Between the World + Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

57. Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight

58. The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin

59. The Millionaire Next Door, by Tom Stanley and William Danko

60. On Writing Well, by William Zinsser

61. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng

62. Hacks, by Donna Brazile

63. Promise Me, Dad, by Joe Biden

December

64. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle

65. Catch 22, by Joseph Heller

66. Spy of the First Person, by Sam Shepard

67. The Beautiful Waters, by Angelo Nikolopoulos?

68. The Best and the Brightest, by David Halberstam

P.S. This post is dedicated to my dear friend Laurel, who taught me the importance of valuing and respecting my time and supported me as I made some much needed personal and professional changes. I needed the lesson.