Dynamites in Small 15 Min Packages

In June 2018, the commutation chaos entered my blissful life. From an era wherein, my work at Microsoft was 14 minutes either by car or by walk, it had moved to the heart of the heaviest traffic zone in Bangalore- the infamous Bellandur. After a few months of denial, reality finally dawned that I needed to find my "forced" happiness despite the unpredictability and the wasted hours of travel. Being a reasonably optimistic person, I decided to get better of this demon in my head.

This blog is *not* about the many odd things that I did to make these travels exciting (that's for another day), this is for "one" of those which finally grew on me to become an active friendly ally app in my life.

The 13 Page Syndrome: Here's a little background of my life in the last 20 years.  Striving to perennially strike that esoteric work-life balance, being a mother of 2 teenage kids, I always had a "13 page syndrome" in my life ! Now, here's what this syndrome was- I would start reading books and go upto 13 pages, only to restart those after a few days again to read the same 13 and finally give up not proceeding beyond the famed 13 after a few attempts. These books would go with me to my flights every week, only to be left behind in the pockets of the seats. I even made a few valiant attempts to retrieve them from the airlines. My kids started putting a book- mark on the 13th and that was quite a joke in the family.

The FOMO Dilemma: To make matters worse, I had my husband, who would sink in books and with his indulgent reading habits, he did one-book-a-week. And I got the creeping feeling of losing out on all interesting titles and the book clubs discussions. I made a resolution of a book a fortnight, which went to a book a month, but the needle did not even start. To top it all, I read the article "The President Who Doesn't Read". That was the trigger to an action to alienate myself from the league of the Trump and of course get out of my Fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) dilemma.

Being an Addict: Over the years, if there was one thing that I can be called an addict for, No! it's not video games, Netflix, Instagram or Twitter. It's been listening to Podcasts. Even as a runner, I realized that I indulged myself in content more than music. I would be listening to BBC podcasts, NDTV Live, skipping the newspaper. The repertoire of my Podcast shows was quite strong. In fact, I had switched loyalties to Apple phone simply because of this. And then one day, I got a few adverts of this amazing phenomena called "Blinkist" which would change your world with its array of 3K + non- fiction titles. Now let me tell you that with the gene of a salesperson in my life, I trivialize these claims enormously first. But I decided to take a plunge, with the book- bug biting me hard. 

An App which Grew on you: As I started, I first decided to experiment with some titles I had read. Uh-hmmm….they left me with a void too fast and too suddenly after 15 minutes. I still had my list of books that I had marked to read, but just didn't have the time to check out. So I decided to try the recommended books of Bill Gates, the New York Times top list etc. And thus the listening began. Autobiographies were my favorites, followed by books on History and a wide range of "Life Hack" topics. Beyond a point, people give up management and self- help books because of the much -too- obvious truths and you stop getting an AHA. However, 15 minutes was the deal maker. That kept your interest, focus and curiosity peaked.

The Blinkist Array: With my new found sense of accomplishment, I would build up the library with a running list of 20 titles or more. What started for me as a "cheat" way of reading these books, quickly turned into a curiosity to learn about a wide array of topics ranging across Creativity, Brain & Psychology, Start up & Entrepreneurship, Society, Managing Kids, Philanthropy, Heath & Diet, Mindfulness, Minimalistic Living, Mortality, Science & Technology, etc. Depending on the mood of the day, I'd pick up a topic and a book to read. I would listen to these on my run, on the tread-mill, my office drive, doing chores at home, at times to rejuvenate myself during the day . I must confess, that the app has been my Man Friday savior before quite a few of my talks, panel discussions as well as open forum sessions with large audiences. It's indeed the simplest way to look at pointers and then assimilate your own thoughts on any topic. 

My Personal High: So what's my frequency of these Blinks? Frankly, I don't have any goal that I run with. At times, I go through the book a couple of times- just to internalize the facts and get a mental image. Currently, I've done about 225 Blinkist Titles. The good part is that you realize that even in 15 minutes, there are anecdotes, facts and figures, characters, an ethos of the book that you can get. There's an AHA which I would at times note, reflect and narrate to others. It's fun!

As a closing note, I'd say, there's a world of people like me, who are strapped with time constraints and still having a guilt of not reading enough. This could be a great way to kick those woes away.

And remember, if you get out of the time struggle, relish reading it all. But for now, indulge in a dynamite boost!