I finished a book.

Many of you are saying the following: "Ok, so what...I have done that many times." Here is the reason this is a big deal for me. Since finishing school I have completed maybe 3, now 4 thanks to this latest one (which took roughly 5 months for me to get through). In 18 years I have read 4 books FOUR! Horrific stats. That's OK though, gotta start building somewhere. My goal is to finish 1 new book a month for the next 6 months. Gotta pump those numbers up!

Being in the age range of a "millennial" (note: I consider myself more from the Oregon trail generation instead). Born into the computer world, I was using one daily by the time I was 4 (commodore 64 FTW). Being used to the fast paced world of computing, sitting down for a long period of time, and not clicking through hundreds of items seems like a total bore-fest. However, as times change, and I start to do some self-reflection, I came to the conclusion that I need to commit some time away from screens. Recently the need to find the next funny/cool/interesting thing on the internet does not seem to get satisfied, and this is most likely due to Digital Burnout. I have now made a decision to limit my time spent online.

The best thing about finally making that commitment is how free you start to feel. I sit in the evening now, and either go through my thoughts, or pick up the book I am working through. I find that my evening stress levels are lower when I am not constantly looking for that next hit of dopamine from my phone or PC. I thought it was all non-sense when people would say that reading in the evening helps to relax you. Take it from a previous non-believer: I was wrong. Instead of dwelling on the missed time, the plan now is to move forward, and make the best use of my evenings to learn as much as possible.

So linkedin friends..... What should I read next? Got a good suggestion? If so, leave a comment. I am thinking of reading: Ben Franklin's Biography.

Also, do you keep track of what you have read? If so, how?