A Few Questions

[Charlie]

I'm in the middle of trying to build new habits and was wondering if you guys could help me out with some of them by answering a few questions.

How often do you read? How many books a month?

What time do you go to sleep? What time do you wake up? Has waking up earlier affected your work ethic/energy levels?

Cheers

[dylanamus]

Although it's something I'd like to change, I read about zero books a month. I get to bed about 11-12pm and rise at 7:30. If I'm lucky, I sleep straight through. I'm not usually lucky though. I read a lot of online resources - but I really do miss the fiction fantasy.

[hazmat]

First thing..changing life habits isn't simple. I struggle with this in various areas that I won't go into right now, but don't put too much pressure on yourself when initially attempting to make changes. Just do the best you can and keep working on it. If you start getting frustrated, take a step back, slow it down and start to move forward again. It's not easy. You're going to struggle.

To your direct question....reading; I read constantly. I have about 5 books going at any one time..people are different in this arena. You may never be able to read as much as you want, but if you can manage to take book to the can with you or to bed with you, you're going to get enough reading in to make you feel okay about "getting enough". And keep in mind, there's no such thing as "reading enough". There's only reading enough to make YOU feel like you've read enough. Don't base it on "books per month" or anything like that. You'll hit the doldrums in a heartbeat. Just pick something up and read it as you have time to read it...but get through it. Sometimes, just finishing any given book is enough to get you to and through the next one.

Sleep...again...I'm no fickler for when I get there or how. I "try" to be in my bed by about 9:30pm but it doesn't always work out. And sometimes, I take a book with me and end up not actually falling asleep until near 11:30ish. I have to be at my office by 7:30am, so I get up around 5:30ish, 6ish. I don't notice anything but an intermittent bit of irritability for the first couple of hours on SOME days..not all. I get good sleep, so far as I can tell. Don't sweat it unless you start going insomniac. If your concern is how it affects your training, I've noticed few ill effects. I just keep doing my thing and keep making gains.

[mjh]

I aim to be in bed before 11pm and out if it before 8am.

I'm a grad student so I don't read many books these days but I do read about a jillion articles and chapters. Back when I was working at a book store I'd get through 3/4 books a week, sometimes with several on the boil at once.

But a word to the wise: quality is as important as quantity in both these things. and as far as quality goes for books, I don't mean good books so much as good reading. My professor tells us he'd rather have us come to class having read one of the assigned readings in depth than having skimmed them all lightly.

Also, start keeping a reading journal. Not much, just jot down quotes that dazzle you, ideas that intrigue and the connections you make to other things you've read, seen, and thought. Maybe summarize your impression of the book atthe end of each one.

[hazmat]

I aim to be in bed before 11pm and out if it before 8am.

I'm a grad student so I don't read many books these days but I do read about a jillion articles and chapters. Back when I was working at a book store I'd get through 3/4 books a week, sometimes with several on the boil at once.

But a word to the wise: quality is as important as quantity in both these things. and as far as quality goes for books, I don't mean good books so much as good reading. My professor tells us he'd rather have us come to class having read one of the assigned readings in depth than having skimmed them all lightly.

Also, start keeping a reading journal. Not much, just jot down quotes that dazzle you, ideas that intrigue and the connections you make to other things you've read, seen, and thought. Maybe summarize your impression of the book atthe end of each one.

Good info there in bold. From time to time, when I've got a few going on at once, I do have to go back and re-read some stuff. I don't ever skim when I read but once in a while one of the books you've got cooking will be vastly better than the others and you tend to focus on it more than the others, thereby losing track of a few.