I’m not a fan of
resolutions, but I do know one thing I’m planning to do in 2013: not read so
many dang books. I read a lot when I have tiny babies, especially since with an
iPad and Kindle, turning pages while trapped under a baby is easy. Last year I had time
to read in the middle of the night (thanks, Paul!) and time to read while
pumping at work (3x a day at 20 minutes each is an HOUR per day I was reading
at work!) I set a goal of reading 100 books in 2012 and by June I was blowing
that goal out of the water. I think I was at 71 already.
I figured to make my goal
relevant again, I’d just re-set it. Half of the year left = read 50 more books.
So I changed my goal to 120 and suddenly found out that since Paul had just
turned one, reading wasn’t going so smoothly. I was spending much more time picking
up after my (walking!) one-year-old than sitting on the couch nursing. Thomas
started handling a lot of the night wakeups (yay for Daddy!). I no longer
pumped at work. A little over 8 books a month started to seem like a…lot. (As a
comparison, I read seventeen books in May.)
By the time November and
December rolled around, reading was a big struggle for me. After 102 books already
that year, I was pretty sick of reading. I wanted to watch TV. Page through a
magazine. Anything but look at the stack of library books taunting me. I wanted
to stop thinking about how 11/22/63 should totally count as 4 books and how my
goal had turned into “read 120 books I can review on Goodreads,” meaning the
five I couldn’t didn’t count.* (So, yes, I read one hundred and twenty-five books in 2012.)
I considered dropping the
goal back to 100 and saying ‘done!’ I just couldn’t. I set this wacky goal and
I was GOING TO MEET IT. No matter how much it made me hate reading! (Not
counter-productive at all!) I did meet my goal, on December 30th and
was very relieved to be done with it. Now reading is for pleasure again,
instead of feeling like homework. We’re eight days into 2013 and I’ve only
finished ONE book. It’s so nice to have permission (from myself) to read one
chapter before bed and have that be IT for the whole day. I think I’ve
established that meaningless goals are probably not a good thing for me.
Resolve to be a better parent? That’s a good thing. Resolve to spend all my
free time doing one thing? Not so much.
*Three were books I just couldn’t admit to reading where anyone on
earth could see. (Guess what they were!) (NOT IN MY COMMENTS SECTION.) The
fourth was the beta version of the Office Crush book and the fifth was a book
written by a relative of mine that I really don’t want to review.
I had SO MUCH TIME to read when I was pumping. It was fabulous. And then last year, no time. Although I did read some crap books trying to get to 100.
ReplyDeleteI'm going with one book a week this year.
I'm glad you made it! (And I'm also glad now you can let yourself off the darn hook.) Yay!
ReplyDeleteYou sound like me - I am struggling to just complete my 101 in 1001 to the point that it's not fun anymore. I can't imagine doing 120 in 365! This is why I tend to do the 80/20 rule with goals - if I get 80% there, I call it good. I figure that's better than I would do if I didn't set a goal in the first place.
ReplyDeleteSO impressive Jessica! I find that the older my kids get, the less I read. Which means I guess I'm sitting still less? Or getting a more exciting life?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the former rather than the latter!