Reading is Fundamental (For Productivity)
When was the last time you dropped into a physical book? Not one that you listened to, but actually physically opened up and read? Has it been a while?
Reading is one of those “unproductive productivity” specialties that isn’t work. You do it in your downtime, but it helps you refill your productivity tank so you’re recharged for the next day at the office.
Jul 30 is National Paperback Book Day, and you know me – if there’s a day to celebrate it, that’s a great day to do it!
There are plenty of other things to do in your downtime besides reading. You probably spend quite a bit of it in front of the TV and/or computer screen. You already know that’s not optimal, from either a health perspective or a productivity one.
And yet, very few adults are willing to shut down the screen a half hour early to read. If you think reading is boring, you probably haven’t been reading the right books for you. Or you don’t allow yourself to get into the book. Or both!
I’ve found some research about books that might make you more willing to carve that half hour out…
You don’t have to read non-fiction books to be more productive in the workplace
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think a lot of people don't make time for reading because they think in order to get the benefits of reading, the book has to be non-fiction (NF). And a lot of these books are dry as dust, so I get it.
You might think you need to read the following in order to benefit from reading:
Books about business in general
Books specifically about your industry
Self-help/self improvement
Biographies, especially of successful people
Books that Tackle Important Topics of the World Today
I’m not telling you not to read these books. After all, my own book on productivity is coming out later this year! (Toot toot my horn.)
I myself read quite a few business and self-improvement books, as long as I’m interested in the specific topic and/or I’m a huge fan of the author.
However, at the end of a long day, these types of books are probably not what you really need to relax or feel like you’re getting a little escapism. If these are the books you think you SHOULD be reading, then it’s completely understandable why you’re not. I don’t usually dive into something like that when I’m reading at night.
To get the benefits of reading, here’s what you need to read:
Books in genres that you genuinely enjoy or authors you know you like
Seriously, that’s it. There are benefits to reading (including productivity) that you actually don’t need to be reading Very Serious Books to access. Plus, little-known fact: there are some benefits that you will NOT get from reading Very Serious Books.
In other words, just because there’s no stated learning objective in the book you’re reading doesn’t mean you aren’t benefiting from it.
I do enjoy reading books in my field, but aside from those, I like a lot of fiction. Here’s what I mostly read:
Mystery/Thriller: the darker and more psychological, the better. I do still read “cozies” but much more rarely these days.
Horror: I’ve always been a Stephen King fan, and the older he gets the more I like his stuff. Horror from other authors is something I only really started to get into once my mom was at the end of her life. The funny thing is I don’t believe in monsters, cryptids, ghosts, or any kind of paranormal or supernatural entity. The better examples of this genre may contain monsters, but they’re not really about the monsters.
Spy: These are books I also came to later in life. I got started with le Carre but there are lots of other excellent writers in the genre, and more written by women as well.
Satire: I’m a sucker for it. I really loved Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle (you should really check him out), which is also a horror story.
Literary fiction (occasionally): one of my absolute favorite books is by a Polish author, Olga Tokarczuk, called Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I literally giggled with delight at the end.
Reading, not listening, will help you improve productivity
Listening to a book is not the same as reading one. They use some of the same brain areas, but not entirely. I’ve heard people say there’s no difference, but if that’s true, then why can children have a book read to them when they’re toddlers and comprehend it, but it takes a few years more for them to be able to read it? If reading and listening were the same, then you wouldn’t need additional time to learn to read.
That being said, I don’t think listening to books is “cheating”. It’s not reading, but it is listening. I don’t think listening to a book is a bad thing when you’re trying to catch up on a book for your book club, or if you want to listen to something while you’re working out or doing chores.
However, when it comes to being more productive in the workplace, you do need to read a physical book and not listen to it. You can use an ereader like a Kindle if you want, but listening to a book for this purpose will not work.
Why do you have to read and not listen?
Because when you’re listening, you are also doing something else. I don’t know anyone who just listens to a book. Normally people are on the treadmill, or doing some chores around the house, or driving. There’s some other activity going on when you listen to an audiobook.
For the purposes of helping you recharge and get more done, your brain needs to be able to focus on one thing at a time. When you’re really reading a physical book, you can’t do anything else. Your hands are holding it and your eyes are on the page.
That’s also why it has to be a book that’s genuinely interesting to you. An engaging book will help you stay in the story so you don’t get as distracted by whatever else there is around you to do.
If you’ve spent the past few years tethered to your cellphone and constantly being distracted by notifications, then this is not going to be easy. You might need to start off easy, maybe 15 minutes or so to begin.
Lots of contemporary books have extremely short chapters of a few pages. It drives me bananas, but might be good if you haven’t been reading for a while. That way you can actually finish a chapter without getting too distracted, so you’ll feel you’ve accomplished something.
Physical books also have the benefits of emitting no light whatsoever, so you can read them before bed without worrying about blue light keeping you up. But if it’s a great book you might have a hard time putting it down!
A Kindle that you can put on night mode will work. People who have dyslexia or similar reading issues often find that it’s easier on a Kindle where you can increase the font size and do some other things to make reading less difficult and more enjoyable.
Reading has other benefits as well
The studies I’ve found are mostly done on physical books, so listening may not give you the same benefits. Similarly, a reading device might not give you the same benefits.
People who read live longer than people who don’t (!)
Reading is a mental workout, which can help you stay sharper in old age and also helps prevent Alzheimer’s disease
Fiction specifically (you don’t get this benefit if you only read NF) helps you develop more empathy, because you’re standing in someone else’s shoes – and currently solid EQ, including empathy, is high on the list of necessary skills for leaders
Reduces stress – hey, you’re reading about someone else’s problems!
I kept the list of advantages to the ones that most affect adult readers but there are some additional advantages for kids - bigger vocabularies, for one. If you do have kids of a certain age, seeing you read will encourage them to read as well.
Those are advantages that you most definitely do not get from sitting in front of screens. Give yourself a fun productivity boost that improves your health too – by just picking up a book.
Recap (tl;dr)
Reading is FUNdamental as long as you go with books that you enjoy. Listening is not the same as reading, and does not give you the same benefit when it comes to productivity. Plus, there are additional benefits when you shut off screens to spend more time with a book.
Are you overwhelmed with everything you have to do, or constantly find your attention is being pulled hither and yon? I can help you develop your focus so you can accomplish more in a single day no matter what’s going on. Schedule your free consultation here.