Shelf

In early January, I wrote my Yearnotes review and noted that I’d failed the goal I had set myself to read fifteen books. I managed nine.  This diary must repeat itself about why I set a reading challenge every so often. But here I go (again?). 

It started in 2016 or 2017 when I worked for B. The team was constantly travelling and working across time zones, and in our annual staff survey, we often reported feeling that our work-life balance was misaligned. I had it relatively easy compared to some of my colleagues, so I had little to contribute when it was discussed in team meetings.  And, for the record, I must say that my colleagues were not complaining about the work-life balance; I think we all loved (most of) the work, the travel, and the collaboration with other offices. But when a survey asks if you feel the balance is good, you’re prompted to score it lower than other factors.

B addressed this by getting us each to commit to two personal things we’d do that favoured the life side of the work-life equation. We could pick anything, but we had to try. Most of us included the gym or exercise, and some of my colleagues added weeknight dinners with a spouse or a date night. I spent an hour commuting on a train daily, and I also felt that I’d lost something, as I read fewer books and spent more time staring at my phone during the commute. So, I decided that reading on five of my commutes each week was a goal. I counted each direction as a separate commute, so I only needed to read one way each day.  

Of course, we could have lied in our weekly meetings when we reported back. I don’t think anybody saw much point in that, and B spent a long time trying to get us to do the things we said in the hope that our work-life balance scores would improve in the next round. I think they did, but not enough.

The one habit I retained from that time was reading books. As last year’s stats show—and by the shelves of unread books in my line of sight every day when I work from home—I am not keeping up with it as I should, but some remnant of the habit remains.  Ironically, during the pandemic lockdowns, when I had more time to sit and read, I read almost nothing, and it’s taking me time to get back into the habit. But, I am grateful that nine or so years ago, I agreed to try to read a little bit more than I was doing. 

I will eventually get through all these books.