Not so long ago I took a subscription to download and read e-books. After the first book that I finished I got some statistics. One of them shocked me: the average duration of a reading session for this book, was 9 minutes. So for only 9 minutes in a row on average I would read the book and then put it away and do something else. I know I switch a lot between books, as I always read several books at the same time. But 9 minutes…
I wondered how I used to do all the reading for my PhD thesis in the past. Every researcher does a thorough literature research and I was not different. I remembering sitting in my office at the university, reading all these articles (printed on paper, how bad) and drinking loads of tea. Once in a while I would get up, chat with my colleagues, go to the washrooms and read again. Why (and how?) was I able to do this at that time, to focus on reading, and why am I no longer able to do this now? Or am I romanticizing my picture of the past and was I as easily distracted as I am these days?
One big difference is that at that time (1993-1998), Internet wasn’t so ‘interesting’, full with information, news in so many shapes (like Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and so on). Plus I came from doing my Master’s, which also involved lots of reading and concentrating on pieces of text.
Distraction, (lack of) focus, task switching – these are recurring topics, for me but also in the many books and blogs that I read. The metric in the e-book was a good reminder for me to stop doing all these things that I know are very unproductive. I like the Pomodoro technique, because I think this came close to my way of working during my PhD time. Basically, using a pomodoro-shaped kitchen timer, you work/study/read for 25 minutes uninterrupted and then take a short break. After a few pomodoros you’ll take a longer break. It’s a simple method and it works well, as long as you turn off all distraction (which is a good idea in itself). This way I should be able to get a higher average for reading duration on my next book!