One Trick to Power Up Your Workweek

What if I told you that doing this even for a half an hour a day could reduce your stress by two-thirds, help you live two years longer than people who don’t do this, help prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, make it easier to fall and stay asleep, increase your empathy (a key trait for leaders in the 21st century), and develop your thinking skills?

Would you do it? All the above benefits have been proven through scientific research; they’re not just anecdotal beliefs from avid practitioners such as myself. 

Do you think you could stop scrolling social media or binge-watching whatever for just half an hour a day to get all those advantages? Does it make sense to you? Do you think that half hour a day would be worth it for all those benefits?

Really?

Then why aren’t you reading books?

Read books to improve your productivity

Yes, you do have to read (not listen) to get these advantages. That’s because a lot of them stem from the ability to get lost in the book and shake off reality for a little while. Getting involved in the story relieves you from anxious thoughts and pulls you into a different state of consciousness while keeping reality at bay.

Maybe you’re thinking that you can’t get lost in the story when you’re reading nonfiction. (Even if it is as well-written, thought-provoking, and interesting as my book The Rebel’s Guide to Getting $hit Done.) And that could very well be true, which means that you need to read books with stories you can get lost in.

Usually that means reading fiction. I like the mystery/thriller genre, but there are a ton of other worlds to explore: sci-fi, romance, fantasy, literary fiction, and all kinds of other genres.

The ability to lose yourself in the story is why audiobooks don’t work if you want to destress. A big reason people listen to audiobooks is that they can do something else while listening: driving, errands, chores, exercising, or whatever. You can’t get lost in what the story’s about when you’re also doing something else. 

Audiobooks also don’t help you sleep better, because you end up with screens at bedtime. That is the exact opposite of how to get more and better sleep. Most sleep experts are pretty firm about giving up screens at least an hour before bed. You can get e-readers that don’t emit the blue light that interferes with sleep the way other screens do. Or you could read a paperback or hardback.

Read books to sharpen critical thinking

With all the digital distractions and short posts on the internet, it’s pretty common to feel like you’ve lost the ability to focus on longer narratives. It’s not necessarily that you have ADHD, but you live in a distracted world. Sitting down to read, maybe with your favorite beverage, gives you time to be absorbed in something interesting. 

Again, audiobooks don’t work in your favor here. Too easy to let your eyes wander to something else and lose focus. Get comfy and read something interesting.

Reading is good for your brain, and (say it with me) if it’s good for the brain, it’s good for productivity. Because reading is like a brain workout and keeps your mind active, you’re less likely to see cognitive decline,including Alzheimer's disease and dementia, later in life. Listening does not give your brain the same workout.

Reading helps improve your critical thinking skills. And in this day and age, being able to think for yourself gives you a HUGE advantage over others who don’t.

Strong leaders are readers

I know a lot of business owners think they “should” or “ought” to be reading biographies of successful people, or history books, or self-help books, or business books. I read (some of) these too, and of course, if any of these are your jam, have at it!

But if you’re not reading because you don’t find the books you “should” be reading interesting, I hereby give you permission to ignore them and read fiction because it makes you a better leader.

Let me be clear: there is one benefit to reading fiction that you do NOT get from non-fiction. That’s the ability to develop more empathy, and you build that through reading fiction because you’re stepping into another person’s shoes. (Or multiple people if there are multiple narrators.) 

Despite a certain political party’s desire to make the world as cruel and empathy-free as possible, in the real world empathy is a desired trait for leaders. Command-and-control leadership, at least in the corporate world, is out and inspiring your people to follow you is in. 

Not to mention it’s also a lot cheaper to retain your talent than to search, hire, and onboard new personnel, so business owners want to retain their skilled people for as long as they can. Do you think smart, skilled people want a leader who tells them what to do, or a leader who works with them to create the best work environment possible?

I should note here that the link between building empathy and reading is strongest with literary fiction, which you can think of as the kind of book that gets reviewed in something like the New Yorker or the NYTimes Book Review. The link is not as strong for genre fiction (mystery/thriller, romance, sci-fi, etc.) 

That’s generally attributed to the more complex psychological issues that literary fiction tends to explore. Though since I love mysteries, I would make the case that the more psychological (e.g., dark) genre books would suffice, but I don’t have research to back that up.

You don’t have to read alone if you don’t want to. There are all kinds of book clubs, in person and online, where you can discuss books and be with other like-minded people. (Having said that, the two books in my life that I hated the most – the kind, as someone once said, that should not be set aside lightly but should be thrown with great force – I read for book clubs.)

And speaking of leadership… what about your kids, if you have them? Do you think they spend too much time on their phones? Do you want your kids to read more books? Then you have to set the example of setting aside time for reading. 

The quote isn’t “Monkey hear, monkey do” but “Monkey see, monkey do”. If you tell them they need to get off their phones but you spend your time on yours – especially when you’re home with your kids – they’re not going to become readers.

I’m an avid reader and so were both of my parents. We had books all over the place. I remember going to the neighbor’s house to babysit and being absolutely shocked that there were no books in the living room. I don’t even think they had magazines. 

My parents didn’t have to encourage me to read. To be fair, at the time we didn’t have smartphones or tablets or laptops, so I think it must have been easier back then to get kids reading anyway.

If it’s been a long time since you read a book for pleasure, think back to the kinds of stories you liked as a kid, or that you like now. For example, I haven’t seen the show The White Lotus but it seems to be a satire of the wealthy, and you can definitely find books that love to show the dysfunction behind the dough. They’re especially popular at the moment in the mystery genre.

Or you can find books about good people gone bad due to poverty and outside pressures (which I think, not having seen the show, is the premise of Breaking Bad). Yellowstone fan? Try Westerns (I assume that’s what the show is about.) 

Dudes are popularly supposed to not be into reading but there are so, so many books about war and they tend to be written by dudes too. Hate Goop and the whole white-woman-wellness shtick? There are horror and mystery books that skewer the beauty business.

You get the picture. Whatever themes are speaking to you right now in the culture, whether it’s online or on TV, you can find in a book to keep you captivated. 

Happy reading.

Recap (tl;dr):

Reading is good for business owners and can help with a lot of issues we face. If you’re not sure what to read, look for clues in what you enjoy watching or liked reading as a kid.

My newsletter goes out twice a month, and the month-end newsletter includes the books that month that I gave a 4 or 5 star review to. Some months it’s one or two books, and some months there are more. 

I also give additional productivity tips, so if you want to sign up for the newsletter (plus get your free chronotype quiz), click here to be added to the list.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash.