Last week, I wrote about the importance of doing a little every day to build momentum over time. The post referenced several examples of tasks where there will be benefits from spending just 10 minutes per day on them.

Linked to this, I stumbled upon this quote a couple of days ago – a favourite of mine which I haven’t seen in a while – and it made me realise how vitally important it is to ensure at least one (preferably more) of those daily 10-minute tasks needs to be something you love.

I adore reading. It’s one of my favourite pastimes. I’ll maintain until the day I die that I’ve learned far more from books than I ever learned at school. I’ve loved reading since I was a kid and my dad took me to Bolton Library every 4 weeks so I could take out another 10 books (the maximum at that time) on a wide array of subjects – fiction and non-fiction. I loved that whole new worlds were at my fingertips if I just took a little time to sift through the dozens and dozens of shelves in front of me (it saddens me when I see how few books are found in children’s libraries these days though I’ll save that rant for another day…). It’s a love I’ve carried into adulthood.

Yet I’m reading less and less these days and that bothers / frustrates / angers me.

Here we are, almost two-thirds of the way through 2023, and I’m in the middle of my third book of the year.

3 books. In 8 months.

I should be reading 3 books every month…

And it’s the same old bullsh*t excuse every time I question myself on this. Life is too busy currently. Work is intense. There’s too much to do…

Also, those tasks which I aim to spend 10 minutes per day on are a mixture of things I love and more typical ‘to-do’ list tasks. Tasks which I need to get done on a frequent basis. Yes, reading is on my daily reminder list, though it’s at the bottom of the list. Which means it nearly always doesn’t get done. The other tasks take priority and consume my time. Other important issues crop up and take up my time instead.

What a load of tripe.

All I need to do is find 10 minutes to read each day. I can do that with ease if I shut my laptop off or put my phone out of reach. I could get up 10 minutes earlier each day and read before starting work. I could read during my lunch break. I could certainly find 10 minutes each evening if I just pick up a book, head to a quiet space and focus on nothing else. It’s eminently doable on the vast majority of days, and yet I have this ridiculous voice inside my head telling me everything else is a priority, when I know that blatantly isn’t true.

So, that’s the new priority for me. At least 10 minutes (hopefully more…) every single day to read. I need to be reading 20-30 books per year minimum – not 4 or 5.

Are you in a similar position regarding something you love? Are you not spending as much time on a treasured pastime as you’d like? Does that leave you frustrated / angry? If so, try to change it today. Life is too short to push the things we love to one side in favour of the other crap which society will have us believe is vitally important but isn’t in the grand scheme of things.

As always, thanks for reading and take care.

Best wishes.

Mick