Ricardo Sanchez

Back in January, I decided to start writing on a logbook. The idea was to make it easier for me to write down things I thought were important about my day. Think of it as a minimalist version of a diary or journal.

The fact is, I haven’t been keeping up with it as I wanted. The first two months, I did it every day, it worked. But then I left my logbook in my backpack, and I didn’t write on it for over a month!

Why haven’t I been keeping up with it? Well, it is a new thing, and I didn’t spend enough time on it to help it become a habit. I know this because I’ve read The Power of Habit book by Charles Duhigg but haven’t applied what I’ve learned about it. At least not yet.

Another one of my habits that has stopped being one is reading at least one book every month. I’ve been doing this for a while, but this habit stopped being one since the middle of last year. I need to get back on it. I enjoy reading books and everything that comes with it.

I stopped reading at least one book every month because I replaced this good habit with another one, streaming content and social media. That’s right, with everything that was happening last year, COVID-19, the elections, police brutality, etc., I found it easier to watch the news, social media, and streaming content than to read books. What a waste of my time.

I did not come to this realization on my own. I knew I was spending more time than ever on social media and streaming content. Still, I didn’t do anything about it until I read this post by Om, where he mentions a video by Max Joseph showing us beautiful bookstores and, more importantly, an easy-to-follow method to read more books.

Reading books is something I enjoy, but with so much content available these days, it’s hard not to get distracted by it. I am going back to my reading habit, I’ll start by reading for 30 minutes to an hour each day, and the logbook, well, I’ve been writing on it every day again for about a week now. It feels good.