How Making Time for Books Made Me Feel Less Busy讀書計劃

By Hugh McGuire

1. podcast： 播客；The New Yorker： 《紐約客》，是美國一份知識、文藝類的綜合雜志；TED Talks： TED演講，TED是美國的一家私有非營利機構，該機構以它組織的TED大會著稱，TED代表Technology，Entertainment以及Design；Youtube： 是世界上最大的視頻網站；Buzzfeed： 是一個美國的新聞聚合網站，為用戶提供當天網上的最熱門事件；Harvard Business Review：《哈佛商業評論》，簡稱HBR，是哈佛商學院的標志性雜志。

2. abound： 大量存在，充滿。

3. 我在工作時分心，在與家人和朋友相處時分心，常常感到疲倦、煩躁，總是在對數字信息的不斷渴求所導致的巨大壓力中掙扎。distracted： 心煩意亂的，思想不集中的；irritable： 易怒的；ambient： 外界的，周圍的；induce： 引起，導致；itch： 渴望，強烈愿望。

4. bit： 比特（二進位制信息單位）；byte：（二進）位組，字節。

5. 我想知道書籍——這種相對緩慢的信息載體——能否作為一種解藥來緩解這源源不斷的新數字信息所帶來的壓力，正如蛇毒可以被用作生產治愈性的抗蛇毒素一樣。venom：（蛇、昆蟲等的）毒液；antivenom： 抗蛇毒素；antidote： 解毒藥。

6. dopamine： 多巴胺（大腦中控制肌肉正常運動的化學物質）。

7. neuroscientific： 神經科學的。

8. privilege： v. 給予……特權，使……優先于。

9. 新消息的到來，比如點擊郵箱刷新鍵或是推特新私信提醒，激發了大腦中神經遞質—— 多巴胺的釋放。spur： 促進，激勵；ding： 鈴聲，叮，指消息提醒的聲音；DM： direct message，相當于微博里的私信；trigger： 促發；neurotransmitter： 神經遞質。

10. wired：〈口〉非常興奮的。

11. 在此過程中有這樣一個學習循環——新信息+多巴胺=快樂，它鋪設了你的神經通路，“告知”你的大腦點擊刷新郵件會得到獎勵（即使這個獎勵不過是來自會計部戴夫的又一封郵件而已）。loop： 循環；accounting： 會計。

12. reinforce： 強化，深化。

13. tickle： 使高興，使滿足。

14. flit： 匆匆移動，掠過。

15. dictate： 影響，控制。

16. pop out： 跳出。

17. neurochemically： 神經化學地；deplete： 減少，削減。

18. glowing： 發光的；extinguish： 熄滅，撲滅。

19. wean： 使擺脫，使斷絕。

20. unplug： 拔掉……的插頭，此處指屏蔽數字信息。

21. crunch time： 關鍵時刻； overtaxed： 過度疲勞的。

22. Netflix： 奈飛公司，美國一家在線影片租賃提供商；mess around： 浪費時間。

23. wind-down： 逐漸減少，慢慢終止；block： 一段時間。

24. outrageously： 極不尋常地。

25. violate： 違反，違背。

26. insomnia： 失眠。

27. voluminous： 很多的，大量的。

Six months ago， I found myself drowning in a flood of easy information. The Internet—and all the lovely things on it， things like Wikipedia， Twitter， podcasts， The New Yorker， email， TED Talks， Facebook， Youtube， Buzzfeed occasionally， and yes， even the Harvard Business Review 1 —provide unlimited sources of delight at the touch of a finger.

The delight， indeed， abounds2. But its not always delightful. It comes with some suffering too. I was distracted when at work， distracted when with family and friends， constantly tired， irritable， and always swimming against a wash of ambient stress induced by my constant itch for digital information.3 My stress had an electronic feel to it， as if it was made up of the very bits and bytes on my screens.4 And I was exhausted.

I love books. And yet， I wasnt reading them. In fact， I couldnt read them. I tried， but every time， by sentence three or four， I was either checking email or asleep.

I started to wonder： could training myself to read books again help me manage the digital information stress in the rest of my life？ Could the cure for too much information be slower information？ In the same way that snake venom can be used to produce curative antivenom， I wondered whether that old， slower form of information delivery—books—could act as a kind of antidote to the stress caused by the constant flow of new digital information，5 whether my inability to sustain my focus—at work， home， and on reading books—could be cured by finding ways to once again sustain my focus…on a book.

Understanding Our Brains， Part 1： Dopamine6， pleasure， and learning bad habits

Recent neuroscientific7 research is starting to help us understand why we behave as we do with our modern information systems. Humans brains， it turns out， are built to privilege8 new information over just about anything else （including， some studies suggest， food）. The promise of that new information， spurred by， say， pressing the refresh button in your email， or the ding of a Twitter DM alert， triggers the release of a neurotransmitter—dopamine—in the brain.9 Dopamine makes us more alert to the promise of potential pleasure， and our brains are wired10 to seek out things that generate dopamine.

There is a learning loop to this process—new information + dopamine = pleasure—that lays down neural pathways that “teach” your brain that there is a reward for pressing the email refresh button （even if that reward is nothing but another message from Dave from accounting）.11

This loop is reinforced12 every time you watch a second， third， or fifth， cat video on Facebook. And its a very hard loop to break. Its almost—almost—as if hundreds of billions of dollars of engineering and product design have gone into building the perfect machine for keeping us distracted； the perfect system to tickle13 certain wiring in how our brains are set up.

Understanding Our Brains， Part 2： the energy costs of flitting14 around

While the addictive attraction of new information is one side of the problem， the other side is the cost of jumping from one thing to the next and back again.

The typical human brain is about 2% of the bodys weight， but it consumes in the range of 20% of the energy， according to neuroscientist Daniel Levitin. What the brain is doing dictates15 how much or how little energy it consumes： when you are relaxing or staring out the window， your brain is “at rest，” and uses around 11 calories per hour. Focused reading for an hour will use up around 42 calories. But processing lots of new information takes around 65 calories per hour. And jumping from topic to topic is worse.

Every time you pop out16 of your work to read an email， it costs you not just time， but energy too. As Levitin says： “People who organize their time in a way that allows them to focus are not only going to get more done， but theyll be less tired and less neurochemically depleted after doing it.”17

So what do we do？

My workday is tied to fast digital information： a keyboard， a big glowing screen， an Internet connection， data in and data out， crises to handle， fires to extinguish.18 While I can make some changes to how I approach that workday， its almost impossible for me， for most of us， to escape the digital flows of information during working hours. For me its been more effective to start weaning19 myself from digital inputs during my life outside of work.

Ive used “reading books again” as the focus of my efforts—to unplug20 from the flow of digital information， and reconnect with that slower kind of information， the kind I used to get so much pleasure from.

Ive settled on three hard rules that achieve two things： they get me reading books again， and they give my brain a break from constant digital overload. Here are my three rules to read again：

1. I get home from work， I put away my laptop （and iPhone）. This was probably the scariest change—there is an expectation that we are always on， always connected for work. But， for me， there are very few emails that arrive at 10：15 p.m. （or 8：15 p.m.） that need to be answered right away. There are crunch times when I need to work in the evenings， but in general having a clear， well-rested mind when I start my work in the morning is far more valuable than having an overtaxed，21 exhausted mind from too many emails the previous night.

2. After dinner during the week， I dont watch Netflix or TV， or mess around on the Internet.22 This is probably the change that has had the biggest impact. That hour or two of post-dinner wind-down is， for me， the only real free block of time in my day.23 So， once kids are in bed， dishes cleaned， I no longer even ask the question； I just get out my book and start reading. Often in bed. Sometimes at an outrageously24 early hour. I thought this change would be most difficult， but its been the easiest. Making time to read again has been a real pleasure. （And I enjoy the TV I do watch more than ever.）

3. No glowing screens in the bedroom （Kindle is OK， though）. This was my first move away from digital overload， and even if I cheat on the other rules occasionally， this is the one rule I never violate25. Not having a connected iPhone or iPad by my bedside means I am no longer tempted to check email at 3：30 in the morning， or visit Twitter at 5 a.m. when I wake up too early. Instead， in those moments of insomnia26 or an early wake up， I reach for my book （and usually fall right back to sleep）.

Following these three rules has made a huge impact on my life. I have more time—since I am no longer constantly chasing the next byte of information. Reading books again has given me more time to reflect， to think， and has increased both my focus and the creative mental space to solve work problems. My stress levels are much lower， and energy levels up.

Managing the flows of digital information in the workplace， and in our personal lives， is going to be an ongoing challenge for all of us in the years and decades to come. Digital information flows will get faster and more voluminous27. The Internet is just a couple of decades old， and weve only had smartphones for less than 10 years.

We are still learning how to live in this information ecosystem， and how to build the ecosystem for humans rather than for the information. We will get better at it—as humans， and as builders of technology. And in the mean time， reading books again will help.