I’ve Stopped Reading for a Week
Can the act of reading less actually yield better results for creativity?
My world is beautifully decorated with words. I love waking up and reading Medium articles and an occasional outside post. I love scrolling Instagram and reading captions during breaks at work. When I drive, I’m usually listening to a really good audiobook. In short, I’m a reading addict.
This is why the idea of taking a week away from reading took me by complete surprise. You mean I’ll have to listen to music on the way to work, entertain myself without the escapism of fiction and give up reading on Medium for seven solid days… say it isn't so. Especially not when I’m working every day this week. Yep… that was the suggestion.
I’ve been working my way through The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. Week four contains the idea of stopping the inflow of ideas by taking a break from reading. She claims that by not reading we begin to generate more ideas and get creative in other areas of life.
I’m one who loves a challenge. My ears perk up by the words “wouldn’t it be crazy if…”. When I hear of a challenge way outside my comfort zone or that someone thinks would be too hard my response is “tell me more”. I’m also the girl who has read 120 books this year but can rarely come up with an idea she thinks is worthwhile to write or post about.
This challenge is going to hard. However, from 7 am on Monday the 30th, I’m consigned to not reading anyone else’s work and seeing what happens on the creative front. It’s something that I don’t know if I can do it but if it actually opens the floodgates to writing, I think it’s worth a chance.
So what’s included and what isn’t:
- reading physical books is out
- reading social media postings is out
- reading Medium is out
- reading audiobooks is out
What’s Not Out:
- I can look at photos on Instagram
- I can open essential emails
- I’m giving myself a pass for youtube videos- but only 1–2 a day.
I have no idea where this challenge is going to take me. Will it force me to put more fingers to keyboards? I’ve tried a few “no” projects before. A few years ago, I survived 19 days with only an hour on my phone except for side hustles (it taught me the essentials of using the phone for only crucial purposes and made me cranky when I went past a 10-minute conversation). I’ve also gone for months without spending money on anything but essentials this year which allowed me to pay off a credit card.
But, to quit reading altogether? I’m worried that I’ll seem like a jerk for not reading other people’s work (I promise to catch up when I come back). I’m worried that I’ll be bored and hate every minute of it.
I need to take a chance to be more creative and ideally, write better. So here I go.
