I’m a spreadsheet individual. Over the previous 5 years, my studying spreadsheet has slowly grown from two tabs (cheap) to…anticipate it…16 tabs (nonetheless cheap in the event you’re a knowledge nerd). This considerably alarming tab progress is partly as a result of numerous yearly studying challenges I take part in, or yearly studying targets I set myself. I wish to have a spot to maintain observe of these items. And whereas I like images of different folks’s attractive studying journals, I’ve by no means been in a position to hold one up myself. When it involves monitoring my studying, I’m a charts-and-formulas individual. I’ve accepted it, and, as my 16 tabs show, embraced it.
One of my favourite studying traditions is the time I spend between Christmas and New Years reflecting on the 12 months’s studying, pouring over all my charts and stats, and constructing my new studying spreadsheet. This previous December, I began making my 2023 studying spreadsheet as typical. For the previous few years I’ve set myself just a few yearly challenges deigned to information and encourage my studying. One of them is my annual “Gems from the Shelves” problem, which is a reminder for me to learn books I already personal, i.e. that didn’t come into my home in 2023. For the previous two years, I’ve set the aim at 100, and I’ve by no means met it, however that isn’t the level, actually. A tab in my studying spreadsheet is mainly an intention. The thought isn’t to finish the aim — merely naming the aim retains it in the forefront of my thoughts.
I’ve just a few different yearly challenges like this — one is to learn 50 books by disabled writers, and one other is to learn 50 books by Indigenous authors. Again, I’ve by no means accomplished both of these challenges. I do learn lots, however I purposely make these targets lofty. I’m a spreadsheet individual, sure, however my studying spreadsheet has by no means felt like pointless strain to me. The targets information my studying, and my studying life is richer as a result of of it. The numbers don’t actually matter.
So as I used to be creating the new tabs for 2023 in my spreadsheet, I began to marvel why I had began making annual challenges in the first place. If the level of these targets and challenges will not be about studying a sure quantity of books, then why does the timeframe matter? If making a spreadsheet tab is actually a concrete reminder that I like and worth Indigenous lit, and wish to prioritize it, why trouble making a brand new record every year?
This change in how I take into consideration studying targets got here into even sharper focus after I made a tab for one more problem I’m doing this 12 months, the 10 Books 10 Decades Challenge hosted by @reggiereads on Instagram. The thought is straightforward and likewise sort of superb: learn ten books from ten totally different a long time. I’m very enthusiastic about it, and my pleasure is mirrored in the tab I made to trace it:
I acquired so excited setting this up that my preliminary record of potentialities contained not ten, however 21 books! The problem has already modified my studying life for the higher. Alexis and Harlem Shadows had been two of the greatest books I learn in January. I’ve fallen head-over-heels for twentieth century queer lit. I don’t know what number of of these books I’ll learn this 12 months — perhaps ten, perhaps 12, perhaps all 21! What I do know is that this type of studying — deep backlist — goes to turn into a staple of my studying life. I’m not planning on making a brand new tab for this problem in 2024. I’m simply going to repeat this one over, and hold including to it, 12 months after 12 months. It can be a wonderful file of this lifelong studying journey.
Once I began pondering this fashion, it was like a dam broke free in my mind and I simply…went for it. Without any timeframe constraints, I got here up with so many extra concepts, so many studying tasks I had by no means dared to place into my spreadsheet as a result of I knew finishing them in a single 12 months could be not possible. I do know I mentioned I’ve by no means accomplished any of my yearly targets earlier than, and that’s true, however they’ve at all times felt…attainable, if I actually, actually pushed myself. I had made this foolish, invisible rule that I hadn’t even seen: to solely file studying targets that I may, conceivably, full in a 12 months. I do know, it doesn’t make sense to me anymore, both.
There are just a few authors whose total catalogs I do know I wish to learn, however I’ve by no means had wherever to file my progress (see above) and since of that, I hardly ever make progress on these targets (see additional above). So this 12 months I made a good looking, shiny tab in my studying spreadsheet with all the authors whose full works I wish to learn in my lifetime. I went again by means of my studying knowledge and marked off the books I’ve already learn. Just these lists will get me excited!
Another aim I’ve at all times had is to learn a e-book from each nation in the world. I do learn a good quantity of literature in translation, and I typically end a 12 months having learn books from 30 or extra totally different nations. But now I’ve a working record! For the first time, I can truly think about doing this sooner or later. If I learn 5 books yearly from new-to-me-countries, I’ll end in about 25 years. Sounds about proper. I’m not in a rush. I’m simply glad to be feeling impressed about in search of out books from nations whose literatures I hardly ever take into account.
This swap from annual studying targets to lifelong studying targets has modified all the things about how I learn and the way I observe my studying. Lifelong studying targets really feel expansive and welcoming. Framing all my studying on this context means I’m not desirous about numbers or deadlines. I’m desirous about books in phrases of the worth they create into my life. I don’t begin contemporary yearly, as a lot as I would wish to. I convey with me all my experiences, good and dangerous, from all the years I’ve lived earlier than — together with all the books I’ve learn.
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