How Making Time for Books Made Me Feel Less Busy读书计划

By Hugh McGuire

1. podcast： 播客；The New Yorker： 《纽约客》，是美国一份知识、文艺类的综合杂志；TED Talks： TED演讲，TED是美国的一家私有非营利机构，该机构以它组织的TED大会著称，TED代表Technology，Entertainment以及Design；Youtube： 是世界上最大的视频网站；Buzzfeed： 是一个美国的新闻聚合网站，为用户提供当天网上的最热门事件；Harvard Business Review：《哈佛商业评论》，简称HBR，是哈佛商学院的标志性杂志。

2. abound： 大量存在，充满。

3. 我在工作时分心，在与家人和朋友相处时分心，常常感到疲倦、烦躁，总是在对数字信息的不断渴求所导致的巨大压力中挣扎。distracted： 心烦意乱的，思想不集中的；irritable： 易怒的；ambient： 外界的，周围的；induce： 引起，导致；itch： 渴望，强烈愿望。

4. bit： 比特（二进位制信息单位）；byte：（二进）位组，字节。

5. 我想知道书籍——这种相对缓慢的信息载体——能否作为一种解药来缓解这源源不断的新数字信息所带来的压力，正如蛇毒可以被用作生产治愈性的抗蛇毒素一样。venom：（蛇、昆虫等的）毒液；antivenom： 抗蛇毒素；antidote： 解毒药。

6. dopamine： 多巴胺（大脑中控制肌肉正常运动的化学物质）。

7. neuroscientific： 神经科学的。

8. privilege： v. 给予……特权，使……优先于。

9. 新消息的到来，比如点击邮箱刷新键或是推特新私信提醒，激发了大脑中神经递质—— 多巴胺的释放。spur： 促进，激励；ding： 铃声，叮，指消息提醒的声音；DM： direct message，相当于微博里的私信；trigger： 促发；neurotransmitter： 神经递质。

10. wired：〈口〉非常兴奋的。

11. 在此过程中有这样一个学习循环——新信息+多巴胺=快乐，它铺设了你的神经通路，“告知”你的大脑点击刷新邮件会得到奖励（即使这个奖励不过是来自会计部戴夫的又一封邮件而已）。loop： 循环；accounting： 会计。

12. reinforce： 强化，深化。

13. tickle： 使高兴，使满足。

14. flit： 匆匆移动，掠过。

15. dictate： 影响，控制。

16. pop out： 跳出。

17. neurochemically： 神经化学地；deplete： 减少，削减。

18. glowing： 发光的；extinguish： 熄灭，扑灭。

19. wean： 使摆脱，使断绝。

20. unplug： 拔掉……的插头，此处指屏蔽数字信息。

21. crunch time： 关键时刻； overtaxed： 过度疲劳的。

22. Netflix： 奈飞公司，美国一家在线影片租赁提供商；mess around： 浪费时间。

23. wind-down： 逐渐减少，慢慢终止；block： 一段时间。

24. outrageously： 极不寻常地。

25. violate： 违反，违背。

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.