Guest Author - Emily Wilska
I love to read, and I do it all the time. Too often, though, I find myself a bit (or a lot!) overwhelmed by the size of my reading stacks. I want reading to be a pleasurable activity, not an obligation.
So I'm happy to report that I've recently put in place a few ground rules that have helped me tackle my To Read piles more efficiently, and that have made those piles feel less like chores and more like chances for education and entertainment. Here's an overview of my ground rules. Try them out on your own reading pile and see if they help make it easier to stay in control.
#1: You don't have to read everything that comes your way.
I've made a pact with myself: if an article, a blog post, or a newsletter doesn't interest me, I'm free not to read it, regardless of how educational or important it might seem. This means I have permission to skip over articles in the paper or in the New Yorker on the Middle East, the war in Afghanistan, most sports, and many, many topics having to do with the economy. (NPR helps me get a general overview of those subjects, no reading required.) The same holds for any reading on gardening, crafts, home repairs, and many scientific topics. I can take being a bit less well-rounded if it means not having to slog through reading that isn't engrossing to me.
#2: Go on hiatus from subscriptions when need be.
Though I always stop my newspaper delivery when I'm out of town, I've also started putting it on hold when I simply need a break or want time to catch up on my reading backlog. This is a simple step that I very strongly encourage. Almost every magazine and newspaper will allow you to put your subscription on hold (without losing issues or otherwise being penalized), and you can always visit a publication's website to catch up on what you've missed if you truly feel the need.
If you do a lot of online reading, consider temporarily unsubscribing from blogs or newsletters you might follow, batch-deleting unread material and starting fresh, and not subscribing to anything new for a while to give yourself the chance to take a breather.
#3: Give your reading material a second life.
I find it much easier--and much less guilt-inducing--to offload reading material (especially magazines) quickly when I know it's not just going straight into the recycling bin once I'm done with it. When I'm feeling overloaded with magazines, I pass some along to friends, leave a bunch in the reading rack at my gym, or bring them to the coffee shop down the street for others to enjoy. Books I'm ready to part with (whether I've read them or not) go either back to a bookstore for resale or on to a charity shop.
#4: Wait until you're ready to read a book before getting it.
I constantly come across books that interest me, but I've learned the hard way that buying them or getting them from the library before I know I have the time to read them leaves me feeling overwhelmed. By the same token, I don't want to forget about the titles that have caught my attention. So I've found a middle ground: I keep a list of things I want to read eventually. When I've finished whatever book I'm currently working on, I refer to my list to choose what's next. This helps minimize the stacks of books throughout the house and also lets me stop trying to remember what it is I want to read.
#5: Give yourself permission to purge.
Last but definitely not least, I've decided that it's absolutely ok--more than ok, even--to get rid of reading material I haven't read (or have read once and thought I'd get back to...someday). This decision inspired me to go through my shelves and pull off a bunch of organizing books to give away, most of which I'd never cracked the covers of. I figured, Hey, I wrote my own organizing book, and I think I know much of this stuff by now. I also know that if I ever need a novel solution to a sticky organizing issue, I can always turn to my colleagues or the Internet for ideas.
I can't tell you how freeing this was! All of those organizing tomes--some of them several hundred pages of nothing but text--are moving on to better homes, and I get the benefit of a giant sense of relief (not to mention space on my shelves). While it can be difficult to let go of books, magazines, and other material you haven't read--it's so full of promise! it could have exactly the solution you need to that problem you've been wrestling with for so long! it contains important information you should know!--sometimes cutting it loose is hands-down the best solution. Remind yourself that unless you're dealing with, say, the absolute last copy in existence of a particular book, you can pretty much always track something down again if indeed you find that you really and truly need it in the future.
I hope you'll consider applying a few of these ground rules to your own reading stack. You'll make room (mentally and physically) for the reading that's truly important and current, and will regain control over your To Read pile.
