Do you ever go through stages where you read several books in the same genre in a row? I do. It won’t surprise anyone to know I often read a lot of Christian romances in a row. But I’ve recently been working my way through some nonfiction titles that have been on my want-to-read pile for a while.
I started with Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.
Newport defines digital minimalism as “a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities.”
The book encourages readers to undertake a 30-day “digital detox”, and has some surprisingly practical suggestions for rethinking and reinventing our digital habits so we’re using technology as a tool, not a mindless distraction from real life.
It’s an easy read (especially for a nonfiction title), with some good ideas. It’s worth reading.
The next title was Getting Things Done by David Allen.
The clue is in the title: Getting Things Done is a method for, well, getting things done. It promises many things (as do many self-help books), but that doesn’t mean the system will work for everyone. The basic idea is that we need to use a five-step method to master our workflow, so we know what needs to be done and can learn to prioritise based on what’s important … not urgent. This means noting when our blog post is due so we’re not still writing it at 11pm the night before the post is due to go live.
There were a couple of lines that were unintentionally laugh-out-loud funny, like:
Let’s assume for a moment that you’re not resisting any of your stuff out of insecurity or procrastination.
Getting Things Done was a good book with a lot of practical tips. I will skip ahead to book #4 and say the Getting Things Done principles won’t work for everyone (and I might be in the group it doesn’t work for). I’m about to change jobs, and reading Getting Things Done was a great way of convincing me that I really could bin a pile of papers and unanswered work emails. My challenge now is to set up systems in my new role so I am able to manage it well, and so the emails don’t get out of control (again).
Next up was The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
It went into a lot of detail about the psychology of habit—individual habits, organisational habits, and societal habits. While it was a fascinating read, The Power of Habit didn’t seem as practical as the other two books. This is because we each have unique habit loops (cue, routine, reward), and the key to changing habits is changing our routines in a way that deliver the reward we want in a healthier way. But we each have different cues and rewards, so there is no one-size-fits-all … which is more realistic than Newport and Allen’s promised cure-alls, which brings me to my final title …
Finally, I read Dear Writer, Are You Intuitive by Becca Syme and Susan Bischoff.
Like all Becca Syme’s books and podcast episodes, this book reminds us that we’re not all alike, and what works for one person might not work for others. In this case, the book is talking about intuitive people, people who “just know but can’t explain”, people who see patterns and make connections between what look like disconnected points.
The lightbulb moment for me was this statement:
Most of us are wired to feel/sense/hear someone being certain and assume that means they are correct.
Cal Newport, David Allen, and Charles Duhigg are all convinced they are correct, and that we will have better lives if we follow their methods. Dear Writer, Are You Intuitive says the opposite:
that just because someone is convinced they are correct doesn’t make it so, and while their ideas may work for some people, they won’t work for everyone.
Some people might find that depressing. I find it releasing: I can try out the ideas, but it’s okay if they don’t work for me, because that’s how God created me.
Hi Iola,
As a nonfiction writer, my bookshelves are chocked full of nonfiction books! My go to ones are mainly to do with leadership, team building, and personal development in my faith. So, here are my list of books I’ve been reading.
‘Leaders Eat Last: Why some teams pull together and others don’t’ by Simon Sinek
‘Deep & Wide:Creating churches unchurched people love to attend’ by Andy Stanley.
‘The Motive: Why so many leaders abdicate their most important responsibilities’ by Patrick Lencioni.
‘Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire: What happens when God’s Spirit invades the hearts of His people’ by Jim Cymbala.
If I’ve highlighted multiple paragraphs, underlined stand out words, or gotten coffee stains on a book, I know it was well worth the read!
Wendy 😊
I’ve think I’ve watched one of Simon Sinek’s TED Talks, but haven’t read any of his books. The Motive sounds interesting – it’s a title that implies a couple of questions – we need to know what leaders’ most important responsibilities are as well as why they’re not doing them.
Thanks for the recommendations!
I go through stages of reading just non-fiction books too. I got a lot out of ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear and ‘Redeeming Your Time’ by Jordan Raynor. I read a LOT of memoirs too!
I’ve read Redeeming Your Time by Jordan Raynor. It’s probably a good one to re-read, so thanks for the reminder!
Atomic Habits is on my to-read list – glad to hear it’s worth reading.
Yeah, I definitely fall into the ‘insecurity’ part!
The two nonfiction books I’ve read in the last month were Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and Story Genius. I read Save the Cat! first and enjoyed it. I got bored with Story Genius telling me how not to write a novel, and then when they finally got to the point of what to do, it felt more or less like Save the Cat! When you started talking about how one thing works for one person and not another, it made me think of these two books as both were recommended by someone who had read them and thought I should too.
I liked the way Story Genius showed how a character’s backstory was critical to the person they are and the choices they will make, but didn’t like the way it wanted us to write the backstory as scenes … perhaps because once something is written, too many beginner writers are tempted to keep it in the manuscript when it’s not actually necessary.
I have seen the Save the Cat! beat sheet, but haven’t actually read the book. I guess I should 🙂
The two books are essentially the same at heart, but Save the Cat! is an easier read (at least to me). The plus side was they were both at my library, so no money wasted. 🙂
I never got to the background scenes of Story Genius. I gave up after a while. It wasn’t my style of writing. Maybe one day I’ll borrow it again and see if I can get into it.
But I agree. It would be very tempting to keep those background scenes after spending so much time on them.