I Read Nothing This Week (Again)

Why trying to do everything means accomplishing nothing—and how I'm learning to focus on one thing at a time.

Hello! We're one day away from Friday. Man! I need some time this weekend to make up for not having read anything for the past 4 days!

I messed up big time.

Tried to read and do too many things at once and ended up not doing much. Actually, I read literally nothing.

I’ve experienced this same problem before, yet I keep doing it again and again. This inner need to find new books, new courses and new things to do always ends up taking up a big part of the day, and then I don’t complete the things I’ve started.

There’s something I’ve learned about learning multiple things at the same time. When I’m studying both Statistics and SQL, it means that when I have a 30-minute slot in the day, I have to choose between the two, and usually, there’s no right answer. So I end up delaying and eventually not doing either.

It’s the same with books. Tried reading multiple books at the same time before. Even mixed it up with a big book and a small one. And guess what? Even that creates this confusion where I’m not sure which one to make progress on. The truth is that I’m strapped for time. We all are. And so realistically, there’s only so much that’s possible, but it’s hard to live with that reality and accept it.

There are obviously days when I have a lot of time and can do both and more. Some weekends I manage to read for hours and hours, but most days are unpredictable. And in those days when I get just a small time slot, what matters most is that I keep going. Having multiple hobbies, goals, or activities can make it hard to keep up.

So, I’ll continue sticking to one thing at a time and make sure to complete what I started—hoping to keep up this discipline in the long run. I see a lot of benefits from reading and studying daily, rather than doing it randomly a few times in a week. Continuity has a huge part to play in how much progress I can make, and it can only happen once I get serious about the trade-off.

I think someone had said that if you’re not letting go of something that you really want to do, then you’re not making a trade-off. Or something along those lines. Essentially, the point is that when I have the choice between studying SQL and Statistics, the hard truth is that both are equally important. But at this point in time, I need to make a hard decision on which is more important. It means the other one will be neglected, but that’s fine. For now, I’m levelling up in one thing and that matters most!

Thanks for reading my rant and self-reflections on the struggles of a man who tries too many things and fails at most.