Admittedly there are only two of us — but we have reading on our company calendar. Thirty minutes every day 3:30-4pm. Because learning new stuff and getting alternate perspectives is bloody important.
Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
21–30 of 43 posts
Re: Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
#22I think pushes to get people to read more have been continuously going on since I was a child in the 80's. Some people enjoy it more than others and I think more people find reading books more difficult than quick reads - I'm not sure if this is time, access, or ability. I also question their stress relief. It seems it might be tied to people enjoying themselves for a little bit of time many times a week. I don't kno…
I think its increasingly difficult for people to concentrate for longer than ten minutes these days (I certainly notice this in myself). We are not encouraged to concentrate for long periods either, instead 'multitasking' is considered a good thing. Pop up notifications every time an email comes in. A vibration in my pocket for a message / whatsapp / whatever.
The popularity of Buzzfeed seems to fit with this.
I agree that people should do something they enjoy (doesn't need to be selfish). I find that outdoor physical exercise works for me. My girlfriend says the same, when I take the off-road detour home from work on my bike, she says I am less grumpy.
Re: Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
#23I'm wondering how listening to audio books compares to reading printed texts. I have in the last couple of years switched to listening in almost all cases where the audio version of the book I'm interested in exists.
Re: Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
#24Admittedly there are only two of us — but we have reading on our company calendar. Thirty minutes every day 3:30-4pm. Because learning new stuff and getting alternate perspectives is bloody important.
At my first job, there were periods where I didn't have much to do. So I thought, instead of mindlessly surfing the Internet, I'll read to improve my knowledge. It was a large company and they had hundreds of computer books. So I got one from the library and started reading it during a down time.
My manager comes over and says "There's no reading during work." (I was reading The Mythical Man-Month so it wasn't like I was reading a novel or anything).
I'm not there anymore but I still do take 30 minutes to read daily. I just do it more discreetly by using Safari Books Online and don't ask for permission.
It's good to hear there are forward looking companies out there. Everyone should make a little time to do things that won't benefit you today, but will benefit you in 6 months.
Re: Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
#25Admittedly there are only two of us — but we have reading on our company calendar. Thirty minutes every day 3:30-4pm. Because learning new stuff and getting alternate perspectives is bloody important.
At my first job, there were periods where I didn't have much to do. So I thought, instead of mindlessly surfing the Internet, I'll read to improve my knowledge. It was a large company and they had hundreds of computer books. So I got one from the library and started reading it during a down time. My manager comes over and says "There's no reading during work." (I was reading The Mythical Man-Month so it wasn't like I…
I can't remember if it's the MyMaMo which has the "why aren't you working, what are you doing?" "thinking" "can't you do that at home?" anecdote but that's brilliant managerial madness in a nutshell.
Re: Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
#26I've always thought I had a problem with reading. Whenever I read fiction, I read the text as though it is being spoken. So I've never joined a book club because I've always been afraid I'd never be able to finish a book in the same time it takes "normal people" who will typically finish the same book about 2 days earlier than me on average.
Re: Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
#27Slowly here should mean not the speed of reading, a-la words oper second, but the checking/matching of every meaningful piece of information against your internal (trained) 'map of the universe'. BTW, one could speed-read only texts on a familiar subjects, the way most of us read 90% of narcissistic nonsense here. On the contrary, those wery rare pieces of meaningful thought from self-made professionals (nothing in c…
Seems like a fairly good case for speed reading.
Re: Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
#28Although I totally agree with the gist of it I have to admit that I skimmed the article.
Re: Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
#29I think pushes to get people to read more have been continuously going on since I was a child in the 80's. Some people enjoy it more than others and I think more people find reading books more difficult than quick reads - I'm not sure if this is time, access, or ability. I also question their stress relief. It seems it might be tied to people enjoying themselves for a little bit of time many times a week. I don't kno…
I think its increasingly difficult for people to concentrate for longer than ten minutes these days (I certainly notice this in myself). We are not encouraged to concentrate for long periods either, instead 'multitasking' is considered a good thing. Pop up notifications every time an email comes in. A vibration in my pocket for a message / whatsapp / whatever. The popularity of Buzzfeed seems to fit with this. I agre…
> I agree that people should do something they enjoy (doesn't need to be selfish).
To some people, doing something you enjoy is selfish by definition. In what way it affects others (if at all) is a totally different matter.
Re: Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress
#30I took the little test and read at my normal speed which is apparently faster than the speed reading average (FWIW I got the comprehension questions). That doesn't quite sound right to me.