Decentering My Phone For A Week
After tracking my media consumption for a week, I wanted to see how much I could read if I swapped my screen time for reading. It's the type of content that I consume on BookTube and TikTok, so I wanted to replicate it in my own life.
I embarked on this challenge around the same time last year. Even though I didn't hit my goal every day, I was able to finish a 600+-page book, which felt like a huge feat in itself.
Lately, I've been feeling a little uninspired by the books I'm reading, so this challenge is meant to bring that spark back if I allocate deep focus time to reading. It's also an attempt to hit my reading goal of 52 books earlier, just because.
For this week, I'm using my phone's screen time stats from the week prior:
- Monday: 5 hours 7 minutes
- Tuesday: 2 hours 46 minutes
- Wednesday: 2 hours 52 minutes
- Thursday: 3 hours 20 minutes
- Friday: 5 hours 4 minutes
I have no idea how I managed to accumulate over 5 hours of screen time on Monday when I was out and about for the majority of the day, in which I used my phone to navigate, take photos, and listen to music. The most-used app that day was Gmail, so I suspect it was because I was reading newsletters when I couldn't fall asleep and before bed. For Friday, I know I reached 5 hours because I was on TikTok for close to 90 minutes. If I can trust the Kindle reading speed, I should be able to finish a 200 - 300 page book within 5 hours.
Monday
The goal for today was 5 hours 7 minutes, which I did not meet. Realistically, I knew 5 hours would be difficult, so I gave myself grace. My main goal was to finish the book club read of the month.
I clocked 3 hours 11 minutes of reading, in which I finished my book club read of the month (yay!) and started a new book recommended by Anna Sale, the host of Death, Sex, & Money. The book club read is The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei, whom I used to watch on The Click Network over 10 years ago.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that she's an author who published her debut novel this year. It was even more surprising when our book club wheel picked my choice for this month's read. I'm curious how they would receive a book set predominantly in Singapore, in which the main character inherits a new sister due to her grandfather's infidelity. The characters are very complex to the point that I found it difficult to like them, which made the first half a chore, but somewhere along the way, I got invested. Finishing the book on the first day of the challenge was satisfying.
The premise of my second read, Entitlement by Rumaan Alam, reminds me so much of the Apple TV show, Loot. In Loot, Maya Rudoph's character is a billionaire who vows to give away her fortune through her foundation after a nasty divorce. The billionaire in Entitlement wants to give his fortune away as well. We follow Brooke, an employee of his foundation, as she navigates her new role and her feelings around wealth.
Pages read:
- The Original Daughter: 182 pages - finished
- Entitlement: 23 pages - started
Tuesday
It was a successful day, largely because I stayed home. The goal was 2 hours 46 minutes. I read for 2 hours and 49 minutes.
I continued reading Entitlement, and also added my winter curriculum into the mix. Entitlement is getting REALLY good. I'm enjoying how it captures the often-felt, but rarely discussed, feelings of wanting wealth as a reclamation of selfhood and time.
Yes, wealth can provide us with a plethora of material things, but ultimately we crave the freedom it affords. To be free from the shackles of a full-time job and to possess the luxury of time to do as we please. Under capitalism, we're all worker bees, merely working to have our essential needs met. Maybe a lucky few have the disposable income to take frequent holidays and to buy whatever they want, but the majority of people aren't in that tax bracket.
I'm only 51% in, so I'm excited to see how it all plays out.
For my winter curriculum, I'm reading Strategic Infused Foresight, which is expanding my understanding of foresight. Chapter 2 shares how the author, Maree Conway, got into foresight. I often wonder how people get into futures work, so this was an eye-opening chapter.
Pages read:
- Entitlement: 144 pages
- Strategic Infused Foresight: 15 pages
Wednesday
Khalilah D is a Booktuber I follow who challenged herself to swap her screen time of 9 hours with reading. One of the strategies she incorporated was listening to the audiobook while doing her chores and running errands.
I was curious how adding an audiobook would help me fare in this challenge, so I downloaded Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer on Libby. I thought it would be a fitting read since it's Native American Heritage Month, which, let's be fair, should be every day.
Audiobooks are a game-changer for adding more reading time in my day. Throughout my day, I would put on the audiobook while doing my chores – storing away my summer clothes to make room for my winter clothes, washing dishes, cooking, and walking to and from the laundromat. With that alone, I listened to 35% of the audiobook, which is 1 hour 44 minutes.
On this day, I read 32 pages of Entitlement, which brings my total reading time to 2 hours 15 minutes. I fell short of the goal by 38 minutes, since my goal today was 2 hours and 52 minutes. I tried to read as much as I could, but I had a movie club meeting, which took up a good chunk of my evening. No regrets, though, because I had so much fun watching Uptown Girls. The 2000s fashion speaks to the inner child in me who grew up watching Lizzie McGuire, That's So Raven, and The Devil Wears Prada.
Pages read:
- Entitlement: 32 pages
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: 35%
Thursday
Out of the entire week so far, this is the lowest amount of time spent reading.
The goal was 3 hours 20 minutes. I clocked in 1 hour and 35 minutes, most of which was spent skimming the books I bought from MoMA PS1. For some reason, I thought I would get more reading done with the commute. To get to MoMA PS1 from Jersey City meant taking the bus to the Port Authority in Manhattan, followed by an 11-minute subway ride on the 7. According to Google Maps, it would be a 65-minute journey.
After rushing lunch to be at the bus stop a few minutes ahead of schedule, my nerves were frazzled. Instead of listening to my audiobook, I spent half of the bus ride listening to Lily Allen.
By the end of the day, I was pretty wiped out. Barely keeping my eyes open, I managed to power through 20 pages of Entitlement. My goal is to finish Entitlement tomorrow!
Not hitting my goal today was worth it because I got to sit in James Turrell's Meeting and watch the sunset paired with a light show.
Pages read:
- Entitlement: 20 pages
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: 17%
Friday
This whole week flew by! Friday started pretty badly in terms of reading, but it turned around towards the end.
I'm bookending my week with another goal of 5 hours and 4 minutes. To be realistic, my main objective was to finish Entitlement. I was in the home stretch as it is, with less than 100 pages to go. Once I was done with job hunting, researching for my freelance work, and wrapping up miscellaneous life admin tasks, I sat down and powered through.
Entitlement started so strongly, but the ending fell flat for me. I was hoping it would be more Ingrid Goes West, where the main character falls off the deep end to the point of no return. However, Alam didn't go there. It was mainly cringy and unbearable. I'm glad I gave it a read, because it encapsulated so many feelings I have about money, especially in our current economic state.
After completing Entitlement, I wasn't sure what I should read next. I listened to the audiobook and read some newsletters that have been sitting in my inbox.
The Substack boom is both a gift and a curse. On the one hand, I love how it has democratized publishing for many creators; on the other, there's too much content. I spent 41 minutes reading newsletters this evening. Out of everything I read, this Service95 article about the crisis in Sudan is worth everyone's attention.
Towards the end of the night, I was craving a physical book. This challenge has opened the floodgates. Coupled with the cold weather, it's the perfect atmosphere for a cozy night in. I wanted to immerse myself in a fictional world. After perusing my shelves, I started Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill and couldn't put it down.
For the first time in a long time, I finished a book in one sitting.
Dept of Speculation is a short read, but so full of heart, emotion, and lyricism. It depicts a couple from the beginning of their relationship to the turbulations of marriage. The way this story is written is unlike anything I've read before. The author doesn't meander in any specific moment, nor does she paint the scene in detail. Instead, she gives you crumbs, allowing you to parse through the moments to form your own understanding of the story. I'm not someone who typically rereads books, but I'm excited to reread this in the near future to catch pieces that I may have missed the first time around.
Even though I read for 3 hours and 42 minutes, including the newsletter reading sesh, I'm quite impressed with the number of books I managed to finish this week.
Pages read:
- Entitlement: 70 pages - finished
- Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: 14%
- Dept of Speculation: 177 pages - finished
By swapping my screen time with reading, I was able to finish 2 complete books, 1 book that I was in the middle of, and 66% of an audiobook. Despite it being a great reading week, I don't think it's realistic to match our screentime hour-for-hour with reading.
From checking text messages to navigating the city, the many functions of our phones can quickly add up unconsciously. Reading, however, requires our full attention. Having 5 hours a day to read freely is a luxury that not many people can afford. From the many videos I watch by people who read a lot, many of them mention how books are their main form of entertainment. At the end of the day, it's what you're willing to give up to dedicate your time to a hobby. I'm sure if I stopped watching television, listening to podcasts, and reading newsletters, I would have more time to read, but I'm just not at that point in my life.
I am, however, at the point where I don't want to spend too much time on social media and would rather channel that time and energy into reading.
Since doing this challenge, I realized my reading stamina has increased quite significantly. I'm able to focus for longer stretches of time and gravitate towards reading instead of scrolling. As a firm believer in "what you consume, you become", I hope to keep this up into the new year and detach from short-form media to reclaim my attention and build up an appetite for art that requires me to think deeply about the world around us.
