Swapping My X Time for Reading Time

I can get way too caught up on X/Twitter.

Because of that, I wanted to challenge myself to swap my typical X time for reading time instead.

In 2024, I could spend anywhere from 15-30 hours a week scrolling and scrolling. Before you judge me too harshly, it was mainly to keep up with the writing community and news. Still a lot of time, but it’s slightly more reasonable if you tilt your head and squint.

This year, I’ve been averaging 2 to 2.5 hours on X/Twitter, which is a big improvement. Yes, I feel way more out of touch with what’s going on in the writing and book world, but it’s a sacrifice I was willing to make in order to write more, read more, and just be more present. Life is so much better when you’re not constantly inundated with so many different people’s opinions and thoughts.

The challenge wouldn’t have been as fun or challenging if I only had to spend two extra hours this week reading. That’s too easy for me. So, I upped the ante and challenged myself to read two hours a day from 1/20 to 1/24. Spoiler alert: I both failed and won.

Caveats: I don’t count client reading I do for my beta/sensitivity services. I also don’t count audiobooks because I mainly listened to them while I was working out, and since I was going to work out anyway, it’s not intentional reading time.

Here’s how each day went…

Challenge Day 1

Read 11 minutes of the eBook, Mallory in Full Color.
Read 38 minutes of the physical book, The Magic Words.

I honestly forgot I was supposed to be doing the challenge, so if you can believe it, on the first day I didn’t read the two additional hours.

My total reading time on day one was 49 minutes, which means I failed the challenge for the day.

Challenge Day 2

Read 10 minutes of the eBook, Mallory in Full Color.
Over three sessions, I read 133 minutes of the physical book, The Magic Words.

I remembered the challenge this day! I was not enjoying Mallory in Full Color, so I was struggling to read it for very long. I powered through and finished The Magic Words, which I had started at the beginning of December.

My total reading time on day two was 143 minutes, which means it was a successful challenge day.

Challenge Day 3

Over two sessions, I read 61 minutes of the eBook, Mallory in Full Color.
Over two sessions, I read 68 minutes of the eBook, This Could Be Us.

It was another day of me powering through as I forced myself to finish Mallory in Full Color. This was the last book on my January TBR, so I got to read whatever I wanted after that. Since I finished and loved Before I Let Go this month, I got the next book, This Could Be Us.

My total reading time on day three was 129 minutes, which means it was a successful challenge day.

Challenge Day 4

Read 17 minutes of the eBook, This Could Be Us.

After two very strong days, I was back to square one. I had a doctor’s appointment in the middle of the day that, combined with travel, ate up two hours. I had to prioritize my client work and writing, and I was super exhausted, so my reading time fell to the wayside.

A positive, though, is that I finished (and loved) the audiobook of Love in All the Haunted Places.

My total reading time on day four was 17 minutes, which means I failed the challenge for the day.

Challenge Day 5

Read 20 minutes of the eBook, This Could Be Us.

Another flop of a day. I covered a shift at my old job for five hours, which meant I basically got nothing done for that amount of time. It completely threw off my schedule, so again, I had to prioritize client reading and writing.

My total reading time on day five was 20 minutes, which means I failed the challenge for the day.

Challenge Results

For the challenge I was supposed to read 10 hours or 600 minutes over the course of five days. I ended up reading 6 hours or 358 minutes. While I didn’t succeed, I still think that’s an amazing amount, and it’s higher than I thought it was going be. And I managed to complete two books, which were the last ones on my January TBR.