This goal was actually a throw back my youthful potential, the time before I squandered my attention span and developed an unsettling addiction to instant gratification. I used to read the newspaper daily and then stopped, advanced adolescence and crippling indolence taking a mighty toll on my aspirations to be a well-informed and voracious reader.
I made this a goal to help combat my growing impatience with reading articles that required turning or clicking over to the next page. News snippets and headlines had become my sources of information, my depth of understanding of matters consequently plummeting to shocking shallows. While the ready availability of information makes news instantly accessible, it also led to my glossing over details and making snap decisions based on my own preconceived notions, not allowing for developed counter-arguments to ruminate, nor for anything more than superfluous analysis of relevant information. This only helped increase my self-induced ADD and further my path to becoming Jack of all trades, Master of none.
I allowed myself to read any article, so long as I read the entire thing. I started off on easy, entertainment/gossip nonsense, then worked my way up to financial, scientific and political articles. I found my ability to focus on the task at hand increased and was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed and comprehended what I was reading. It was also an excellent self-discipline exercise to do something consistently, for an extended period of time. While I haven't necessarily kept up with this practice daily, I do now read articles from start to finish.
I like this one. The "self-induced ADD" is something I think about and struggle with often.
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