How Much Can You Read?

Tonight's blog may sound a bit strange, but there is a logic to it. Since the Internet has become so popular for searching things out, I have likened it to being the world's largest library. You can research almost anything under the sun from the comfort of your own home. Pretty neat stuff. The problem I have encountered, especially in the last few months, is the mountain of information that is being sent to be via e-mail. It is getting to be so much that I cannot keep up with all the reading. So, I have begun to wonder how much you can read in a day?

What started this problem of mine was research. Yes, I have been researching. And I bet you all thought I just chattered this stuff from off the top of my head. Depending on the subject matter, I do a good amount of research so that I can stay current on various trends. I also look up things that I find interesting, like locating all of the versus and history on our National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner". I always loved research, loved going into the library, so once the Internet became so accessible, I have just moved my passion for research to the Internet. If I want to know something, instead of just wondering, I will go and look it up. Our family used to have two sets of encyclopedias in the house just for such occasions. Now I no longer need those wonderful books, I have the Internet.

But, I digress. How much can you read? What has happened, is that as I rummage around, looking up interesting facts and tidbits of information, I sometimes (most of the time do not) provide an e-mail address so that I can continue to get information sent to me as it is made available. This was well and good for the one or two sites I had been found interesting, but at some point, somehow, my e-mail address got on some body's mailing list and was sold. I am sure this has happened to all of you at some point or another. Granted, on these mass mailings, since there are laws against spam, you are SUPPOSED to be able to click on the "unsubscribe" portion of the e-mail and your address would be removed from the list. HA, that happens about half of the time. I have gotten to the point where once I unsubscribe, I keep a copy of that notification and if I continue to receive messages from that particular site, I submit all the requests for being removed and I do finally get my address off the list.

The other problem I have is that there are a few sites where I want the information sent regularly. Sometimes the information they send is relevant, other times it is not relevant. This is OK, but lately these sites have been sending out messages more than a few times a week. I am now getting buried in offers to read the latest and greatest document on how to improve your website, how to improve your social media presence, how to improve your life, etc. My in-box is starting to look like my regular mailbox with all those extra flyers you really didn't want to know about.

My issue is that mixed in that mountain of reading, there are pearls of wisdom. I hate just deleting messages without a cursory reading of them. Since I am getting more of these messages daily, I am being forced to decide which ones to read and which ones I really don't need to open. The subject lines are almost always eye-catching. They want you to read their message, in the hopes that they can capture your business. I have fallen into the trap of reading these because I keep looking for those pearls that I used to be able to find fairly easily. How many times have you downloaded a file that was offered, for free, only to discover that after you downloaded the file, you never went back to read it? Heck, I even subscribe to an on-line quarterly magazine and have discovered I don't have time to read that either. Yet I keep filing all those pieces of information on my hard drive with the expectation that at some point, some day, I will find the time to read all this stuff.

Now you understand my question, how much can you read? It really should be, how much can you read before your head explodes? I love reading, I am a fast reader, but the pile of electronic reading I have yet to read boggles the mind. I will open the documents, and scan them for relevance, so at least I have reviewed what has been stored. But, with running the business, running appointments, doing rallies, just living life, I flat out don't have the time to read all of the cool e-books and files that I have stored on my computer. The bigger problem is that since I have visually scanned the information, I believe that there are pieces of information that would be relevant for me, I just have to carve out more time out of my already busy day to get this reading done. I had been dedicating reading 30 minutes a day to try to keep up, but at this point, 30 minutes is just not enough time.

Do any of you have the same problem? Or did you have that problem and then come up with a solution? I would love to hear some solutions (other than the obvious, delete the files...). Anyway, is this something that you think is common, or am I just making a "mountain out of a mole hill"? I would love to hear from you on this.

If you are curious about the business that I am running, please feel free to visit our website at http://www.hawgwash.net/. We offer several business opportunities for people looking to earn a second income. We also sell products directly to the public, so you do not have to get involved in any opportunity if you do not wish to. If you live near the Phoenix, Arizona area, we also have a mobile detailing business where we come to your location (either work or home) and detail your vehicle without water. Information on that and reservations can be found at http://www.hawgwash.biz/. So you can see that I am just a tiny bit busy, and do not have large amounts of time to sit in front of the computer reading e-books..

Until tomorrow...