As one does at this time of year, I’m spending a lot of time thinking about next year. One thing I’m planning to do is to read more books.

I always loved books. Always had one or two by my side, ready to pick up and teach me something, or take me somewhere. For a long time, though, I’ve been reading a lot less. I spend so much of my day reading other things, I haven’t felt like I had enough energy to pick up a book.

Many very successful people are big book readers. As busy as they are, Mark Cuban and Warren Buffett spend several hours a day reading books, for example, and credit a good portion of their success to this habit.

Why books? Can’t we get as much from reading articles, watching videos, or listening to podcasts?

We can (and I do) get a lot from those sources, but books are in a category of their own.

Books tend to be better researched and better written. They provide more value, usually, and are worth the additional effort. True, there are many disappointments, but when you read a good book, it can change your life.

I have quite a backlog of books waiting for me to “find” the time to read again. But I’ve grown tired of waiting and started reading books again a couple of months ago.

I began by reminding myself about the benefits and made a commitment to myself to read at least a few pages every day.

Without exception.

Small, but often—the key to starting and maintaining habits.

I set a daily reminder in my task app and read for ten minutes every day, no matter what. When the timer is done, I often continue reading, but I never read for less than ten minutes.

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have started this, or stuck with it, if I had tried to read for one hour a day. But I can do ten minutes no matter how busy or tired I am.

It’s like the office decluttering project I told you about recently. Scheduling 15 minutes every Saturday allowed me to (finally) start that project and keep going until finished.

I also make it convenient. I read mostly on the Kindle app on my phone so I can grab a few minutes just about anywhere. I’ve started walking again so I might also start listening to audiobooks.

You can read a lot of books in just 10 minutes a day. Certainly a lot more than I was reading before. But, who knows. Maybe next year I’ll go crazy and crank that up to 15 minutes.

Life in the fast lane.

Lawyers are paid to think. We solve problems, come up with ideas, figure out strategies, and put these to use for our clients and for ourselves.

We often get some of our best ideas while we’re doing other things. When we’re working on another case, driving, playing a game, listening to a (boring) lecture, or mindlessly washing dishes, our minds are busy working on other things.

But we don’t have to wait for serendipity to solve problems and generate ideas. We can make it a habit to schedule thinking time each day. I do that every day and think you should, too.

Once a day, for 5 minutes or 15 minutes, sit quietly, close your eyes, do some breathing exercises if you want to, relax and think.

Think about your life, your work, your family, your problems, your dreams.

I do this in the morning, first thing. Before coffee, when my mind isn’t terribly engaged, I sit in my comfy chair, listen to meditation music, and let my mind wander.

My thinking time helps me discover new ideas, find solutions, clarify my thoughts, remember things I need to do or fix, and when I’m done, I feel calm and centered and ready for the day.

Sometimes, I start out thinking about a specific situation. A problem I’d like to solve or avoid, a goal I’m working towards, or things I’m planning to do that day. Other times, I just sit quietly and let my mind take me where it wants me to go.

I keep paper and my phone nearby and record my thoughts and ideas. Sometimes, those ideas feel so “right,“ I stop thinking and start working on them. These often turn out to be some of my best ideas.

I’ve also found that by having regular thinking time, I’ve conditioned my mind to bring me more ideas and solutions throughout the day, while I’m doing other things.

I got the idea for this post when I was making coffee.

You’re a professional thinker. Schedule thinking time each day. Try it for a week, see what happens, and what you think about that.

I think. . . you’ll be glad you did.

If you want to be prolific, build more relationships, deliver more presentations, write more books or blog posts or articles, more than anything, there’s one thing you have to do. You have to let go of the need to make things perfect.

Perfectionism has been my “issue” for as long as I can remember. When you’re wrapped up in it, you’re wrapped in a straightjacket of your own making and artificially limit your accomplishments.

More content, more relationships, more good habits, usually lead to more good things happening in your life. Even if the things you create aren’t perfect, but merely good.

Remind yourself that you don’t have time for perfect. You have deadlines and goals and people who depend on you.

Set a different standard for yourself. Instead of going for 90% allow yourself to do 70%. Because unless you’re performing surgery, 70% is usually good enough.

In fact, remind yourself that “good enough is good enough” — because it has to be if you want to get more done.

If you want to be prolific, develop the habit of launching things before you think they’re ready.

That’s what I do. I want quality, but I’m willing to exchange some of it for quantity.

But here’s the thing. When I re-read something I wrote and thought wasn’t up to snuff, I usually find that it’s a lot better than I thought.

Here’s the other thing. Most people aren’t as critical of your stuff as you are. They either don’t notice or don’t care. (They’re worried about their own stuff.)

Another strategy I use is to push things out the door (before I think they’re ready) telling myself I can fix it later. What I often find is that by the time I’m ready to fix it, it’s not as important to me because I’m busy with something else.

Look, at our funeral, nobody is going to say we led a good life and helped many people but could have done a few more rounds of editing. They’ll look at the big picture, and we should too.