Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
Ecclesiastes 12:12

“Perhaps you could be the gatekeeper, perhaps you could determine who gets in to see the president and who doesn’t – which nobody did for months, but you could also read every document that comes across his desk and decide which ones he even considers.” (Woodrow Wilson’s Doctor, to Mrs. Woodrow Wilson).
So to some degree I’d say she was something between a chief of staff, and well, maybe she was the first female president of the United States. She was certainly – she would say not making decisions, but she was deciding in many ways what the president might decide.
(from an interview of Woodrow Wilson Biographer A. Scott Berg, Wilson, on Fresh Air)

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I heard this interview with Scott Berg, and though it was filled with interesting insight about President Wilson, I especially perked up at the “gatekeeper” line.  No, of course, my job is not as demanding as that of the President.  But I get the idea — and it is transferable to other jobs, for sure.  I thought, I need my own personal gatekeeper!

Here’s why I thought this.

I spend my time reading, writing, speaking.  That’s pretty much it.  Oh, you can call me a business consultant, a teacher (I teach Speech as an adjunct professor at one of the community colleges), a speaker, a corporate trainer, a speech and presentation skills coach, a speech writer…

But, it boils down to this.  I read, I write, I speak.  That’s pretty much it.

And, I’m feeling a little (ok, a lot) overwhelmed.  I read a lotl  Not as much as some, but a lot.

The problem is not reading.  I feel like I have learned how to do my “reading job” pretty well, I think.  The problem is deciding what to read.  There is simply too much to choose from.

I’ve got web sites.
I’ve got magazines.
I’ve got books.
And more books.
And even more books.

And, I read book reviews, and articles from and about new books, and I peruse lists of “the best books about…”.  And then, our blogging colleague Bob Morris, in his blog posts, constantly says “consider this book” by what he writes.  His recommendations are always valuable – insightful.  The books he reads, and reviews, are almost all books I wish I had time to read.  His reviews, his interviews with authors, make me say to myself “I want to read that.”

But…  so many books, so little time.

And, oh, by the way, I have breakfast appointments, and lunch appointments, and e-mails to write and….  You know, the stuff you have to do also.

So, one of my jobs is this:  I’ve had to become ever more intentional about serving as my own gatekeeper.  I have to decide, for myself.  I have to play the role that Mrs. Wilson played for her husband, the President:

“you could also read every document (every article, every book) that comes across his desk and decide which ones he even considers.”

So, I have to “read fast” (scan, overview), to decide what is worth a deeper dive.  To quote Alan Lakein from his classic time management book, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, we have to always know the best answer to this question:  “what is the best use of my time right now?”

This is not a problem unique to me.  We all face this challenge in a multitude of ways.

A while back, in my blog post 5 Rules of Personal Productivity – This Really is How You Get More Done, I wrote this:

Rule #4 – The Learn to Say Yes, and No, to the Right Time Demands Rule — The list of books and authors is long on this one.  The principle, the rule, is this – you have to know what to to, and what not to do. 

But, this Terry Gross interview with Wilson biographer Berg has made me stop and think about this:  I need to develop a more systematic way to decide what to say no to – a much better process — so that I can carve out the time to read what I most need to read.

So, that’s my agenda item right now.  How to better decide what to read, and what to “skip.”  This is not the first time I’ve tackled this question. It just feels a little more critical to me, at this moment in my career.  That interview seemed to hit me in just the right way.

Your question might be  different, but it is very similar:  “I have to decide which client to invest more time with.  I have to decide which appointments to make.  I have to decide which networking gatherings to attend.  I have to decide…”

Here’s what I wish.  I wish Mrs. Wilson appeared at my desk regularly, and said:  “read this now; go here now; take this phone call now…”  But, since Mrs. Wilson is not available to do this job for me, it looks like I have to learn to do a better job at being my own “what to read/what to do gatekeeper.”

I’m working on it…  again.