Week Four: Reading Deprivation

Reading Deprivation. I didn’t understand how this could be a good thing.  Chapter Four/Week Four of The Artist's Way calls for absolutely no reading of any sort.  To put it politely, I was pissed. How could I not read anything for a week? How could I be expected not to job seek, research or read articles of interest? Not to get on social media, and not read birthday wishes from friends? Yes, lucky me- my birthday just happened to fall within the fourth week of this program. Also, of course I was at a crucial point in my beloved novel written by Iris Murdoch- The Sea, The Sea.



I could have decided to forfeit Julia Cameron’s request, but decided that I wanted to know if it was complete shit or not. So I bit the bullet…angrily!


The first day I was angry and a bit frustrated and between private pouting sessions I managed to get quite a bit of work accomplished. I went to bed early due to my frustration in not being able to read, which is my nightly routine before getting some shut eye.

After that first day, things were a bit easier. I realized what the point was- it was finding time! I had so much time to accomplish goals and get projects finished! I was focused and consciously used my time. I didn’t find myself sitting in front of the computer for hours with my morning wasted away (as some mornings can do…). Instead, I got to work on tasks. Projects that I thought would take several days to complete took no more than two each. It felt wonderful to get things accomplished.


HOWEVER, I did allow myself to check my email exactly once a day in order to know if I had any responses to jobs I had applied for. It was then that I realized that my fb was filled with “Happy Birthday!” messages as I now had about 150 messages in my inbox. I did not allow myself to read them until I simply couldn’t take it anymore, which happened to two days later (on Friday). I was truly touched by the messages that were posted. I went through them and wrote my “Thank you” messages.

SO WHAT WAS THE VERDICT? I gained a new perspective on time and focus. I realized how much time I can waste away by just distracting myself with words of all kinds- articles, headlines, novels, research, and comments that have nothing to do with me. But seriously, why didn’t she just write about that and warn her readers to be informed and in control of distractions? That’s what it is about! She is NOT frowning upon reading, but is frowning upon DISTRACTIONS. I realized that I could not take it anymore by Friday and had to play catch up. I had become stressed out due to letting stuff go.

In short, IT WAS NOT WORTH IT! Just note your distractions and work to fix them in order to become more focused. There, I may have saved you a week of frustration and ridiculousness with my findings, not to mention saving you the stress of playing catch-up at the end of the week.  What was your experience of Week Four?  Was it as aggravating to you?