I remember content consumption being quite a simple process before I owned a smartphone. I had some preferred RSS feeds that I subscribed to with a reader of my choice, which I would go through on my laptop whenever I had time and save articles that I was interested in reading later.

In the years since I first started using smartphones I’ve gone through a few different mobile-first apps such as Flipboard and Pocket, trying to augment/improve my content consumption workflow, but as of last week it seems I’ve come back around largely to my pre-smartphone habits.

Making time is getting harder as the years stack up.

The things that I wish I could make more time for are not particularly extravagant. Reading. Exercising. Preparing lunches and dinners in advance. Writing music. Studying foreign languages. Revisiting video games from my childhood. Diving into the history of cinema. Listening to lengthy post rock records without interruption.

I had a routine that I really liked towards the end of this summer. I woke around 06:00 every morning and began my daily bodyweight workout while listening to a non-fiction audiobook. After my workout I would work through the next section of my Japanese textbook, with some vocabulary and kanji drills before and after. I wouldn’t even think about food until noon, because I was practicing intermittent fasting, and I was amazed at how much time in my day had previously been taken up by thinking about food.