Delegating Reading interruptions

Reading is lauded as a path to wisdom — but often can be a drain on productivity. The constant influx of "must-read" content can hijack your attention and interrupt deep work.

Do any of these sound familiar?

• Context switching: You’re building an investor pitch deck when a push notification pops up on your Mac. It’s a “quick read” article on emerging market trends, but you end up diving deep for 45 minutes. You return to your deck, but you’ve lost all momentum.
• Decision paralysis: After reading countless articles on remote work policies, you're more uncertain than ever about implementing a hybrid model for your growing startup.
• False sense of productivity: You spend two hours reading the latest management theories and you feel accomplished. Yet, your team's pending project proposals remain unreviewed as an urgent deadline approaches.

But with strategic delegation, your reading list can stop being a distraction and become a high-value source of knowledge and decision-making.

Here are 4 delegation tactics from a sample of Athena members to protect your workflow from reading interruptions:

1. Tactile Focus Method: Sunil Pai, an investor and operator, shared: "My assistant curates 5-10 relevant pieces daily. I print select ones — and read/annotate between meetings or during commutes. This physical approach keeps me engaged and distraction-free."
2. The Kindle Nightcap: Kristen Berman, a founder/CEO, forwards interesting content to her assistant, who converts and sends it to her Kindle prior to 6:00pm EST. Nightly reading has become a focused, screen-free ritual.
3. Audio Summaries: Katherine Krug, a founder/CEO, takes in information best via listening, has her assistant create 5-minute audio summaries of key articles. She listens to these during her morning commute so she can absorb industry insights without interrupting peak work hours.
4. Read-and-React: Cameron Woodward, a founder, immediately dictates potential actions in a Slack voice memo after reading each article. His assistant then integrates these ideas into their project management system, complete with insights that translate to concrete action items.

Left unchecked, your reading list becomes a productivity sinkhole. Don't just read; delegate — engineer your knowledge acquisition and implementation.