“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero” – Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway

With 2016 coming to a close and the email invites for dinner/drinks catch-ups peaking, I thought it would be a great time to reflect on some of the adjustments I made to my professional routines this year. One major change was how I approached maintaining, and selectively expanding, my network.

Early in most career cycles, many recent graduates go all-out developing a wide circle of contacts across their respective new industries. It makes logical sense and usually pays off with a broad network of loose connections and an increased set of opportunities. As a career progresses, success in a given role requires not only access to the information (and opportunity!) that a wide network can bring, but also a broad-based perspective on industry trends. Networking becomes necessary but insufficient to succeed in today’s dynamic, results-based, market.

I have traditionally over invested in networking as an entrepreneur who generally leads sales, business development, and marketing teams. In 2016 I made a decision to reduce my evening networking events and replace the time with an hour of daily reading.

My motivation was to:

Glean more insight from business, science, and political literature and apply those learnings to my role as August Home CRO;

Take opportunities to deep dive into topics or autobiographies that can help me chart the next 10-15 years of my career and personal ambitions;

Make time to reach my fitness goals (i.e. better sleep, more frequent workouts, less social drinking, etc.);

Spend more evening time with my children during the school week and show them that reading is in fact FUN!

I’ve always been a voracious but streaky reader so for me to achieve this goal I had to make sure I had enough content queued up. Luckily, recommendations from friends and colleagues as well checking out GoodReads were great resources.

I focused on a broad cross section of content:

Newspapers – I get a fair bit of razzing from my coworkers about having a newspaper with me – the print edition of The Wall Street Journal – each day, but I like the habit of starting my morning with an overview of current business news and the occasional Jason Gay story on the glory and comedy of sports.

Books – Despite some of the parodies, one can actually read a book every few weeks! This year, I’ve already finished over 30 books including The Generals, Sam Walmart: Made in America, Chaos Monkeys, and Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency.

I really enjoy reading about all types of historical figures in business and politics. Often these books focus on a central theme of their path to success through a relentless work ethic, dedication to a higher cause, and the ability to motivate a diverse set of stakeholders that translates well in today’s business world. I’ve also tried to read more about health and spirituality topics including Man's Search for Meaning and How Will You Measure Your Life?.

LinkedIn, Inc., Medium, Quora, Blog posts – I flag articles during the day that I find on Twitter, Medium, Facebook, and LinkedIn and read them at night or over the weekend. This is becoming hard to complete with the dramatic increase in content over the last few years. Generally if I find the topic interesting and a member of my social graph (i.e. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) also recommends it, I make a point to read it. One of my favorite reads of 2016 is a great, dark parody on the Bay Area tech lifestyle from my friend Sunil Rajarmaran in the Bold Italic “This is Your Life in Silicon Valley.” Others include the startup section of Inc.com where fellow entrepreneurs like Andrew Thomas give great advice on business development, presentations, and work/life balance.

Newsletters – So much content, so little time, so I use help when I can get it to help curate what news I should pay attention to. Particularly informative are tech newsletters from Stacey Higginbotham, Benedict Evans, StrictlyVC, Term Sheet and John Maeda’s Design Blog, which are focused and draw attention to specific trends or insights in my industry.

Bonus – Children’s books! As someone with three children under seven years old, I’ve definitely had the opportunity to reacquaint myself with some of the classics. Goodnight Moon, Dr. Seuss, and plenty of Aesop Fables! Although the plots may be less complex than Westworld, it’s always a good reminder of what got me motivated to read. And I even caught myself quoting some passages from these classics in recent meetings.

Now I certainly don’t suggest cutting out all networking. In fact I am setting more breakfast and coffee meetings during the month. Those meetings accomplish more as my mind is fresh and less chances of interruption as in the crowded party events so prevalent in the valley.

What about you in 2016? Did you cut back your networking to focus on career development, fitness, family, etc.? What type of reading helps you to stay motivated and well rounded? Please comment below or tweet me at @naywilliams.