I I love those cozy “day in the life” posts where you get to peek into someone’s everyday routines – the little rhythms of work, hobbies, and how they squeeze in the things they love. So today I thought I’d share what a real week in my reading life looks like. Not the ideal version. Not the aesthetic Instagram version. Just the real one.
Last week happened to be a travel week, which always changes my reading habits a bit. It becomes a mix of audiobooks in airports, early morning pages, and whatever quiet moments I can steal in hotel rooms. Here’s what the first week of March 2026 looked like.
Monday – Travel Day
I’m headed to Minneapolis for the week, starting today, and I get to the airport at 5:30AM. Between a layover, a flight delay, and a 90-minute drive to the small Minnesota town where I was working for the week, I managed to log a lot of audiobook time.
I spent most of the day listening to Someone Birthed Them Broken, Ama Asantewa Diaka, and by the time I checked into my hotel around 5 PM, I was already more than 3/4 of the way through. The stories are deeply relatable, and I loved getting a glimpse into everyday life in Ghana through the characters.
Travel days are exhausting though. After grabbing dinner, showering, and checking in with work emails, I did the only thing that made sense: went straight to sleep. No bedtime reading that night.
Audiobook listening time: 5 hours
Tuesday – A Very Full Work Day
Work starts at 5:45 AM today. I work in the food industry, and on this trip, there’s 5 of us. Once the day got going, it was pretty much non-stop until we left at 4:15 PM. We had a lunch break, but since everyone ate together, it wasn’t one of those quiet “sneak in a few pages” lunches.
After work, I went back to the hotel, changed, drove about 10 minutes to a nearby gym and ran 4 miles on the treadmill. I’m one of those runners who can only listen to music while running. Audiobooks just don’t work for me when I’m trying to keep pace.
Dinner with the team was at 6 PM, and by the time I got back to the hotel, I was ready to call it a night. Some days in a reading life just look like this … no reading.
Reading time: 0 mins
Wednesday – Early Morning Pages
Every Wednesday I have a 6 AM work call with a global team, which meant an extra early start. But it also meant something I love: quiet morning reading time. I woke up around 5 AM, made some coffee, and read for about 30 minutes from the book I packed for the trip: Kin by Tayari Jones.
There’s something special about reading in a hotel room before the day starts. It’s quiet, a little cozy, and feels like a small pocket of time that belongs only to you. After my call, I headed to work for another full workday. That evening I squeezed in a treadmill run and skipped dinner out, which meant I had about an hour to read before bed.
Reading time: 90 mins
Thursday – Heading Home
Work began at 5 AM today … it’s been a week of early mornings! Since I was heading straight to the airport afterward, I packed my suitcase before leaving the hotel. The day flew by, and I wrapped up around 3 PM.
That 90-minute drive to the airport turned into more audiobook time, and I kept listening to Someone Birthed Them Broken, finishing right before boarding the plane home.
It was one of those rare reading experiences where you’re not quite ready to leave the characters yet. Luckily, I also had the eBook from the library on my phone. So somewhere above the clouds, I opened the digital copy and reread a few of the stories I loved most. Just to stay in that world a little longer. I finally walked through my front door around midnight.
Reading time: About 3 hours
Friday – Back Home
Although I didn’t get to sleep until about 2AM Friday morning, my body was still on the week’s early schedule, so I woke up at 7 AM anyway. The plan for the day was simple: work a half day, then head to a race expo and packet pickup for a 15 KM I’m running this weekend.
Before work, I went for a run outside around 8AM – first time running outside all week. After a week of treadmill miles in Minnesota’s 30-degree weather, running outside in sunny 65° Florida felt amazing.
After the run and work, I spent some time doing my My 6 Step Post-Reading Routine and chose an audiobook to listen to on my drive. I realized I hadn’t read any horror yet this year, which is one of my favorite genres, so King Sorrow, Joe Hill, was just calling to me.
By the time I got home, the week had finally caught up with me. I ended the night binge-watching Prodigal Son on Netflix and going to bed early.
Audiobook Listening Time: 2 hours
That was my week. Travel weeks always look a little different from my normal routine. I read fewer physical pages, but I usually make up for it with a lot more audiobook listening.
I always love hearing how other readers make time for books. Tell me one thing from your reading life this week — a book you started, a great audiobook moment, or even just the place you managed to read a few pages.
