How to Read More
I Didn’t Use to Have this Problem
Originally in high school I read a lot.
Somehow I made time for reading in the midst of school, violin, and sports to
sit down and read. Suddenly when I went to college though, I found myself
unable to spend as much time reading. Suddenly I was watching much more youtube
videos and Netflix, because “I was tired.” When I looked back on my time, I
realized that I had spent a lot of time watching youtube and Netflix and I
could have instead spent that time reading. What happened? It seems as though,
because it’s so readily available that youtube and Netflix are easy to watch.
In my mind, for some reason, reading takes planning. I have to have several
hours free, before I think that I have enough time to read.
That’s an excuse I give myself: that
I’m too tired to read. What? Me the girl who reads like she breathes air is too
tired to read. It doesn’t make sense.
But it Can be Fixed
The way I’ve come to fix this and find
time for reading in between classes and homework and work during the school
year. And between two jobs this summer is to plan ahead for when I can read. If
I look ahead at my day, I suddenly see that I have a spare hour here where I
can read or a spare hour there. If I plan ahead for when I can read, then not
only do I end up reading, but I can look forward to reading and not be as
“tired” as I thought I was.
I’ve also incorporated some of my
strategies for starting habits into reading. It’s not that reading is a
chore to me. It’s just that I seem to have somehow fallen out of habit of
reading. My first thought when I have some spare time isn’t too pick up a book.
Instead I just click a youtube video or Netflix show, whose companies spend
hours of time trying to figure out how to keep me (as well as anyone else) on
their sites for as long as possible. So I’ve started to retrain my brain to
look for time to read.
Research
Research has shown you can train your
brain to scan for things to be grateful for and in time you will become more
grateful (1). The scientists even went so far as to say that it seems as
though, “the more of an effort you make to feel gratitude one day, the more the
feeling will come to you spontaneously in the future.” I’m taking that same
strategy and training my brain to scan my schedule and my days for time to
read. The result? I’ve been reaing books like crazy, despite the fact that I’m
also working like crazy. This doesn’t mean I stop watching all my shows
entirely. Instead, it means that I’m having less and less of those days where
you sat down to watch a youtube video or two and ended up spending 3 hours on
the website. My new strategies let me read for an hour and then watch those two
youtube videos, before I have to rush off to work again.
Spare Time
You know that saying “Never put off for
tomorrow what you can do today?” Well its similar to habits. “Don’t put off for
later what you can do now.” The way I “forget” my habits, or “don’t have time”
to read is I think, “Ah yes, that book I will read that after I watch this
video…” or “Right writing for 15 mins I can do that, but I’m going to make
dinner first.” NO! Do it now. Do the other thing, if possible, later. We have
way more discretionary time than we realize. Don’t believe me? How many times a
day do you think you check your phone? 4 times, 10 times, 20 times? According
to Daily Mail, the average smartphone user picks up their phone around 200
times per day (2). Of course some of those it’s just to check a single text
message, but other times it can easily eat up 5, 10 maybe even 15 minutes. As
you may know, I write for 15 minutes every day. With as much time as we spend
on our phones, without realizing it, we could start a new habit.
Now don’t worry, I’m not going to be one
of those people that rants about people and their phones or kids and their
devices. I have an iphone and I really enjoy it. At the same time, I want to
have more time for doing things that I like and choosing to pick up a book,
when I could check reddit on my phone helps my decisions align with where I
want to actually spend my time. Because at the end of the day, I would have
much rather spent an hour reading, then an hour browsing reddit.
What about you?
Am I the only one with this issue? How do
you find time for reading in your busy schedule? What are some changes you made
that helped?
Notes:
Sources:
Image Credit: "P9140240 books 20130914" by caligula1995
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