Thursday, April 27, 2017

Tips to help you read more

Hi readers. I wanted to do this post because if you're anything like me you have very little time to do anything for just yourself. For me that means setting aside time to read. All day long I sit and think about all the things I need to do throughout my day when all I really want to do is read. Wrapping myself up in a new book is my favorite thing in the entire world and I have quite the collection that has been neglected for so long. With my schedule being so busy I have had to creatively find new ways to read more so here's some tips that have worked for me and I hope that they will work for you as well.

1. Audiobooks!!! I cannot stress enough how much audiobooks have helped me. I listen to them when I drive to the grocery store when I have to go to an appointment or when I'm driving home to visit friends and family. Because of that I have listened to seven books just this year including The Mark of Athena and now the House of Hades as well as The Alchemist. Audio books are such a great way to kind of Disconnect from the busyness of everyday life and immerse yourself in a story even if you don't have your nose in an actual book.

2. Scheduling. My schedule is always packed. Although i don't work which I am very blessed to not have to do so that means  I take care of house and home, my husband, a puppy, the finances, I set up appointments I do all the paperwork, I do it all. So where in a 24-hour period do I find time to read. Well I have to schedule in little blocks of time throughout my day. For instance I have been going to the gym quite often and when I do so I bring my book, in fact I finished a book today! I read the last 60 pages while I was on the treadmill and I'll tell you what... it was fantastic I was tired, I was sweaty but I felt so good knowing I had finished yet another book. On days that I don't go to the gym usually I will schedule my time after my puppy's down for the night and I'm curled up in bed.

3. Don't force it. This is more of a tip so that you don't get frustrated if you can't read during your day. Don't force yourself to read if you're not in the mood. I cannot stress this enough. If you try to force yourself to read when you're either not in the mood or have too much going on youre not going to not get wrapped up in the story and not process what you're reading or you're going to piss yourself off because you tried so hard to read and still can't do it so do not force it.
... And finally

4. Set an amount of pages. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the scheduling aspect. But if you're having a busy day and all you want to do is sit down for just a few minutes and read a book give yourself an allotted amount of pages. Tell yourself okay I can't do anything else until I read 15 pages of this book and make yourself read those 15 pages and be as present as possible. Immerse yourself in those 15 pages just so that when you finish your satisfied with what you read, how you took it in and are now ready to tackle the next part of your day and if you find you have more time give yourself another 15 pages.

the bottom line is we as a society find ourselves going 10 miles a minute and it's completely unacceptable if we do anything less (am I right?!?!) But it's okay to put things aside that don't need to be done right away like the dishes or the laundry give yourself a little bit of time just for you. I can't tell you how many days I finally had a few moments for just me and I would sit with my book and think oh I still need to do the dishes and I put my book down and go do the dishes and then I would find a handful of other things that needed to be finished right then and there so that by the end of my day I would have a huge chunk of time to read. But that's not how it works because by the time I got into bed and had my book out ready to read I was so exhausted from doing so much throughout my day. So if you follow these four steps or any variation of them whether you add extra steps or subtract some steps these should help you find more time during your day to read.

I hope you guys got something out of this that might help you when you're in a reading slump when you feel uninspired or when you feel like you just don't have any time because believe me I understand but using these tips should not only help you find more time to read but inspire you to read more and more often!

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