Chances are that you want to read more books than you currently do.
Yet, reading is probably one of the first things to fall off your list.
The average person read less than 6 books last year.
How many did you read?
Read on, if you want to learn how to fit more reading into your busy day.
No Time For Reading
You want to read more books, but you never seem to get around to it.
What’s stopping you?
Not enough time in your day? No reading material with you?
There are many benefits and great reasons to read more:
– To broaden your mind
– To learn new ideas
– To expand your mental skills
– For recreation or to relax
At work, reading can help you to learn new skills for your career.
At home, it can help you improve relationships or simply relax and escape from stress.
As much as people want to read, very few actually do.
Here are 8 Tips to Help You Get More Reading Done:
- Keep a Reading List – Make sure you keep a list of all of the books you want to read. It can be your “menu” of what to read next. Keep it right inside your todo app. Or you can save it in Evernote, your Moleskine, or wherever you keep your notes.
- Stop Reading the News – Reading the news is akin to eating junk food. Use an RSS reader and don’t check the news multiple times a day. Instead, read a book on a topic that interests you.
- Use an eReader – eReaders have forever changed the way we read and our ability to carry books with us. With an eReader you can have dozens (or hundreds) of books with you at any time. As well, the average person who uses an eReader, reads twice as many books as those who read traditional paper-based books. (I made the conversion to eReader a while ago and haven’t looked back. If it’s not available in ebook format, it probably doesn’t make my reading list.)
- Set a Reading Goal – Set a reading goal, however make sure you make it bite-sized. Don’t make it that you are going to read 37 books this year, but rather something you can relate to each day. Start with a small goal like reading 20 pages of a book daily.
- Read During the In-between – When you have time in-between events is the perfect time to get a quick read into your day. It doesn’t matter if it is 5 minutes or 50, get a quick read in-between meetings, appointments, and more.
- Always Have Reading Material With You – You never know when you may have a wait or some unexpected downtime. Having reading material with you ensures that you can make good use of the time instead of simply surfing the Web or incessantly checking email.
- Don’t Finish It All – You don’t have to finish every book you start. Don’t let a book bog you down and stop your reading. If it is not worth your time or you don’t enjoy it, put it down and move on to the next one.
- Set a Time Each Day – As with any habit, the best way to get it done each day is to set a specific time and place. Block time on your calendar each day for an appointment with your reading.
Fit More Reading Into Your Day
Finding time in your day to read is all about making the best use of your time.
Eliminate the extraneous sources like news, social media, and Web surfing.
Then, set aside reading time each and every day.
Before you know it, reading will be a habit that you do without even thinking about it.
Question: What is your best tip to ensure you read more often? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Love this post. Great tips and action points. Will be using these to set my reading goals in 2014.
Why wait for 2014?
Everyday is a good day and you still have 39 to go.
That’s a lot.
You can do or read so much in 39 days.
Enjoy
Hie
Yeah, I’ve always been a reader, but this is the first year I got really serious about reading. I set my goals in May and have finished reading 30 books so far this year, about half-and-half between fiction and nonfiction.
Not reading the news has been a BIG help for me, and I now feel like I don’t even understand why people think they have to be out there reading worthless current events articles every day. Reading valuable books is so much more edifying.
Personally, I actually prefer not to take my reading with me; I like to designate a time and then really focus on the book. For similar reasons, I personally find my best reading experience from physical books (I love collecting hardcovers) rather than e-books. But just for the sake of consuming information (particularly nonfiction books), I definitely see the value of using an eReader.
These are all good tips.
I used to bring something to read with me to appointments (doctor’s office, vehicle service). If I thought I would be sitting in a waiting room, I had something with me. I’d much rather read than look around, growing impatient.
~Lea
I am a big reader, but never feel like I have enough time to read.
I keep my list of books to read on Goodreads.
I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember, but once I started college I quickly found that the number of books on my shelf that I wanted to read kept growing, though I rarely read any of them. Once I’d graduated and started my career, I still couldn’t find time to read, but eventually I scheduled reading into my daily routine as a time commitment! Now I read 1-2 books a month, which I really enjoy.
Cool post, Craig! You should check out Blinkist regarding #5 and #6 – we’re trying to help people to fit more serious reading into their busy schedules.
Looks like this is an older post. Nevertheless, it’s a great one. Due to my professional requirements, I converted 90%of my reading to my tablet. It’s tremendously empowering to be able to carry my library with me. And it has improved many reading workflow in that my Android tablet reading app is connected to Evernote.
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I like how you said that reading can help you relax and to expand your mental skills. My wife told me that she would like to find a way to relax before going to bed. I will help her look for an interesting book so that she can read before she goes to sleep and help her relax.
That’s a good idea to always have a book with you. If I had something to read on my during downtime at work, or while I am on the train, then it would be much easier to get the reading done. I should take a look at getting some books that I can take with me to work so that I can fit in some reading time during the day.