5 Easy Ways to Find Time to Read
In this age of smartphones and full schedules, it can be hard to find time to curl up with a good book. If you love to read, but you’re finding yourself extremely busy and neglecting your beloved books, here are some simple yet effective tips for anyone who’s trying to find time to read!
5 Easy Ways to Find Time to Read
1. Add Reading Time to Your Schedule
It might seem a little ironic to add yet another task to our over-scheduled lives just to relax, but sometimes that’s the best way to ensure that you get in some reading time. Scheduling it in may help you get rid of any guilt that might creep in. Forget the world, turn off the phone, ignore the doorbell, and just read.
Here are some ideas on when to schedule your reading time:
- Your commute. If you ride on public transportation, that could be a great time for you to read daily. Maybe the train is 10 minutes slower than driving there, but if you can’t find any other time to read, go ahead and take the train. Reading is that worthwhile.
- Go to bed 15, 30, even one hour earlier. And spend it reading in bed! What could be more heavenly than that?
- If you’re a morning person, try the opposite. Set the alarm 30 minutes earlier and spend that time reading. Your mind will feel energized and focused to tackle your day.
- Make it a habit to wash off your stress in your bath tub. Read during that time and enjoy your relaxing, yet mind-stimulating me time!
- Bring a book or an ereader with you at all times and make it a habit to whip it out any time you have a gap in your schedule. For example, waiting at doctor’s appointments, waiting for the bread to rise, or waiting for your kids to come at pickup. Fill in these gaps with some enriching reading time instead of scrolling through Instagram.
2. Switch To an E-Reader
Even if you love the feeling of holding a real book in your hands and smelling the pages, you might want to consider getting an e-reader, if you don’t have one already. Some people find that they read so much more with an e-reader. They’re easy to carry around with you and you can switch between several books in one device.
If you’re comfortable with reading small text or if you have a large smartphone, you could download a e-book reader app to your phone and read your books on it.
3. Multitask While Listening
We all have different books we love to read. We may love to learn new skills, or be stranded on an island. Every book, no matter the subject can be a bit of a vacation from reality’s. But when there is so much to do sometimes real life gets in the way.
With such great devices at our fingertips there is no reason you can’t “read”. Try audible or your local libraries app to borrow audiobooks. Listening to a book while cleaning is a great way to get away figuratively, while also getting things done literally. I call that a win/win.
4. Read More Than One Book At a Time
Every day is different and one day you might be in the mood for a serious, thoughtful book and another day you might just want a fun, light book to breeze through. For some people, reading several books at one time may help them to read more. That way, you’re not stuck with a serious novel when you’re just exhausted at the end of the day, which might cause you to reach for the laptop for some mindless browsing instead.
You could have a light, funny book, a deep historical novel, and a self-help book and put them all in different locations, like your bedroom, the living room by your reading chair, and in your bag. If you’re using an e-reader, it’s even easier to switch between books.
5. Read With Other People
Reading a good book with another person or a group of people is not only fun, but it holds you accountable. It’s a great motivator and you often can get new insights in what you read when you discuss it with other people. There are several ways to read with others:
- Join a book club. It could be a traditional book club that meets up once a month with tea and cookies, or a virtual book club that takes place online. There are many virtual book clubs on Facebook and other online sites. A good one to consider is the literature challenge at Hollywood Housewife. She hosts monthly book discussions on Facebook; this year she’s focusing on classic literature.
- If you can’t find a book club you want to join, form one! Even a small group of three people will still be a rewarding experience.
- Get a reading partner. The person could be your significant other, a best friend, your teenager or adult son or daughter, or your parent. You both could discuss how the book is going chapter by chapter to encourage the other to continue to read. This would be perfect for a long-distance relationship, for example!
Whatever you decide to do, it’s so important to truly allow yourself to do nothing and to achieve nothing when you read. Your only goal is to get lost in another life, another person’s thoughts, another perspective. Make it a routine, like eating or exercise. Happy reading!
Cassity has had a love of blogging since 2007, when she started her first blog Remodelaholic.com Since then as her interests have grown, and so has her need to share more things that she loves. Tipsaholic was born to share interesting lifestyle, family, kids, travel and financial topics, plus a bunch of stuff in between. I hope you learn some great tips and share them with those you love!
