Finding The Time To Read!
I was recently at a networking meeting and was not only promoting goodbookfairy.com, but also preaching about the importance of reading. After the meeting, a woman told with me that she has no time to read anymore and wanted to know where I found the time.
My immediate answer: I make the time! Of course, not everyone believes they can do that; with work, parenting, volunteering, grocery shopping, getting the dry cleaning, doing the constant barrage of laundry, carpooling and schlepping to and from everybody’s everything, making time to play Candy Crush and watch Scandal, I can empathize with their concern. However, I am 100% certain that it is possible to add reading back into your life.
A few others joined in the conversation and some interesting ideas were shared as to how they find time in their busy lives to enjoy books. Here’s a handful of some of the best suggestions:
- For every 5 minutes you play Words With Friends/Candy Crush/2048 (you get the idea) during down time, you have to multiply it with reading time.
- 10 to 20 minutes of reading without fail, every night, before bed. It becomes habitual.
- Use a Kindle or iPad (or any other eReader) and keep it with you all the time. Then it’s handy for reading in long carpool lines or in waiting rooms.
- Join a book club. Most meet every 4-6 weeks so it gives ample time to get through a book, even if you just read the 10-20 minutes a day.
- If you have a student in middle school or high school, read what they’re reading. They are almost always great selections and it may just be an added bonding activity.
Reading is a healthy escape, it uses parts of the brain that get ignored while we sit on our computers or watch TV, it increases our vocabulary immensely and is flat out enjoyable. There’s a genre for everyone and an abundance of fabulous books to choose from.
I hope that if you, or someone you know, is looking to find the time to read or is looking for the perfect read, you’ll share this email or send them directly to goodbookfairy.com, after all, life’s too short to read bad books.
Happy Reading,
L
“Join a book club. Most meet every 4-6 weeks so it gives ample time to get through a book, even if you just read the 10-20 minutes a day.”
That one makes the least sense. The time spent travelling to/from and in attendance the book club meeting is valuable reading time. If you have time to attend the meeting then you don’t really have a problem finding time to read. Or put another way, instead of wasting time going to the meeting, just use that time to read.
thanks for the interesting feedback Khurt.