We’re all busy, right? We’ve got work, or uni, we’ve got pals to see, family to catch up with, household jobs, shopping, nights out, that mate’s art exhibition that you really can’t be bothered going to but drag yourself along to anyway.
And we’ve all said it at some point or another; ‘I’d love to read more, but I just don’t have TIME’… as we settle in to our fourth hour of Stranger Things.
If you really want to read, I’m almost 100% certain that you’ll find time, and today I wanted to share a few of my tips for squeezing in some reading time when you THINK you’re too busy.
1) Set aside time each day
This seems obvious, but then why aren’t we all doing it? If you’re a morning person, why not enjoy half an hour of reading with your morning coffee instead of scrolling through Instagram? Or if you’re an evening person, why not sacrifice an hour of TV for an hour of reading?
They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, so get into the habit of reading for an hour each day, and before you know it you’ll wonder how you ever thought you didn’t have time.
2) Embrace the audiobook
There seems to be a weird assumption that listening to audiobooks isn’t REALLY reading, and that in some ways it’s even cheating. Rubbish! In fact, audiobooks are an amazing way to make all of our favourite books accessible to those who can’t read regular books, so we should really be celebrating them.
So next time you’re driving to work, walking around town or even just cooking at home, why not stick an audiobook on?
If you’ve got the money to splash out, you can even buy both the audiobook and Kindle version of the same book, and your devices will automatically sync your reading place so you can listen on the way home, and pick up exactly where you left off on your Kindle in the evening. Neat.
3) Always keep a book on you
Wherever you go, make sure you’ve got a book in your bag or your car. That way, whenever you get a free 10 minutes, you’ve got something to do. Perfect when you’ve arrived at the coffee shop to meet your friends way too early and don’t have enough battery on your phone to preoccupy yourself.
4) Don’t forget about short stories
When people talk about reading, they usually mean big, ‘important’ novels – but sometimes the thought of starting something as daunting as War and Peace can actually put people off altogether.
Short stories have just as much literary value and are great ways to squeeze in more reading to your life, without taking 3 months to drag your way through a book.
5) Don’t be afraid to give up on a book
It’s happened to the best of us – we’ve started a book that’s had great reviews or our friend loved or we felt like we had to read because it’s a classic, and then discover that we’re actually really not enjoying it. It’s easy to get stuck then – you don’t want to give up, but you also don’t want to keep going. So what do you end up doing? Reading nothing at all!
This has definitely happened to me on more than on occasion – I’m looking at you American Gods!
So if you’re struggling your way through a book and really aren’t enjoying it, just call it quits and move on! There’s way too many books out there to get hung up over that one book you *should* love.
How do you fit reading time into your day?
That Novel Feeling 
digital era has really messed up with my reading. made me so lazy. but you are right about audio book and short stories. actually I’m trying to get my concentration back ( i mean that it will last more than a minute) by writing thus making me read more to. really enjoyed your post.
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