Reading books is generally regarded as a good activity. You can learn a lot from reading books.
It’s only a fun way to pass the time. Just like online poker is another great way to pass time and make some money. Some people view reading books as better than other sorts of hobbies.
I’m not one of these people but I do think reading books is fun.
The problem for a lot of people though is that reading a book is a time investment.
It can take a lot longer to finish a book than it can to say watch a movie or browse social media.
There are also times when you want to read a book but you just get distracted by other things. Figuring out how to actually get around and finish reading a book can be harder than it seems.
Luckily there are some tricks you can use if you are really serious about reading more books.
The first step is to figure out whats stopping you from reading more books.
Are you disinterested in the book you are trying to read yet keep attempting to continue it?
Do you not have time to read yet you really want to?
Do you keep getting distracted by other things and never sit down and actually read a book?
All of these are common problems people have when trying to read more books yet all of these have ways of solving them.
Some of the methods you can use require more effort and willpower than others but it might be the best method for overcoming what you currently are doing. AKA reading block.
Find a book that interests you
Sometimes you might realize that a book you have been reading actually isn’t as interesting to you as you thought it was.
This can cause you to be slow in reading it and why you might be having trouble continuing it.
You might have to take a hard look back at what you’ve read so far and think. You might like the idea of the book itself but the writing and style is not to your taste. Or there could be certain characters that are written badly that distract you too much from the book itself.
It could just be confusing.
There are a lot of reasons why you might dislike a book and that’s okay. You could try figuring out what you did like about the book and looking for a new book that has those same qualities.
There are plenty of book reviews online too, if you want to know the general consensus of a book before you buy or borrow it you can check there.
Another great idea, if you are borrowing books from a library, is to ask a librarian. They are trained to help you and they really want to even if they do seem a little scary.
How to try and find time for a book
A lot of people can’t find the time for reading nowadays and that makes sense. People live busy lives.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t methods for making time for reading, some of them just require a little work.
There are a lot of short periods of time throughout your day that you probably find yourself browsing social media on your phone. Think about if you can try and replace some of these times with reading a few pages of whatever book you’re currently on.
Now this doesn’t always work for some people. There are a lot of people who can’t get into a book unless they can read it for a long period undisturbed.
But there are ways of finding longer periods of time for reading if you really want to.
Try before bed. If you are like most people then you probably browse your phone for longer than you should before sleeping. There are a lot of reasons you should stop this.
Blue light and the effects social media has on your brain when you are trying to sleep are big parts of this. When you use your phone it makes your brain think you are more awake than you probably are and makes it harder for you to fall asleep.
Doing something that is not as active as a bright phone before bed is a lot better for sleeping but breaking the temptation to use your phone is hard.
The easiest method many find is to just put their phone away an hour or so before bed. Keep your phones charger away from your bed.
Then when you plug it in to charge for the night you can’t use it instead of falling asleep. It’s a simple yet effective solution.
Now just replace that time you would’ve spent on your phone with reading and you’ll finish more books in no time.
How to stop getting distracted by other things
Distractions are a part of life. It’s inevitable that something will most likely come up while you are trying to read a book. But you can minimize this.
If you are like most people then you probably have at least one day off a week.
You should start looking at this day differently than you probably already are.
This day off shouldn’t be when you catch up on chores, work or what ever else you have that piles up till the end of the week. It should truly be a day off, no responsibilities.
Start planning your week around you getting no work done on your day off.
It can take some practice but if you get it down then you’ll start feeling a lot more relaxed on your days off.
It’ll almost feel like an actual day off, instead of just a day you don’t have to go to work.