Reading books is one of life’s great rewards, but in today’s increasingly distractible environment, it can be challenging to find time for books. In this read-more-books series, I’ll share the tips and tricks I use to read at least 50 books a year without feeling like I’m reading that much at all.
One of the most obvious ways to read more books is to … well, read more. But with busy lives and constant demands on our time, how do you rationalize curling up with a book for long stretches?
Tip #4: read on the go during the unavoidable lulls in your day
There’s a story floating around about someone seeing the novelist Stephen King waiting in line to see a movie. Mr. King, who has written over eighty books and is known for his voracious reading, inched forward in line with his nose between the pages of a paperback book. Once he found his seat, he continued reading in the dim light until the lights went out, and the trailers started. King shared that he reads about 80 books a year. “What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life,” King once shared.
I don’t see too many people walking around with their nose in a book these days. I do see a lot of people with their heads down looking at their phones at every possible moment, including walking down the street. The average U.S. adult spends almost two and a half hours looking at their phone every day. If you’re an iPhone owner, you have access to statistics about your phone usage by app. Look up your Screen Time in Settings. You might be surprised at how much time you spend.
What if you redirected a portion of that time to read books? You could be like Mr. King and carry around a paperback, or your Kindle, for the ultimate distraction-free reading experience, but you likely already take your phone everywhere. Like the adage about cameras, the best book to read is the one you have on you. And If you’re like most adults these days, you’re already trained to look at your phone even during the shortest wait (look at the people standing in grocery lines: how many of them have their phones out?). But, instead of scrolling through Facebook or Twitter, why not pull up the book you’re reading on the Kindle app?
Consider this math: the average adult reads 250 words per minute. A typical 300-page book represents 90,000 words or 6 hours of reading time. If you devoted 15 minutes of reading time a day, you would read an entire book every month, or 12 books a year. If you read for 30 minutes during short breaks during the day, and another 30 minutes at night before bed, you’ll be well on your way to 50 books per year. Remember, the average adult spends two and a half hours staring at their phone every day. Could you spare 30 minutes to read?
If you read for 30 minutes during short breaks during the day, and another 30 minutes at night before bed, you’ll be well on your way to 50 books per year.
One of the common reservations I hear about reading my book during short breaks is the mental shifting required to get into the story. Unlike the caffeine-like hits of social media, a book demands focus to gather together the plot lines of the story. It’s easier to drift along mindlessly in the stream of social media. But if you can push past that resistance, you’ll find it’s quite easy to shift into reading mode, wherever you are, and make headway in your book. If you’re like me, that 30 minutes of waiting at the DMV will fly by a lot quicker once immersed in a book.
Tips for Success:
There are a few things you can change on your phone to improve the odds you will read:
- Make sure you have a Kindle book is downloaded to your phone with Whispersync set up to keep your place between devices;
- Consider deleting the worst-offending apps that distract you the most. Or, at the very least, put these apps inside a folder that’s not on your default home screen;
- turn off notifications for these apps, including those pesky badge icons;
- Bonus tip: create a distraction-free phone home screen with just your Kindle app and a few critical communication apps on display. No temptations! Here’s mine:
We’re all given the same number of hours and minutes in every day. One of the most effective ways to read more books in a year is making good use of the bits of time that you’d otherwise squander on mindless (and endless) distractions. Squeezing some reading time during your day becomes meaningful over weeks and months. Start small and see if you can establish a daily on-the-go reading habit. You’ll be amazed at how much you can read during short breaks during your day.
Happy reading!