How to Integrate Reading Into Your Home Life
After months of quarantine, we’ve all learned that when every aspect of life – work, parenting, school, cooking, eating, sleeping – takes place within the four walls of your home, it’s almost impossible to draw clear boundaries around any one of them. … Working from home also means no commuting – and if that was the only time you had to read or listen to an audiobook, you might find it difficult to fit reading into your routine while staying at home. (Reading to children is great, but it doesn’t count.)
It should not be. Here are some tips for reading more while you’re stuck at home.
Go to audiobooks
For bibliophiles who like to hold paper books and literally (pun intended) read words on a page, audiobooks will never be the same again. We know. (You don’t need to tell us in the comments.) But if you’re short on time, audiobooks make it easy to do multiple tasks at once — so you can “read” while doing other important or unavoidable — and often pointless — tasks.
Here are some ways to fit listening into your daily routine:
- While you are cooking or cleaning: play an audiobook instead of music. You can even sync with your smart speaker so you can listen as you move around the house.
- During exercise: Select book again over music (outdoors) or watching TV (indoors).
- Walking: Hopefully you go outside sometimes, even if it’s just a 10 minute walk around the block. Take your audiobook with you.
- On short trips : Even if you don’t commute to work, you can still go for groceries and other essentials. Use your travel time to get a couple of chapters.
Reading Schedule
Add reading to your calendar as if you were doing any other appointment or appointment, set up an alert and be responsible for it. A lock of just 15 minutes prevents people from scheduling last-minute events and reminds you to take a break. If you find yourself having trouble ignoring your phone, turn off alerts or consider blocking social media entirely .
Set aside more time in your day
We don’t necessarily recommend skipping much needed sleep or avoiding your more important responsibilities, but getting up half an hour early (especially if no one is awake in your house) is a great way to spend uninterrupted reading time.
Read over a cup of coffee or food
Instead of flipping through email or social media while drinking coffee or eating lunch, sit down with a book. Read a chapter or a certain number of pages before getting up. Set a timer if needed.
Break it down into manageable pieces
Choose a book with short chapters or a collection of short stories – whatever to make yourself feel like you are reaching your goal, even if you only know how to read for a few minutes. It’s also nice to have frequent natural breaks (chapter end) so that you don’t feel like you’re putting the book in the middle of an important idea, or that you have to go back and start over to remember what happened. last.
Join the virtual book club
Sometimes accountability is all it takes to stay motivated towards the goal of reading. If you are not already a book club member, invite a group of friends (or even another person) on board to read the same book. Set a schedule and schedule a virtual discussion meeting. It’s also a good way to get reading guidance outside of your usual favorite authors and genres.
Another option is to set up the rotation of books, which is what I do with my family. Here’s how it works: Everyone selects and reads a book during the first month (July). At the beginning of the next month (August), each of us sends the selected book to the next recipient and so on, until everyone has received and read each book selected in July. Then we start over. Knowing that you have to send the book by the deadline, you cannot put it aside and forget.
We’ve written before about other ways to read more when you’re not in quarantine. A few additional tips:
- Find a suitable spot in your home . On the couch in front of the TV or in bed at the end of the day is probably not right. Resist the temptation to do something other than reading.
- Carry a book with you . Keep your book (or device with audiobook downloads) close at hand so you can read when you have a minute to spare.
- Don’t force a book you don’t like . If reading seems like just another thing to you, you won’t. Even if you’re a follower of completeness, know when to put the book down if it’s not right for you.