How do you find time to read and read 100 books a year?

Daily target: 866 words. Written: 910.

Today I was on a small, short date in a small, short café. As the conversation turned from writing and tattoo art to reading and favourite books, I heard the phrase:

"I'd like to read more, but..."

And even though the phrase ended with a "but", I'm sure you could think of at least a dozen possible excuses at the end of it: no time, no desire, no good books, hard to concentrate, or whatever.

Is that the case for you too? Do you want to read more, but something keeps getting in the way and it never becomes reading?

Then read on.

(And yes, you'll have to read if you want to read more. This is, in fact, one of the 5 reading exercises I'll mention later.)

Some irony: We already read too much.

Well, before you learn how to read more, it's a good idea to... First, learn how to read less.

And yes, I know it may sound strange, but you are already reading more than it may seem. Even if you don't subscribe to magazines or newspapers, and even if you don't follow Delphi or Cloud... you still read the letters that are in other places.

• On Facebook, you read your friends' posts, personal messages, ads, quotes and other crap;
• When you go out, you read the billboards, noticeboards and menu books in cafés;
• If you text a friend or write to a person on Tinder... you're reading too;
• In the car, you listen to meaningless chatter on the radio on the road (which is also reading, as there are audio books);
• Or you open the texts on Cloud or another website and use them.

Whereas in ancient Greek or Lithuanian times, knowledge was transmitted orally, now it is transmitted by text. And video and radio broadcasts are not so ubiquitous...

So what is it that we read so much? But I don't read books and articles that I would like to read!

What does this have to do with your desire to read better literature?

Simple:

|| Your time and energy are limited. You do not have infinite resources of life.

This is one reason why I encourage more laziness. But it is also the reason why, in all that reading, you do not read what you want to read most.

How can you have X to read good literature if you use all of X poorly?

(Instead of X, insert your excuse for what you say you lack - time, energy, money, attention, good eyes, motivation, something else...)

Realistically, you already have everything you need to read the literature you want. But you will have to choose between reading you don't like (or appreciate)... or reading you do like and appreciate?

Here's my personal example to help me read EVERYDAY.

I am a busy person. Debesyla, my second blog, various books I'm writing myself, and some new renovations to my house. And mornings, evenings or days I not only don't have the time but also the energy to read.

Or at least that's until I look again at my desire to learn and compare it with what I was doing then. The scheme is simple:

1. Inside, I want to read interesting books (about psychology, the beginnings of philosophy, one novel or another);
2. I live my life with a commitment of energy and time to life activities;
3. Sometimes I notice: "Oh my God, I'm reading something that's not in the "Interesting Books"!
4. After procrastinating for a few minutes, I close it (a newspaper, a Facebook wall, a blog of a cloud dweller);
5. I pick up a book;
6. I put it in front of a plate full of pasta, open it while reclining in a chair or, much later, take it for a ritual in the toilet;
7. I read;
8. When I get bored or finish a chapter, I close it and put it back on the shelf.

I repeat. Sometimes 5-8 times a day, depending on how many times I go out to eat, take a nap, or do rituals. And yes, somehow my reading process is inseparable from food. 🙂

It's not something magical. It's not an exclusive trick. It's just self-monitoring, just like I monitored myself on the internet. And it works.

So - an exercise for you:

1. Watch yourself;
2. And when you find that you're wasting time and could be reading (a paper book or whatever else is interesting to you), stop wasting time;
3. Instead, open a book.

In fact, according to one of my favourite authors, Leo Babauta, replacing bad things with good ones is the easiest way to change a habit. I noticed this effect after the first month.

I believe that if you try, you will succeed too. But first, do an experiment and try. 🙂

Sounds good. But it's not that simple, right?

Right. It's not THAT simple. Because if there was a magic trick, there would be no need for reading coaches at all. Because reading fluently is a habit.

|| And, unfortunately, we can hardly read in one piece anymore.

For example, how many times have you looked at one of the links, gone to Facebook or done something else unrelated to reading while reading this article?

At least with my younger generation, it is the case that we can no longer read in one stroke. Because our type of reading has changed.

By the way, this is not a bad change! It's just a natural change when information flows change. In fact, children (or perhaps you?) who are now unable to read even a few pages without a break are even better adapted to today's world.

(Yes, you heard right - those who cannot concentrate on reading are more adaptable. I don't know if it's for the better, but it's adaptive!)

That's why you need to train yourself to read.

But how do you spend your days? Do you read? Or do you not read? What do you do when you wake up in the morning or before going to bed? What do you do in the toilet? Do you read light works (like your friends' posts on Facebook) or works that turn your head (like high matter books)?

The exercise I recommend is very simple:

1. Take the book in your hands.
2. Read it until you get tired of reading it.
3. Take a moment, don't put the book away - just let yourself dream, snooze, rest your eyes and your head. You can rewrite a better idea from the book in your notebook.
4. Take a look at the book and read on.
5. Repeat until you finally can't anymore. Say, after two attempts at reading.
6. Put the book away and go live life!
7. In the evening... In the morning, at lunchtime or whenever you come back - open the book again. Don't try to read it all again, just one page. Well, maybe two. Well, if you can do two, maybe you can do three? Three too many? All right, let's pause again, we'll continue in a moment.
8. Card.

After a while, you realise that something has happened...

...And now you can read it without losing your train of thought. Read and finally understand!

You learned to read.