Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Today's tip is about how
Speaker 1: to make more time to read. When I asked people
Speaker 1: what they want to spend more time doing, exercise always
Speaker 1: comes up first, and don't worry, we're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: lot about that in future episodes. But reading is a
Speaker 1: close second. Indeed, if you'd asked me a few years
Speaker 1: ago what I wanted to spend more time doing, I
Speaker 1: would have said reading books. I would have told you
Speaker 1: I was busy and I had very limited time to read.
Speaker 1: Then I tracked my time for a year, a year incidentally,
Speaker 1: when I had four children under the age of eight,
Speaker 1: including an infant, which I thought was a pretty good excuse.
Speaker 1: My timelogs were clear. My problem was not a lack
Speaker 1: of time to read. I had spent three seven hours
Speaker 1: reading that first year, which is almost an hour a day.
Speaker 1: But I couldn't remember many good books I had read.
Speaker 1: The truth as I had spent the vast majority of
Speaker 1: those three twenty seven hours reading online news stories and
Speaker 1: gossip magazines. Why well, that's what was easy and available
Speaker 1: when I had open time, So that is what I read.
Speaker 1: It makes sense, but It's also kind of sad, as
Speaker 1: three twenty seven hours is enough time to have read
Speaker 1: more than fifteen thousand pages of real stuff. I could
Speaker 1: have read War in Peace ten times. Let's just say
Speaker 1: that did not happen. So I resolved to do better,
Speaker 1: and over the next two years, I didn't spend much
Speaker 1: more time reading, but the quality of my reading material
Speaker 1: massively improved. I actually did read War in Peace. I
Speaker 1: read Moby Dick, I read Middle March, Infinite Jest, Kristin
Speaker 1: LaVerne's Datter one Q eighty four, Ulysses, a number of
Speaker 1: other amazing books on my reading bucket list. I did
Speaker 1: not magically find more time. Laura who had no time
Speaker 1: to read and Laura who read War and Peace were
Speaker 1: the exact same person, living in the exact same universe.
Speaker 1: It was just about being more strategic with the time
Speaker 1: I had. So if you'd like to be a better reader,
Speaker 1: you might try to do what I did. First, make
Speaker 1: sure you have really good books to read readily available.
Speaker 1: Now you might think this sounds backwards. I can just
Speaker 1: hear people yelling at this podcast, Laura, there are all
Speaker 1: these wonderful books that I have no time to read.
Speaker 1: This is not my problem. Let me ask you this,
Speaker 1: If you were to turn off this podcast, could you
Speaker 1: be engaged with a book you really wanted to read
Speaker 1: in the next thirty seconds, because I know you could
Speaker 1: be on Instagram in the next thirty seconds. If you
Speaker 1: don't have that same ability to dive into a book,
Speaker 1: then this is gonna limit your ability to seise time
Speaker 1: to read. So make a list of the books you'd
Speaker 1: really like to read, not what you think you should read.
Speaker 1: You're not in high school English class anymore. You don't
Speaker 1: have to read what you don't want to read, even
Speaker 1: if that cuts out some good books. I'll put this
Speaker 1: out here. I don't like false accusation stories, and I
Speaker 1: don't like the sort of awkwardness that's endemic to romantic comedies. Also,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's enough violence and cruelty in the
Speaker 1: real world that I just can't stomach too much of
Speaker 1: it in my fiction. Even though I know this puts
Speaker 1: some really good books off my list, I do me,
Speaker 1: you do you? So figure out what you'd like to read,
Speaker 1: build in, you know, twenty minutes a week or so.
Speaker 1: To find book recommendations, I like to check out the
Speaker 1: Modern Mrs Darcy blog and her podcast What should I
Speaker 1: read next? I look at the Wall Street Journals review
Speaker 1: section and Oh Magazine for ideas. I welcome your suggestions too,
Speaker 1: Then get your hands on the first handful. Physical books
Speaker 1: are great. But here was the real breakthrough for me.
Speaker 1: I put the Kindle app on my phone. This is
Speaker 1: Amazon's e reader app. And guess what, I always have
Speaker 1: my phone with me. Since you're listening to a podcast,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing this is the case for you to putting
Speaker 1: the Kindle app on my phone meant that I could
Speaker 1: immediately buy any e book I saw recommended, and I
Speaker 1: could turn my headline and social media scrolling time into
Speaker 1: reading time. People turn out to have a lot of
Speaker 1: this time. You probably pick up your phone at least
Speaker 1: fifty times a day. If you want to check the
Speaker 1: exact number, just look at the screen time function if
Speaker 1: you have an iPhone, so you pick up your phone,
Speaker 1: you delete junk email, and then what you probably look
Speaker 1: at social media or at headlines. But if you spend
Speaker 1: six of those five minutes spurts reading, that's half an
Speaker 1: hour a day of reading right there. And then the
Speaker 1: funniest thing happens when you're really into a book. You
Speaker 1: start magically finding more time to read instead of spending
Speaker 1: ten minutes puttering around with the mail pile looking at
Speaker 1: catalogs you read instead of channel surface you read. You
Speaker 1: are the exact same person, but time starts to open up.
Speaker 1: Of course, there are ways to build more reading time
Speaker 1: into your life structurally too. If you've got a long commute,
Speaker 1: definitely put audiobooks into the mix. Maybe you listen to
Speaker 1: this podcast for a bit and then listen to a
Speaker 1: chapter in a book. You know, if you've got a
Speaker 1: forty five minute commute, you're going to spend seven and
Speaker 1: a half hours in the car this week. You're gonna
Speaker 1: spend forty five hours in the car over the next
Speaker 1: six weeks anyway, so you might as well listen to
Speaker 1: Doris Karen's Goodwin's Team of Rivals, which clocks in at
Speaker 1: just under forty two hours. Reading is also a great
Speaker 1: way to wind down at night. I try to get
Speaker 1: ready for bed at least twenty to thirty minutes before
Speaker 1: lights out time a few days per week. Then I
Speaker 1: can use that time to read. Finally, one of the
Speaker 1: most motivating things I did was to start keeping track
Speaker 1: of what books I've read. There are fancy book journals
Speaker 1: out there, but you don't really need anything like that.
Speaker 1: Just a notebook or a file on your computer or
Speaker 1: your phone is going to do just fine. You can
Speaker 1: also start sharing your lists of books read with friends.
Speaker 1: Not only will people see what you like and start
Speaker 1: recommending titles. It's a great way to hold yourself accountable,
Speaker 1: because while I really did enjoy reading War in Peace,
Speaker 1: I also get a kick out of telling people I
Speaker 1: read War in Peace. I'm guessing you will too. This
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b the number four,
Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, should I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For
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