Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to read first. When you've got some
Speaker 1: downtime and you're a tempted to pick up your phone
Speaker 1: and start scrolling. Read for just a minute or two first.
Speaker 1: You'll get a lot more reading done and probably do
Speaker 1: a bit less scrolling than you otherwise would have. When
Speaker 1: people think about what they'd like to spend more time doing,
Speaker 1: reading comes up a lot. Indeed, many people claim to
Speaker 1: have no time to read, though this most likely isn't true.
Speaker 1: Take a look at the screen time function on your
Speaker 1: phone and see what the number is. It is probably
Speaker 1: not zero. More importantly, it is not all work stuff
Speaker 1: like email or phone calls. Either reading tweets or clickbait
Speaker 1: articles or posts on Facebook is in fact reading. It's
Speaker 1: just not particularly great reading. So the problem is not
Speaker 1: finding time to read. It is upgrading our reading material.
Speaker 1: It's choosing slightly more effortful reading rather than the effortless stuff.
Speaker 1: When you put it this way, this suggests a slightly
Speaker 1: different solution than reworking a whole schedule to magically find
Speaker 1: more time to read. Instead, try this little upgrade. Every
Speaker 1: time you pick up your phone to start scrolling, commit
Speaker 1: to reading something more substantial. First. You don't have to
Speaker 1: read much. Just a minute is a good start. The
Speaker 1: easiest way to make this work is to put the
Speaker 1: Kindle app or another e reader app on your phone
Speaker 1: and load e books on there. Many of the classics
Speaker 1: are free or are available for a nominal price like cents. Indeed,
Speaker 1: for ninety nine cents apiece you could get versions of
Speaker 1: War and Peace, Middle March, Ulysses, Moby Dick, and Kristin
Speaker 1: Lavern's Daughter. You could go download those books right now
Speaker 1: for less than the price of a latte total and
Speaker 1: have something like a hundred hours of reading material on
Speaker 1: your phone now. Of course, I completely understand if you
Speaker 1: would prefer something much lighter, honestly me too, But in
Speaker 1: any case, there are no shortages of possibilities. You might
Speaker 1: try some poetry if that's a way to ease into reading,
Speaker 1: and nonfiction is great as well. Then when you pick
Speaker 1: up your phone, open the Kindle app and read for
Speaker 1: one minute. Most likely you're going to keep going because
Speaker 1: most books are pretty good. But even if you don't
Speaker 1: keep going, given how many times people pick up their phones.
Speaker 1: You will probably read for at least ten to fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes a day right there, and that is not terrible. Indeed,
Speaker 1: it's a pretty good start. Of course, you don't have
Speaker 1: to read on your phone. Reading real physical books can
Speaker 1: feel like a treat in this world where we always
Speaker 1: feel plugged in. Well, I normally read on my kindle
Speaker 1: app this past month, I've read two books as paperbacks,
Speaker 1: and I've really enjoyed the feeling of separation from my inbox. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the problem is that we really do almost always have
Speaker 1: our phones with us, whereas we don't have other material.
Speaker 1: It's a solvable problem, but one to be aware of.
Speaker 1: We don't want to make the perfect the enemy of
Speaker 1: the good. In any case, By committing to reading for
Speaker 1: just a minute or so first, you are not trying
Speaker 1: to set strict limits on your scrolling or trying to
Speaker 1: rely on willpower to stay off Twitter or anything like that.
Speaker 1: You are simply changing your habits slightly to do something
Speaker 1: else first. Then you can scroll through Instagram for an
Speaker 1: hour if you'd like, no problem. But by reading for
Speaker 1: a minute or so first, you get to have both
Speaker 1: kinds of fun, and that is really the best of
Speaker 1: both worlds. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart media dot com app Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H