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 Statter 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 in Peace were
Speaker 1: the exact same person, living in exact same universe. It
Speaker 1: was just about being more strategic with the time I had.
Speaker 1: So if you'd like to be a better reader, you
Speaker 1: might try to do what I did. First, make sure
Speaker 1: you have really good books to read readily available. Now
Speaker 1: you might think this sounds backwards. I can just hear
Speaker 1: people yelling at this podcast, Laura, there are all these
Speaker 1: wonderful books that I have no time to read. This
Speaker 1: is not my problem. But 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 cease 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 section,
Speaker 1: 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 catalogs.
Speaker 1: You read instead of channel surfing. You read. You are
Speaker 1: the exact same person, but time starts to open up.
Speaker 1: Of of course, there are ways to build more reading
Speaker 1: time into your life structurally too. If you've got a
Speaker 1: long commute, definitely put audiobooks into the mix. Maybe you
Speaker 1: listen to this podcast for a bit, and then listen
Speaker 1: to a chapter in a book. You know, if you've
Speaker 1: got a forty five minute commute, you're going to spend
Speaker 1: seven and a half hours in the car this week.
Speaker 1: You're gonna spend forty five hours in the car over
Speaker 1: the next six weeks anyway, so you might as well
Speaker 1: listen to Doris Karen's Goodwin's Team of Rivals, which clocks
Speaker 1: in at just under forty two hours. Reading is also
Speaker 1: a great way to wind down at night. I try
Speaker 1: to get ready for bed at least twenty to thirty
Speaker 1: minutes before lights out time a few days per week.
Speaker 1: Then I can use that time to read. Finally, one
Speaker 1: of the most motivating things I did was to start
Speaker 1: keeping track of what books I've read. There are fancy
Speaker 1: book journals out there, but you don't really need anything
Speaker 1: like that, Just a notebook or a file on your
Speaker 1: computer or your phone is going to do just fine.
Speaker 1: You can also start sharing your lists of books read
Speaker 1: with friends. Not only will people see what you like
Speaker 1: and start recommend ending titles. It's a great way to
Speaker 1: hold yourself accountable because while I really did enjoy reading
Speaker 1: War in Peace, I also get a kick out of
Speaker 1: telling people I read War in Peace. I'm guessing you
Speaker 1: will too. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody got
Speaker 1: a tip or a question. You can share them with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at Before Breakfast pot
Speaker 1: that's be the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also email me at Before Breakfast podcast at
Speaker 1: iHeart Media dot com for the email to spell those
Speaker 1: words out. I look forward to connecting and learning how
Speaker 1: you make the most of your time.