Being an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction, it always niggles me when people tell me they struggle to find the time to keep up to date with their reading. Squeezing moments of book time into your day can be fulfilling and relaxing. This blog article will suggest ways to include regular reading into your daily routine.
1) During A Break
Books are very portable and fairly easy to carry around on the whole but clearly electronic versions are perfect for taking to work with you. I often take ten minutes of my lunch break to find a quiet space in order that I can read a chapter of one of my current ebooks, using my phone. This gives me great satisfaction and allows me to forget about work, swiftly becoming absorbed into a fictional world for a short while, which is really rewarding and often quite soothing, It enables me to make some progress with my TBR (To be read) list and escape from the madness of the workplace, even if only briefly.
2) Public Transport
Sat on a train or bus seems a natural place to unpack a book and have a glance at a chapter or two, especially when the weather is bad and the view outside is not particularly stunning. Having travelled around Europe on buses and high speed trains, I have been able to alternate between snapping photos of the landscape and immersing myself in juicy segments of some of my favourite novels. I fondly remember a coach trip to Paris where I read ‘Five Quarters of an Orange’ by Joanne Harris and it solidified my already growing enthusiasm for her writing, converting me into a lifelong fan.
3) Awaiting A Meeting
We all have occasions where we need to wait for something, be it a doctors appointment, a meeting with a client or a dreaded interview. Meetings can be face-to-face and online, but one thing they have in common is waiting time. Taking your mind off of that wait comes naturally when you are hooked on a book, absorbed into a gripping story thread. Whether it fills the awkward gap spent watching a holding screen on your laptop, right before a Zoom call, or simply you are in a waiting room nervously awaiting a dentist appointment, reading is a helpful time filler. It will give you a manageable task to do, which will be satisfying and increase your progress through your book haul. So sneak a novel into your bag or keep one loaded onto the Kindle app on your ipad or phone. You won’t regret it when it helps you take your mind off an awkward wait.
4) Listen!
If your work involves staring at a screen all day long then perhaps you can give your tired eyes a well deserved rest and try your luck with an incredible audiobook. Again, this could happen on your journeys to and from work, long distance trips or even while you do your daily run. Once you have some comfortable earphones or EarPods, all you need is a credible audiobook app such as Audible and you are well on your way to becoming immersed in a fictional setting once more.
5) Bedtime Stories
Yes! I admit this is my absolute favourite place to read stories or non-fiction. I have often taken Mindy Kaling to bed and giggled at her anecdotes. Additionally I have transported myself to different locales and even entirely made up worlds, using that well known time machine of a bed.
Why not set your alarm ten minutes early and wake yourself up with a chapter of your favourite book? Alternatively, grab a hot chocolate and give yourself some well deserved ‘ME-TIME’ and snuggle up with a good work of fiction before settling down for the evening. In times of stress and busy schedules, a few quiet moments of reading before going to sleep seems an obvious way to wind down. I read something almost every night and often find I am resisting closing my eyes due to being keen to get to the end of the next instalment of my current page-turner.
So whether you read one page or ten, you can always find time and space to make some progress with your reading if you put your mind to it. Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you consider following it for more similar posts.
