Almost everyone I know has a similar story when it comes to reading. As kids, we could finish a book within a day and probably read four or five books per month. Trips to the library were a regular and highly anticipated occurrence, and our library cards saw a lot of action.
So what happened to those young avid readers? As we grew up, we had to devote more time to school and extracurriculars, and reading became an afterthought. Suddenly, we couldn’t justify giving up precious time for homework, socializing, or working in order to settle in with a book. Reading became associated with the guilt of ignoring our new responsibilities.
Deep down, we all dream of having the extra time we had for reading when we were younger, and hope that we will somehow make our way back to our old hobby. I am here to tell you, from personal experience, how to actually make that dream a reality.
I decided that it was time to put effort into reading more after watching this YouTube video from Max Joseph, which I highly recommend if you want to learn about how to bring reading back into your life. He breaks down the number of books he could read before he dies based on his current reading habits and explores beautiful bookstores around the world. It’s kind of the “Beyond Scared Straight” of getting yourself to dedicate more time to reading.
In the video, Joseph explained how he could dramatically increase his lifetime book intake if he simply started reading thirty minutes per day. That baffled me because I figured if I really tried, I could find at least fifteen minutes extra per day for reading and decompressing. For a couple of months now, I have been attempting to do just that.
I have not been successful in doing so every night, but I have seen lots of benefits from just trying to find that extra time. I am much more productive now because I work harder to finish my homework with time to spare before I go to sleep. When I am successful, I give myself a gift, by having time to read before bed. When I am not successful, I still get the benefits of being more productive than I would have been if I wasn’t trying to have extra time at night.
After reading for fifteen to thirty minutes, I feel so much more peaceful and content when I go to bed. There is a significant difference in how well I sleep and how calm I feel when I wake up. Reading is amazing for centering yourself and resetting at the end of a busy day in the life of a college student.
Just like any other habit, learning to read more takes some getting used to. Structuring your day and your responsibilities in a new way to make room in your schedule for reading at night is a bit strange at first, but it is so worth it.
I am so happy to have successfully brought reading back into my life, and it makes me feel like I have reignited a passion that got buried under the bustle of growing up and getting busy. Everyone can benefit from trying to get back into reading because it makes you feel more productive and more capable of tackling your responsibilities during the day.
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