I get asked this question all the time! I love to read but I go through seasons in life when I just can’t seem to find the time. My ‘To Read’ list just gets longer and longer. I have a stack of books on my nightstand, a long queue list at the library and a ton of book screenshots saved in my phone. But I seriously love to read! So I decided I needed to prioritize and really do the things that make me happy.
We all find ourselves with ten or fifteen minutes here and there when we have time to kill. But instead of using those minutes wisely we scroll through the phone. What does that get me? 20 minutes of lost time!! We spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting at the doctors office. Waiting at the car mechanics. Waiting for our kids to come out of sports or after school activities. Waiting because we arrived somewhere early and don’t want to walk in yet. So I’ve totally changed my way of thinking. I always have a book with me. Whether you like hard copies or ebooks, you can always throw it in your purse or on the front seat of your car. It doesn’t take much planning to make sure you have it with you when you leave your house. Sometimes I have both the e-book and a hard copy. So now I read when I wait for my middle schooler to come out of cooking class. Or when my son has soccer and it’s freezing out, I’ll wait in the car and read. And I’m not much of a small talker so having a book on my lap in a waiting room really keeps people away 😂🤣 Believe me you look 100% smarter in a waiting room reading then you do staring blankly at a phone screen 🤓😜
Next …invest in a good book light. Not the crappy dollar store ones (believe me I’ve bought tons) but a good book light that attaches nicely to your book. This comes in handy at night in bed or even evenings when you’re waiting for someone in your car when it’s starting to get dark. When my husband is watching sports, a Halloween movie or a Carpenters documentary on tv 😂🤣 (it’s true) I’ll whip out the book light and can read without feeling like I’m disturbing anyone. My 12 year old now takes my book light in the car so she can read when I’m driving the girls to gymnastics in the dark.
Last, and this took my entire life until this past year to learn, if you can’t get in to a book it is ok to put it down! Don’t force yourself to read a book you’re not enjoying. I would hate to give up on a book. Then I would find myself re-reading chapters because I couldn’t understand things or I would avoid reading because the book just wasn’t working for me. So I have a 100 page rule. Some books just have a hard start but if you stick with them they are amazing!! So I try to make it to 100 pages. If I’m near there and still can’t get in to it, I allow myself to put it down. Most of the time I find that around 50 pages in it will grab me and pull me in, but if not I don’t feel bad moving on.
That’s it! It really just takes prioritizing a little bit. I enjoy reading and when I finish one that I really Love I’m so excited to start another. If you’ve read anything amazing lately let us know, there’s a little more space on my nightstand 😜📚
~Elena 💖
Elena And Erin.....It Is What It Is 