Find time to read every day? Let me guess. You read the title and thought “are you kidding – the only time I get to read is on holiday?!”
I hear you. And I’ve been there. But remember how wonderful it feels when you find time to read?
Whether it’s a brilliant novel, your favourite magazine, or something more educational that fuels your personal growth – all reading is so good. Reading broadens your knowledge and horizons, it keeps you learning and growing as an individual.
As entrepreneurs, reading is vital in even more ways, as we are not only developing as individuals, but also reading to grow our businesses. Some reading is for fun, but some is just necessary for us to keep up with everything going on in our world or area of expertise.
How do we find time to read?
Even 10 minutes reading a day is so beneficial. Many people save their reading time for the end of the day, before bed. But I meet many people who say they don’t get further than the first page because they fall asleep!
So how do we find that often-elusive 10 minutes?
- Make it part of your morning or evening routine. If you’re the person who just can’t read before bed because you fall asleep, how about doing it first thing when you get up? Having a strong morning routine can be so beneficial for your wellbeing and productivity, and as Hal Elrod in his book, The Miracle Morning, reading should form part of this.
- Keep reading material around you. I tend to have books by my bedside, but also a little stash of magazines in the living room. I also take a book or kindle if I’m going out. You never know when you might end up with an unexpected gap in your schedule that can be filled with reading!
- Find out what you love. Do you love reading books, or are you more of a current affairs person who wants to read the paper or other articles? Maybe magazines are your thing – and there are so many out there on such varied topics. Speak to others and get recommendations, or even do swaps!
- Make a list of what you want to read. I keep a list in my bullet journal of books I want to read. I sometimes also tear out what look like good reading lists from magazines and add those to my journal. Then you can tick them off when you’ve read them!
- Make reading part of your goal setting routine and create a habit tracker. Setting new habits and making them happen is notoriously hard. It can take around 30 days to embed a new habit, and sometimes we need some help to get it going. Habit trackers are just a tick off system where you check in each day and note down that you’ve done the activity. Make it a goal, decide when and how much, commit and then track it! Bullet journals are great for creating habit trackers!
So why not try putting some of these in to practice? Then let us know what you’re reading at the moment!
(And we have to add… In recognition of how time-poor we all are, our study materials are deliberately short, to enable you to fit things in as and when you’re able. We have a huge amount of content to share with you, but none of it is longer than 20 minutes!)