How I Make Time To Read

Starting when I could read and throughout college, I always had my head in a book. Which is probably why I needed glasses starting in 4th grade haha! I kid you not, I never got grounded as a kid – my punishment was my parents taking away my book. I can’t even begin to describe to you how cool I was 😂

When I started my first job out of college, I spent about an hour commuting in the morning and about an hour and a half getting home (#DCtraffic). I did this for almost 2 years and while it could be exhausting, as soon as I hopped on the bus, I pulled out my latest read and got lost in the story. Leading to missing my stop on multiple occasions ha!

But then I moved and my long commute turned into a 10 minute walk. Which was incredible for my renowned snooze alarm skills but not so incredible for my reading time. I’ll be upfront and say I completely dropped off the “reading for fun” routine. I think last year I read maaaaaayybe 4 books. Considering I used to read 4 books a month minimum, this was kinda depressing.

Earlier this summer, I got to thinking about how I used to live for summer reading lists. It’d be the last day of elementary/middle school and I’d go with my parents to pick up my final report card and I’d also get my summer reading list and my school supply list for next year. And I’d want to immediately drive to the bookstore and Office Max.

So I decided to get back to those times and make myself my own reading list.

But making time to read was a challenge. Here’s how I make time to read with a busy schedule:

Set An Alarm for Reading

I set an alarm to wake me up each morning but I also have an alarm that’s a 20 minute warning to get into bed. That means I have to get everything ready for the next day and I gotta be in bed in the next 20 minutes. I set this alarm to be an hour before I usually fall asleep (11 p.m.) so I build in an hour of uninterrupted reading into my day, no matter what!

Get a Library Card

I grew up going to the local library and walked there every weekend. And I did a work study at my college as the library information desk attendant. So I guess you can say I’m a library nerd from way back! I love the DC Public Library and request books for pick-up all the time. When I wasn’t in the habit of reading, I found it difficult to sometimes justify spending money on books. I know that sounds horrible but it’s true. I’m on a budget and also I live in a small apartment and if I bought every book I was intrigued by, I’d have no room to move! My DC Library account solves all of these problems. I pick up my books on my way home from barre, it’s now a part of my weekend routine and I love it!

I’m also a person who thrives on deadlines and having a due date for a book is a good reminder that I need to finish the book by a certain date.

Read Good Books

Life’s too short to read crummy books. I started a few books this summer and after 50 pages, I just couldn’t. I wasn’t intrigued by the plot, wasn’t invested in the characters, my heart just wasn’t into the book. Instead of pushing through a book I didn’t care for, I dropped it back off at the library and picked up another one. When you find a book that you can’t wait to find out what happens next and you truly care about the main character (Aka how I felt about Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine), you’ll make time to drop everything and find out what’s going on with the story.

Use Downtime

Since I no longer have my work commute to use as built-in reading time, I try to optimize any down time I have outside of work as reading time. For example, if I know I’m going to have to hop on the Metro or the bus to get somewhere, I’ll make sure I’ve got my latest book in my bag. Find out where you have gaps in your schedule and fill in those gaps with the page-turner you can’t put down!