It can be hard to find the time to read (stock image) (Image: Getty)
Reading has been a well-loved pastime for centuries and social media has lured younger hobbyists into it in recent years.
However, some people, when told that someone reads regularly, will ask how they find the time. They wrongly believe that readers innately don’t do anything else other than sit down on a comfy sofa with a book.
But one woman, Tetra, wanted to prove to people that you can read a lot and still have a 9-5 job.She reassured people that she doesn’t have “loads of free time” – she just has to reprioritise her life, and you can too if you want to get more of your never-ending book pile read.
She promised people that she’s not “lying” about the amount of books she reads, nor is she “secretly unemployed”. So here’s how she fits so many reading sprints into her lifestyle…
Commute reading
Rather than scrolling through social media and feeling anxious, why not pick up a book on your morning train commute?
“If I am on a bus or a train, I am reading. Even just 15 to 20 minutes adds up so quickly over a week,” Tetra explained.
Reading for just five minutes every single day can vastly improve your mental health, so it’s well worth putting your phone down for a bit and giving it a go.
Reading on your lunch break
It’s all too easy to sit on your own at lunchtime in the office and just scroll, again. But Tetra much prefers to try to fit a chapter in when she eats.
If you “literally just read one chapter” every day on your lunch at work, you’ll have read five chapters of a book in a week. And that’s if you don’t read on your commute. The impact could be amazing!
Kindle over scrolling, no matter the time of day
Tetra said she much prefers using her Kindle regardless of the time of day, because she thinks that it’s a better use of her time. Plus, she never feels guilty after spending hours reading like she does with scrolling.
“If I’m gonna sit on my phone at night anyway, I just open the Kindle app on my phone instead of TikTok. It’s the same screen time, but definitely a better outcome,” she shared.
Reading sprints
This involves setting a timer and settling down with a book, seeing how much you can read in that timeframe.
Tetra explained: “I’ll literally say just 20 minutes and set a timer or go to a coffee shop and read until I’ve finished my coffee”.
This means there’s “no pressure to finish loads of pages,” but most of the time she’ll keep reading anyway because she’s really enjoying what she’s reading.
The bookworm: “It’s genuinely not about reading for three hours straight. It’s about sneaking it into all the gaps when you have time, and then that’s how you finish four books a week.”