Books

I love to read. There’s no feeling like loosing yourself in a good book.

So I wonder why I don’t do it as often as I would like. Well, no, I know the answer to that. My life is so full of other activities that crowd out the time that I would have devoted to reading. My mind is also abuzz with lots of things from work issues, my children, something that Ms. X said to me the other day….. and on and on it goes. So I usually find that as soon as I pick up a book, my mind flits around from one issue to another, while never settling on the characters and story at hand.

I had expected that this pandemic lockdown would be a the perfect opportunity to clear my shelf of unread books.

Alas, it hasn’t turned out that way.

I have completed three online courses (this was no mean feat I must tell you).

I started podcasting, which I totally love, but the time investment exceeds what I imagined when I embarked on this new adventure.

I have attended an innumerable amount of webinars and Instagram Live sessions from topics as diverse as ensuring that your business survives COVID-19 to investing in these uncertain times, mental wellness, book reviews and growing waist-length hair.

The end result is that I am yet to finish even one book since March. I have started several and at varying points in each.

But I try to keep things in perspective. I have been doing a lot of other things and have things to show for most of them.

I would say that if you want to read more, try to:

• Schedule it into your daily calendar. You could have a particular time of the day that you read. For me, it tends to be after I have put my children to sleep.

 

• Resist the pull of the devices. This is a hard one, because many of us tend to pick up our phones when we have nothing to do and start flicking through our messages and social media  apps. Before we know it, an hour has passed and what do we have to show for it? Probably social media envy and a feeling of being left out or left behind by our peers.

 

• Read what you like. This should go without saying, but it’s amazing how often we force ourselves to read books that everyone is reading. Or maybe we feel the book is good for us or contains some invaluable information that will help our business grow. I used to force myself to keep going, but if it’s really not hooking me me, I drop it now and pick something else up.

 

• Log your reading.  I do this out of vanity, I suppose. But it feels good to look back and see the record of books that I have read each year. Of course, the converse is true. When I haven’t read much, it’s humbling to see how little reading I have accomplished.

I am close to the end of Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. I hope that I am able to apply my own tips and complete it by this weekend.