Do-It-Yourself Reading challenge (and a few tips to improve your reading life)

(Más abajo hay un audio con este blog en español en caso de que no puedas leer en inglés).

I have loved reading ever since I am a little girl. Books are my favorite gift to receive and to give away. But I have found that my reading life has had ebbs and flows through different seasons. Maybe yours has too?

Over the years when I have shared about my reading life, especially as a mom, I get questions about how I find time to read. And to be honest, it has been a challenge for me, especially over the last few years. With all the stress we have had, my capacity to read (especially my capacity to read darker, heavier themes) has been very limited. I am not entirely sure why. I must confess that at the end of most days, I have had zero energy to read.

Still, I have been slowly increasing the amount of books I read every year. I have cut back on using social media, always have books on hand that I can make progress in (including on my kindle or my phone so I can read after lights are out), and have included reading more fiction than before (which is very restful to me).

At the end of this year I am looking back on the books I read and excited about the ones I want to read this coming year. And because I love welcoming others into my life, I thought I would encourage you on this same journey of creating time and space to read more. So I came up with a Do It Yourself Reading Challenge that I hope will be helpful to you.

I also asked friends on Instagram to share their reading tips. Pick and choose one or two that you think would meet you where you are right now.

The top three tips that came up over and over again were:

1. Use Audiobooks
2. Use the kindle (you can take it wherever you go)
3. Read books you like, not books that you think you should like

Other very helpful tips were:

1. Cutting out TV.
2. Do the 100-page rule: if you are not into it by 100 pages, move on to another book
3. Don’t think about it as a goal that you want to meet but a habit you want to cultivate
4. Read 15 minutes, 3 times a day
5. Keep a book in your purse for lines or waiting rooms
6. Use a Goodreads account
7. Get your books FREE at the library
8. Commit to read one page before going to bed
9. Use the audible app
10. Wake up earlier to read (both the Word and other books)
11. Pencil it in your schedule: set a time
12. Turn off your phone
13. Take notes of what you are reading
14. Set a timer for 10 minutes and read (you and your kids!)

I created this reading challenge for those of you would that would like to read more but don’t know where to start. Hopefully you can tailor it for where you are in life right now. It is meant to be a challenge that serves you- not crushes you.

If you are an avid reader there are other challenges out there that you will LOVE (like Tim Challies‘ or Anne Bogel’s).

Happy Reading, friends!! Can’t wait to hear how it goes!

Aqui esta el blog post en español leido por mi 🙂

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash