Why Prioritizing Reading is Difficult

So I am actually really bad at getting as much reading done and I want to. No matter how much I want to read and how many awesome books there are out there I always manage to fill my minuscule amounts of free time in a different way. I get the feeling that if I asked for a show of hands there would be a lot of people agreeing that despite how much they love books, they wished they could read more.

Now if you’re expecting tips or something then sorry to disappoint because I have no idea how to fix this problem myself but I just thought I’d look at the reasons behind this problem.

 

For one thing, we’re busy people.

In the world these days you need to be doing something or you’re not being productive and efficient and all those other buzz words that are used to shame people into getting their acts together. So when our lives fill up with hours of school work or commitments to groups we’re involved in reading becomes difficult. I’m not saying school work isn’t important because I actually really enjoy school and you should all make sure you get that work done. The same goes for other commitments, obviously if you’re not enjoying them then don’t do them. But what happens where there are just too many options?

My time is split between

• school work
• blogging
• reading
• watching tv shows
• spending time with friends

 

All of those things are things I want to be doing, and I want to be doing a lot of. However I don’t have time to do all of them. That’s where it comes time to pick.

 

First priority?

I feel like reading can’t really be my first priority. Not because I don’t love reading, because I totally do. But more because that implies that every time I get home and look at my to do list I pick reading over all those other tasks. And that just wouldn’t work.

There is always going to be more books to read so if I choose reading first then I’ll never get anything else done. This is compared to if I picked something like school work or blogging because there are certain tasks I need to do for those that once complete allow me to move on to other things.

So it’s simple right, I just have to become more efficient at doing other things so I’ll have more time to read.

Wrong.

 

It’s all a lie.

Yeah. I said it. This idea of being done with something then moving onto something else is a lie. Once I am done with the prescribed homework I can do other school stuff to consolidate my learning, and then maybe I could do some study to prepare for an upcoming test. And then… you get the point. The same goes for blogging. I can write a post, or two, or three, and then I can reply to comments. And then I can get stuck in an endless cycle of reading other blogger’s posts for inspiration and commenting on them to build my community.

It’s pretty much impossible to do all of the things.

 

So what can you actually do?

Set aside time to read. And I know I’m super hypocritical for saying this because it is totally something that I don’t do. But choosing time to read and sticking to it is a great plan. Why doesn’t it work? Well here’s a list of possibilities

• Maybe you’re super tired so decide to go to sleep early that night
• Maybe you wake up late
• Maybe you got extra school work
• Maybe a friend just called you and you talked to them for hours instead
• Maybe you decided to go outside and missed the time you planned

And so on, you get the picture.

 

So possibly the best advice I can give you is simply to carry a book around with you wherever you go in case you end up with extra time. I know it doesn’t solve all the problems, and I already do that and still wish I could read more.

Do you have any solutions to this incredibly common problem?? Let me know in the comments