5 Ways to Read More

I really do think I've answered this question before but it is cropping up a lot yet again. The question comes from primarily online spaces but it is simply this: how do you read so much? And my friends, neither is this difficult nor is it impossible - it is simply a different type of lifestyle. People in real life often give me odd looks or think I'm a bit weird because of how much I love reading, but this is you easy guide to making more space for it in your life. So get ready to put down your social media application, make yourself a cup of tea and curl up with a good book.

5 Ways to Read More

1. How's Your Social Media Usage? Yeah...that's what I thought

Let's get this straight, we all know that social media is a huge waste of time and so, reader let me ask you why you are always on it. TikTok, Facebook, Instagram - these are all social media apps that I don't use. Yet, these are also amongst the most used social media apps in the world.

According to research, most social media users waste more than 2 hours a day on these applications. I will admit that I do use Twitter and Bluesky. But I post my review in the morning and then leave. Yes, I engage in shameless self-promotion but what can you do? My usage of social media is usually no more than half an hour on average - this is a huge difference to the actual averages about and which does not take into account the upper quartile of users. If you check out your screen time according to application, you might be surprised at just how much time is being wasted.

I'm not saying you're not allowed to use social media, but even cutting that 2 and a half hours down by an hour could free up some time that you could spend reading. I would say that TikTok is probably the biggest criminal of time-wasting and no love is lost if you delete that application entirely.

2. How Much Real-Life Social Interaction Do You Really Need?

If you're the type of person who is a constant communicator in real life, I have news for you. The news is this: how much of that is valuable or meaningful? We all know that real life interaction is key to our wellbeing at work and in our realities, but how much is actually required to do this?

I very rarely talk to anyone on a daily basis apart from phoning my mum and even though my mental health is not great, I have freed up lots of time in which meaningless social interaction with people who very clearly are not worth talking to would be otherwise. I eat my lunches by myself and get a few pages read, I tend to go out on my own and I'll sit in a cafe and read (though this has been declining since I have moved). Finally, on my day off I can manage my own time and read when I feel like it without the fear of someone popping in or contacting me.

If you're looking to read more, maybe you need to question how much of your in-person social interaction is a requirement and how much of it is just 'fluff' (as I would say). Filling an empty void of time with 'chit-chat' or 'small talk' is perhaps as dull as dishwater.

3. Doomscrolling, TV Channel Changing and More Time You've Wasted

Now I know you're going to be quite upset when I tell you that I know you doom-scroll. I know that you do it a lot. I also know that it is linked to the phenomenon of channel-flicking on TV. If you actually sit down and time yourself doing this and stop the timer you will find that on average you might spend 3 and a half hours per day doing it. This is what the average is suggested to be. Really though, grab the timer app on your phone and have it running in the background until you stop scrolling.

I don't understand doom-scrolling myself. Do I do it? Not really because there's nothing I want to see. It's not that I think I'm better than others, it is simply for the fact that I don't care what's happening. I simply don't care if someone has a 'life hack' or someone else is 'icing a cake' to look like a movie character. I couldn't care less if someone is doing parkour or showing off their dance moves. If I want to see something I'll look it up on YouTube and watch a video. I have seen ancient history documentaries and I also follow a Twitter page on ancient history. What I tend to do is go to the page and read what they are doing and then, go to YouTube and save some cool documentaries if I'm interested. I'll watch them in my own time. It takes no more than about five minutes. What I won't do is scroll through all the fluff to find it.

I do the same with TV. At the moment I am enjoying Severance and my comfort show is re-runs of The Simpsons or Seinfeld. On my day off, I will perhaps watch two episodes of one of them if I feel like it and they can play in the background whilst I do other things like writing or washing the dishes. When I watch Severance, I will watch it on the Friday it comes out. I don't have a TV License so I don't watch regular TV and there is no chance of me scrolling and flicking through channels. Every week or so, I might decide to watch a movie or something at nighttime, but again that is intentionally timed viewing. Let me reiterate: you don't need to spend your time flicking through channels to find something to watch if you watch things with intention.

Note: I actually find Netflix rather annoying and I don't like searching for things. Most of the time I only go to watch true crime or things I've seen before, like Seinfeld.

4. There Really Isn't That Much Happening Out There, I Promise

People check their News Apps most every single day, I get it. I do as well, just I get it over with in the morning and if nothing happened yesterday that I need to know about then it can wait. I have no intention and I see no appeal of staying up to date with every single piece of news all the time. Yes, this might mean that I am slightly out of it when it comes to the latest trends but I honestly do not care.

With more than 90% of people getting their news from social media on average and people spending around half an hour or so on News Apps, I can honestly say that's a lot of wasted time. If you're doom-scrolling to find the news and then flicking over to another app to read more news, that's a lot of news that you have to question. The question is this: how does this impact me? If it doesn't in any meaningful way then I'm sure you can put it down. For example: I will read a news article about my hometown but I won't read one about some celebrity.

I also filter my news by what I'd like to see. I'm interested in movies and books so, I filter according to those. I filter according to place and topic - I generally don't care about live shows or...I don't know...let's say, engineering. So I don't need to see that. The faster I can just read what I feel like and then get on with my day without scrolling through the fluff, the better.

I know you're seeing a theme of the fluff. There are known ways to get the fluff out of your life.

5. Format, Place and Type All Have an Impact on How You Read

I have heard these arguments online that reading on an e-reader is less than reading a paperback. There is very little and often cherry-picked evidence to support this that comes from the middle and upper classes who don't want the working class person to have access to books. But here's another reason the argument doesn't make sense. If you wanted to read say Anna Karenina and hauled it back and forth from work and social every day - would you rather be hauling the paperback or the ebook? Exactly. Would it define how you read it? Possibly not. One thing it would change would be the amount of times you would (whether you did) want to pick up the dictionary as the e-reader often has one built in. Vocabulary builders are common on e-readers. So when reading something lengthy or difficult, I prefer my e-reader (I choose the Kindle as mine).

I also don't like to read something heavy whilst at work - lighter books with often simple storylines are my thing to take with me. This is because it won't interrupt with my day and I will be able to read a good amount in my break (even though my breaks are not actually that long). It also means that there isn't something lingering inside my head whilst I'm working - which if you've seen my work, could be a worry already.

When it comes to reading elsewhere, I just pick up whatever else is on my TBR. For example: I'm lugging around The Penguin Book of Elegy to coffee shops at the moment after finishing I've Been Thinking by Daniel C. Dennett in those same coffee shops. It's a good coffee shop read because you can get immersed in it without anyone bothering you. A good, long and often paperback immersive read is good for outings because you can't be tempted by other books because you didn't bring any others with you and, you can take a highlighter and have some fun if you're brave.

At nighttime, I like to read something that is either lengthy and in-depth, or I like to read something that is fiction and not a lot of depth depending on how much sleep I know I'll get that night. As someone who often does not sleep very well, there is a huge difference in what I'll read when it comes to how I know I'm going to sleep. If I know for a fact there's no point in trying, I can opt for something more in-depth. If there's sleep on the horizon then I don't want to interrupt it with too much thought.

Conclusion

So, I hope you've learnt something about my reading habits. If you have any more questions drop them below. The one thing I would say is definitely time yourself on social media and television. You will see how much time you save. In two hours, you could read a short novel.