Making Time For Reading When You Feel Like You Don't Have Any & Books To Read In 2017

To say that my time management skills have been a little crappy lately would be an understatement. As my boyfriend has had a few weeks off from touring it's meant my time has been split in more ways than I'm used to and I'm still not very good at juggling everything when he's back. And even though I've still been really good at getting everything ticked off my to-do list, keeping up with somewhat of a fitness routine and some of the other things that I like to do in life. Reading and hobbies have fallen by the waist side as there are only so many hours in the day. So today I wanted to talk about how to fit reading into your schedule when you feel like you don't have any free time and share some of the books I want to read this year.

MAKE IT PART OF YOUR ROUTINE

Just like anything in life making something into a new habit is hard and it takes time. And sometimes it's not always possible to do it but setting aside even just half an hour in an evening or morning to read can help it become something that you end up doing of your own accord and don't have to purposely schedule it in. I'm not sure any of us have enough time on our hands to leisurely do as we please so making it part of your schedule or writing it on your to-do list can work wonders. I always tend to find that if I make the effort to write something down then I'm much more likely to get it done then if I hadn't.

DITCH NETFLIX AND SCROLLING

It would be wonderful if we had all the time in the world to do every single thing we enjoyed out of work hours. But we don't and I find that I have to pick one thing or another and can never have it all much to my dismay. So things like Netflix and pointlessly scrolling through social media and more than likely getting irritated by what I'm consuming has to be put to one side in the favour of books. Some people can read whilst having a tv show on in the background but that's never something that I can do so I have to down everything else and just focus on what I'm reading. I also find that if I have anything else on in the background then I tend to just skim read and don't actually consume what I'm reading properly. Netflix is wonderful but sometimes you can't beat getting lost in a good book.

USE POCKETS OF TIME

As I don't have a commute anymore I don't get those pockets of time where I could read. When I was at college and travelled 2 hours there and 2 hours back I used to get so much reading done and it was awesome and I weirdly crave a commute even though I don't miss the rammed unreliable trains that's for sure. Using pockets of time like that instead of scrolling through social media are absolutely perfect and something that aren't utilised enough. And these small pockets of 15-20 minutes might not seem long enough but they're actually pretty good for getting some reading time in.

SET YOURSELF GOALS

I firmly believe that you're someone who reacts well to having goals or you're not. And I am someone who really loves to have goals to work towards as it puts that little bit of pressure on me that I need. There are other ways you could have a reading goal without doing it yourself too like finding a reading club or even joining the library as it puts that time constraint onto you.

BOOKS TO READ IN 2017

As I didn't read anywhere enough as much as I'd like in 2016 I want to make a conscience effort to read more this year so I'm gonna set myself a round about number of books that I'd like to read this year and I'd love to know what books you suggest to read too;