You’re a busy small business owner trying to grow her business. You’re working long hours trying to be Jill of All Trades and Mistress of Many. That’s your reality. How will you ever find the time to read more books?
Or perhaps you have an employer. You’ve been passed over for promotions a few times. On top of that, you have to worry about childcare and eldercare. If any of these two scenarios resonate with you, how will you ever be able to carve out the time to read more books? Or read any book for that matter.
I know you’ve heard the tales of many highly accomplished people lifting themselves out of poverty because they implemented the ideas from the books they read. They inspire you. After all, who doesn’t want to discover the secret to reading more books in a year? And profiting from reading them in the process. But what can you do? Your hands are handcuffed by time. But are they?
This post is another installment in the series on effective reading.
The 12 Week Year
Getting Things DoneManage Your Day-to-Day
How to Carve Out the Time to Read More Books: What’s Out There
If you do a search on the internet to find out how you can read more books in any given year, you’ll find many articles. And most of them will be giving you the exact same advice. And it’s the kind of advice that I’d give a while back. But it’s not the kind of advice I’d give now, or even a year or more ago.
The advice you’ll find is to make reading a habit, read a certain number of pages a day, decide on the book format (audio, print or e-book), choose what book to read next and so on. The articles are really not bad articles, but they don’t go deep enough.
Before I can write about how to carve out the time to read more books, there are certain issues that I must address first to make the article more inclusive and useful. What about reluctant readers and people who hate reading? How can I get them to want to read books? And before someone is willing to carve out the time for reading, there has to be a compelling reason for them to do so.
I got crystal clear on this when I recently participated in a 14-Day Challenge to Build a Tribe. Here’s my mission in life.
“Global problems can be solved by reading and implementing ideas from books. My mission is to mobilize 5000 professionals to read a book a week to bring together masterminds of socially conscious people to implement breakthrough ideas from the books they read.”
How to Carve Out the Time to Read More Books: Appealing to People’s Self-Interest
My mission will make different kinds of people want to read. People are looking for community and want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Many people have a burning passion. And I suspect that if reading books could help them to work on the things they’re passionate about, they’d try to explore the right books to find solutions to big problems that they care about.
And for people who hate reading or are reluctant readers, appealing to their interests will go a long way.
People have asked me how they can get a reluctant reader to read more books? And the first thing I ask, “What is she passionate about?” and “What’s her hobby?” I would then respond, get a comic book, graphic novel, or even a children’s book on the topic. The light bulb goes on.
Imagine if a non-reader is passionate about climate change, and you gave her a comic book series on the topic. Would she read it? She likely would. And she would make the time to read the comic books.
And now for people who want to read, but believe that they cannot carve out the time to read, what will make them find the time? Once again, it has to be self-interest. What if you knew that you could profit from reading the right books, would you take the plunge and carve out time for reading the right books? I suspect you would because you’d then be able to hire people to take over some of the tasks from you.
Have you read?
How to Actually Organize a Reading Schedule That Will Grow Your Career
How to Stop Wasting Time When Reading Books
How to Carve Out the Time to Read More Books: The Little (or Big) Problem Called Time
So you want to read more books because I’ve appealed to your self-interest. But there’s that little problem called time. And that’s what I’m going to deal with now. You understand how books can help you in business and life, but you still believe that you’re too busy. Keep a time log for three typical days, if there is such a thing. These days it’s so difficult to have a typical day with all the changes happening around us. But try as best as you can.
Include every activity in your time log. Time on social media, commute time, exercise time and so on. I’m sure that you’ll be able to find an hour or two that you can dedicate to reading. Now, I’d like you to read the articles How to Actually Organize a Reading Schedule That Will Grow Your Career and How to Stop Wasting Time When Reading Books. They’re very important because they’ll teach you how to digest the average nonfiction book in 30 to 60 minutes.
Will You Carve Out the Time to Read More Books
I’ve just walked you through the process of how to find time to read more books. Will you carve out the time to do so? If you decide to do it, make sure that you schedule time every day to read. You want reading to become a habit. Try to schedule your reading the same time every day.
Earlier in this article, I wrote about my mission to mobilize professionals to read books and implement the ideas to solve big world problems. If this sounds like something you’d like to be involved in, please join my Facebook Tribe. You’ll be joining as a foundational member. We can do amazing things together.
How Avil Can Help You!
I invite you to Join the Performance Accelerator Plan that walks you through the process and more. You’ll be reading books to build skills and develop intercultural awareness. Get more reading and learning tips here. And I also invite you to join Read a Book, Solve a Problem Facebook Group. I’m building a tribe of people who want to use the knowledge gained from books to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems.
In December 2020, I published two books on Amazon. I would greatly appreciate your support if you bought my two short e-books Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon and Performance Accelerator Plan: Guide to Learning and Mastering Key Skills for the Future.
Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon is not about speed reading. It’s about approaching every book differently and reading only the sections that align with your purpose.
The Performance Accelerator Plan book is a stripped-down version of the paid reading challenge of the same name. Obviously, you won’t get all the resources that come with the program that I sell on my website. But if you are a self-directed learner, it will help you tremendously.
Note: There are several Amazon affiliate links on this page. That means if you click on Amazon and buy something the organization will pay me a small commission.
