How to find the time to read books?

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

So often, when I try to discuss books with people, they get a wistful look in their eyes and say, “I used to be such a great reader.” Back before the deluge of responsibilities and distractions that come with adult life, they loved to read. But who has time for that now? I certainly don’t read as much as I used to. Life is just busy, that’s the problem; at any given moment, there are probably half a dozen important things clamouring for my attention, whether it’s work, family life, prayer, exercise, calling my friends or just doing the washing up. And then there’s the time I waste when I’m supposed to be doing these other, more important things, usually by scrolling through the news or mindlessly browsing Twitter. Reading seems like a treat that I only earn when I have achieved everything I meant to do in the day – and spoiler alert, that never happens.

But reading is not just another pastime or hobby, it is necessary intellectual and spiritual food. Our minds need books because they make us work to grasp information for ourselves, rather than spoon-feeding us like a YouTube video or a TikTok. This means that when we read, we become active thinkers rather than passive receptacles for other people’s ideas. Our spirits need books too, because it is virtually impossible to develop an interior life in a fragmented, distracted world like ours unless we take time away from it – time to be silent and rest our fractured hearts from relentless activity. Reading can give us this rest by capturing our full attention. We talk about being “immersed” in a good book because it’s as though our whole self has dived into the act of reading: the rest of the world drops away and time vanishes. These times of peaceful, all-absorbing concentration are as vital to spiritual flourishing as air and water are for the body. 

The analogy of water is a useful one because we all need water, but we probably don’t drink as much as we need for our bodies to really function at their best. And then, when we try to drink as much as we should, we find that it takes a surprising amount of effort. Likewise, we all need to read, but we often don’t, because establishing the habit is difficult. But there are practical steps we can take to make it easier to get started:

Pick a book

From my experience, the first thing I need to do is choose a specific book to read and try to keep it on hand, so that when those snatches of free time do arise, it’s that much easier to reach for the book instead of the phone or TV remote. When choosing your book, it’s important to pick something you actually want to read (rather than something you think you should want to read), but which also has something genuinely positive to offer you – because reading the latest graphic bestseller is unlikely to do you much more good than scrolling through Instagram. 

Pick a time

Is there some “dead” time in your days that you always feel you’re wasting? For me, it’s often the time spent playing on my phone before bed, but for someone else, it might be their daily commute to work, or the space between college classes. These are the times you need to make sure you have that book handy, in your bag or on your bedside table. If you know exactly when those times are likely to crop up, you could even set a reminder on your phone, so that you don’t drift aimlessly into whatever your usual habit might be.

Pick a target

You may find that it helps to set some concrete targets for the amount of time you want to spend reading or the amount of pages you want to get through per day. Speaking for myself, however, I have to be very careful to keep these goals realistic, and that means starting very, very small. If half an hour a week is the most you can manage to begin with, that is significantly better than none. And if that’s too much for you, there’s no shame in lowering the bar again – literally any time spent reading is better than nothing! 

Track your progress

Once you’ve set a goal, it’s a good idea to try tracking your progress in some way. My method is very simple: I just write down the titles of the books I read in a year at the back of my diary along with the month I finished it in. Seeing the list gradually lengthen throughout the year is very satisfying, and reminds me that the little bits I do regularly do add up to a lot over time. But it’s important not to turn reading into another item on a burdensome list of things we have to do – that would utterly defeat the purpose. And that brings me to my last point …

Take it easy

Very often, in starting a new habit, we bite off more than we can chew and we quickly run into obstacles. You’ll inevitably have days when you spend the hour you were supposed to spend reading browsing TikTok or you’ll pick a book that just doesn’t grab you, and you have to give up and choose another one. This is the point where I tend to get discouraged and start beating myself up – but that only makes it harder to do something constructive. In these situations, self-blame and guilt are a total waste of time, so my advice is to ignore them altogether. When these setbacks do crop up, shrug your shoulders, remember that these things happen to everybody, and simply try again next week or with another book. And that’s all it takes to become that great reader you used to be.