Back in the Habit

 

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I am a writer who struggles to read. It's not that reading is hard for me, or that I have a shortage of materials from which to choose -- please! -- if I stacked up all of my to-be-read books, the pile would be taller than I am. Granted, that's not a high bar to beat, but it's still a lot of books.

And that doesn't include the magazines I have in several locations throughout the house. Or the articles I have bookmarked on my computer.

It's not that I don't ever read. I read for work all the time -- everything from e-mails to newsletters to articles to textbooks. And I "read" in the car several times a week, courtesy of Audible. But, once I'm home, I don't make time for leisure reading. 

Part of the issue is that I'm a read-in-quiet kind of girl. Given the choice of sitting with a family member who's watching television or sitting in another room reading a book, I'll generally choose to hang out with the family member. Each of the three of us is on a different schedule and I want to spend time with them when I can. And it's not as though time spent watching television is a sacrifice, especially when I'm tired and my motivation is at a low ebb.

Last year at this time, I'd strung together a long chain of days where I'd carved out time to read and, at the beginning of this month, when I sat down to write out my April goals, I wanted to figure out a simple way to motivate myself to kick start that string of days again.

But how? 

The answer was surprisingly simple. I selected a small notebook from my collection (which is almost as impressively large as my TBR pile) and placed it at the seat from which I watch way too much television each evening. All I need to do is jot down each day's date and what I read that day. I'm not worried about depth or number of pages or time spent reading. I just need to get back into the habit. 

I had a little stutter less than a week in but tomorrow will mark a full week of progress toward my goal. As expected, it took no time at all for me to remember how much I enjoy this particular activity. 

Off and reading.