Ten Pages a Day:Successful, Realistic Reading Goals |
"I don't do much reading anymore." "I am so tired at the end of the day." "I've always wanted to read Lord of the Rings, but I just don't have time." Millions can relate to these statements. Maybe you have said something similar. Between work, kids, and social obligations, it can be very difficult to find time to read. Many want to read, but find that after a long day at work, followed by childcare, followed by dishes and taking out the garbage, it's just to difficult to read. Sometimes the day doesn't end until eight, nine, or even ten o'clock. Like exercise, keeping a consistent schedule can be very difficult.
So how does one find the time to get to Dune, Moby Dick, or John Adams? The fabled "three hours on Saturday" never panned out. For many people, Saturday has become the busiest day. Yet the problem here lies not with our busy schedules themselves, but rather with our conception of time. We don't need a week-long holiday nor a free weekend to finally get into and finish that book. The solution is much simpler. Actually, there are at least two easy solutions. Read ten pages a day. Just ten pages. This is the first solution. I know, you might be thinking: "But how am I going to get through The Fellowship of the Ring on ten pages a day? It's 400 pages. The answer: On ten pages a day, you would read the The Fellowship of the Ring in about 40 days, or just over a month. By extension, you could, then, complete the entire trilogy in about a single season. Ten pages a day will get you through twelve 300 page-books a year. Ten pages a day sounds easy, but again, I am so jam-packed with work, chores, and taxing my kids around all day that I can't even find the energy to stay awake for ten pages. No problem. Just harness that time you spend in the car driving to and from work, running errands, and getting the kids. Car time can become book time. Put in an audiobook. You will crank through more books than you can believe if you put on an audiobook during the morning commute. Many books are about eight hours long. This means that if one devotes just twenty minutes of car team each day to audiobooks, one would complete a book every three weeks or so. That would be about seventeen books completed each year. You might rarely find a day with few responsibilities. But that's okay. You don't need a free week, a free weekend, or even a single free day. You just need to read ten pages a day or slip on an audiobook during car time, and you will be amazed at how that little effort reaps great rewards. Updated June 2019 Back to the top of the page