How to Make Time to Read

How to Make Time to Read

如何擠出時間閱讀

If you identify as a book lover but haven’t read a book in a year, something has gone wrong

如果你覺得自己是一個讀書愛好者但是已經一年沒有讀書了，則說明某些事做錯了。

Laura Vanderkam, the time management expert who wrote Off the Clock and Juliet’s School of Possibilities, is here to answer your schedule questions. Check back every week for more advice, and send your own productivity problems to [email protected]. (Your name will not be used.)

Laura Vanderkam,時間管理專家在這裏回答您的日程問題。他註銷了時鐘朱麗葉可能性學院。每週查看更多的建議，並且回覆你自己的生產效率問題到郵箱：[email protected]（你的名字將不會被使用到）。

I used to read all the time. I was an English major in college! But between work and the kids and their activities, the hours slip away from me, and I haven’t read a book in a year. How can I get back in the habit?

我以前總是讀書。我在大學讀的是英語專業，但是在參加工作和照顧孩子們及他們的活動，時間匆匆從我身邊溜走，我在一年裏都沒有讀過一本書。我如何能恢復這個習慣呢？

when I ask people what they’d like to spend more time doing, certain activities come up again and again. Exercise. Volunteering. And of course, reading. We know that all these things would make life more enjoyable, and probably more meaningful, too. But since they rarely have to happen, we shove them to the bottom of the list.

當我問到人們他們喜歡花更多的時間去做什麼事情，一些活動出現了一次又一次。當然。志願活動。課程，還有閱讀。我們知道這些事情會使我們的生活更有意思。也很可能更有意義。但是他們幾乎不會發生，我們將它們亂放在清單的底部了。

But I’m confident that you do in fact have time to read. How do I know? Well, right now you’re reading Medium, which consists of words strung together to tell stories and share information. These words may not be physically bound into volumes, but you’re still reading. So if you’d like to start reading books, the easiest approach is just to redirect your existing reading time to that medium.

但是我相信事實上你是有時間去閱讀的，我是怎麼知道的呢，好吧，現在就就正在閱讀Medium網站，是一個將文字組合到一起講述故事和分享信息的平臺。這些文字可能沒有在物理上裝訂成冊，但是你仍然在閱讀。所以如果你想去開始閱讀書籍，最簡單的方式就是吧你的現有的閱讀時間去轉移到medium網站。

Let’s first consider why you are reading Medium. Online material is easy to access: It’s usually just as far away as the pocket or bag where you stash your phone, or the computer screen you’re already staring at. Posts and articles can be read in bits and pieces; you grab time in the grocery store line or while waiting for a bus. And finally — let’s be honest here — looking at your phone or computer screen looks like you’re doing something “productive,” whereas pulling out a paperback or e-reader looks like leisure.

首先讓我們思考一下，爲什麼我們正在閱讀Medium呢，在線資料很容易獲取，通常就在你藏手機的口袋或包，或者你已經盯着的電腦屏幕上。帖子和文章可以零零碎碎地閱讀；你可以在雜貨店排隊或等公共汽車的時候抓緊時間。最後——說實話——看着你的手機或電腦屏幕看起來你在做一些“有成效”的事情，而拿出平裝本或電子閱讀器看起來像是休閒。

Make books as accessible as online content. This is easy to do: Load the Kindle app, or another e-reader, onto your phone. Start downloading books to the device. You’ll find many e-books in the public domain for a pittance (e.g. 99 cents); you can borrow e-books from your local library for free if it participates in a service such as Libby.

使書籍像在線內容一樣容易訪問。這很容易做到：將Kindle應用程序或其他電子閱讀器加載到您的手機上。開始將書籍下載到設備。你可以在公共領域找到很多電子書，只要花一點錢（例如99美分）；如果當地圖書館參與Libby等服務，你可以免費從圖書館借閱電子書。

I’d also suggest that you go ahead and splurge on a book you think you’ll love — it’s a great investment you can make in yourself, and supporting writers and the publishing industry should be an imperative for bookworms. If you can’t think of where to start, ask your librarian or local book shop clerk for a suggestion based on what you’ve loved before, seek recommendations from friends with similar tastes, or try a book you haven’t read by an author you once enjoyed, whether that’s Jane Austen or Stephen King. The point is to find something fun.

 

我還建議你去買一本你認爲你會喜歡的書——這是你可以爲自己做的一筆巨大的投資，支持作家和出版業應該是書蟲們的當務之急。如果你想不出從哪裏開始，可以向圖書管理員或當地的書店店員諮詢一下你以前喜歡的書，向有同樣愛好的朋友尋求建議，或者嘗試一下你曾經喜歡過的作家沒有讀過的書，不管是Jane Austen 還是 Stephen King。關鍵是找點有趣的東西。

And here’s the thing: Once you have all these enticing books on your phone, you’ll realize that any chunk of time you would have spent on Twitter would be more enjoyably spent reading a few pages. You can read while waiting for your kid’s gymnastics class to end. You can read while waiting for a phone call to start. These little bits of time add up. I know because I read War and Peace on my phone on the Kindle app during the month of October 2017. (It didn’t even take me the whole month!) During that time I read fewer tweets, and developed opinions on the Napoleonic wars in Russia instead.

事情是這樣的：一旦你手機上有了這些誘人的書籍，你就會意識到，你在Twitter上花費的任何一大塊時間，都會更愉快地花在閱讀幾頁上。你可以邊看書邊等孩子的體操課結束。你可以邊讀邊等電話開始。這些時間加起來。我知道，因爲2017年10月，我在Kindle應用程序上用手機閱讀了《戰爭與和平》。（我一個月都沒花！）在那段時間裏，我很少看推特，反而對拿破崙在俄羅斯的戰爭發表了看法。

Of course, repurposing social media time isn’t your only option. It’s quite possible to build more reading time, structurally, into life. That’s why I’m glad you used the word “habit.” Track your time for a week or so to see some possibilities.

當然，重新利用社交媒體時間並不是你唯一的選擇。從結構上講，在生活中建立更多的閱讀時間是很有可能的。這就是爲什麼我很高興你用了“習慣”這個詞。跟蹤你的時間一週左右，看看有沒有可能。

Here’s one option: before bed. If you normally collapse on the couch to binge on Netflix in the evening, try reading for 30 minutes first. If you’d like to turn on the TV after that, great. But if the book is good, you might just keep reading.

這裏有一個選擇：睡前。如果你通常在晚上躺在沙發上狂飲Netflix，試着先閱讀30分鐘。如果你想在那之後打開電視，太好了。但如果這本書好，你可以繼續讀下去。

You can also look for other pockets of time during the day. I’ll read at the playground or during other kids’ activities. People with long commutes can devour an impressive number of titles by consuming them in audiobook form. If you get a lunch break, why not take 20 minutes of it to read? If your kids are old enough to entertain themselves on weekend afternoons, make yourself scarce and pick up a book. With any luck, it’ll be an hour or two before anyone finds you. And when they do, hey look, you’re modeling the importance and pleasure of reading!

你也可以在白天尋找其他的時間。我會在操場或其他孩子的活動中看書。通勤時間長的人可以通過有聲讀物的形式消費大量的書籍。如果你有午休時間，爲什麼不花20分鐘來閱讀呢？如果你的孩子足夠大，可以在週末下午自娛自樂，那就讓自己變得稀缺，然後拿起一本書。如果幸運的話，要過一兩個小時纔會有人找到你。當他們這樣做的時候，嘿，看，你在模擬閱讀的重要性和樂趣！

Finally, as with all habits, accountability helps. I started reading more books when I began keeping track of the books I read, and publishing short reviews on my blog each month. You might check in with a friend, or try to read the same books as your spouse or your kids, then discuss them. Some people find book groups help with accountability, though some book groups are more about the wine. To make sure your book group holds you accountable—find a serious one, or start your own.

最後，和所有習慣一樣，責任感也有幫助。我開始閱讀更多的書時，我開始跟蹤我讀的書，並發表簡短的評論在我的博客上每個月。你可以和朋友一起登記，或者試着和你的配偶或孩子讀同樣的書，然後再討論有些人認爲讀書小組有助於提高責任感，儘管有些讀書小組更關注葡萄酒。爲了確保你的讀書小組讓你負責，找一個認真的，或者自己動手。

As you make more time to read, you’ll remember that you really love books. Though do please keep reading a little online content, too — those of us in this business appreciate it!

 

當你有更多的時間閱讀時，你會記得你真的很喜歡書。儘管請繼續閱讀一些在線內容，太-我們這些在這個行業的人欣賞它！