1 chapter before bed. I used to try to read in big marathons, but it would burn me our for a while, I would almost never find the time, and I wouldn’t make as much progress as I should have
One day, fed up with who I am and the seemingly intractable mess I’d made of my life, I started repeating one mantra to myself. Apparently it was the perfect mantra for me:
Create a reading space, no tech allowed. Then every time you want to go read (could set alarms for that), you set everything aside, go to your space and read.
I think the world has been trending toward short-form content for a very long time now.
We’ve gone from reading books, to skimming articles, to skimming article comments. We’ve gone from TV, to YouTube videos, to TikTok style shorts. We’ve gone from playing video games to watching other people play them in the background.
I noticed that I personally feel happiest when I invest my attention into longer form content. So I have been trying my best to cut out the digital sugar.
I read books.
I set a side large chunks of time to immerse myself into video games.
I subscribe to RSS feeds and read the full articles minus the comments.
I found that these changes have greatly improved my feelings of wellbeing. I’m sure that my SSRI had nothing to do with it.
Understimulating environment. I just go to my car where I can read but not much else. My laptop doesn’t really fit between me and the steering wheel, internet is only on my phone, I don’t have a TV or gaming consoles there…
I find audiobooks help a lot for being able to finish books nowadays
When I was a kid I could just devour books if I was interested in them otherwise it’s was a struggle. Straight up to the point of forgetting to eat and whatnot.
Audiobooks though allow me to do things while listening which is cool.
I only got diagnosed with ADHD about 6 months ago as an adult so getting those good habits is still a struggle but way easier with meds as long as I don’t get distracted before they kick in.
Find something that interests you! I struggle to read full books, even when I love the setting. However, I can read shorter stories online without a problem