10 Ways to Make Time for Reading in Your Busy Schedule
These ten tips are all helpful to me as I attempt to continue learning and growing (mentally and spiritually) as a mom of young children. Reading expands our minds and souls and opens the world to our family. (And kids who see their parents read and keep learning tend to grow into adults who also read.) But without forethought, our reading can be limited to Instagram captions and trying-to-be-witty tweets. Here’s how you can make time for reading even as a full-time mom.
1. Make a booklist.
Even avid readers often tend to be lazy readers, meaning they never get to the couple of books they really wanted to learn from because they were so caught up in the plot of their favorite novels. A booklist holds you accountable and helps you structure how you want to spend your time reading. Maybe you’ve always intended to read Knowing God, by J.I. Packer? Now is the time to put it on a shortlist and actually read it, one worshipful chapter at a time.
2. Naptime/Quiet Time is your friend.
My daughter still naps, but my son has outgrown naps and usually has “quiet time” instead. This concept is one I learned from my own mother. Every single afternoon we had about an hour in which we could either nap, read, or play quietly alone. (Alone so no fighting with siblings would take place–it turns out my mom knew a thing or two!) Quiet time is a breather you can use to catch up on your chores and read a few pages from your Bible or a book you’ve never been able to read all the way through.
3. Read your Bible first thing in the morning or last thing at night.
If you’re a believer who is a morning person, I highly recommend reading the Bible before you do anything else. If you’re not fully alert until 9 PM, maybe you should save your Bible reading time for then. We Christians believe that the Bible, as God’s Word, far outweighs the value of all other books together. Faithfully reading it is how we get to know God.
4. Listen to audiobooks on long drives or while cleaning.
Audiobooks were never something I loved before having kids, but now I’ve learned to enjoy them. They bring interest to tedious tasks and help you make progress in difficult books, as readers who know how to pronounce the hard words take the guesswork out of reading for you.
(I have to confess here that I had to learn by experience [rather than common sense] not to listen to audiobooks on walks with my kids–chattering kids and an audiobook together are too much stimulus for me and gave my kids the grumpy form of Mom they definitely didn’t deserve!)
5. Alternate movie/TV nights with your spouse with Read Aloud nights.
My husband and I occasionally read a book about marriage, parenting, or finances together in this way. Together we’ve averaged only one book per year or two this way. However, each read has been treasured time together.
6. Read books that you find interesting, not just ones other people say you should read.
No matter how many times you nod your head when someone suggests you read a massive translation from Greek of some ancient myth, you probably won’t actually read past the first chapter if it’s not something that interests you. If you are interested in becoming a better housekeeper, read books on cleaning, minimalism, or organization. Leave War and Peace for another day.
7. Consider reading several types of books at once: easy informational, a novel, and serious nonfiction.
Then you can pick up whatever you’re in the mood for. For example, right now I’m reading a mystery novel by Ellis Peters (Monk’s Hood), a book on Christian environmentalism and dominion by Gordon Wilson (A Different Shade of Green), and I’m occasionally flipping through a Sonoma-Williams cookbook I checked out of the library.
8. Read aloud to your kids.
Sometimes even very young children will enjoy a book that you wanted to read as well, such as Pilgrim’s Progress or a Robert Louis Stevenson novel you somehow missed out on when you were a kid.
9. Be ok with not finishing books you don’t enjoy.
If you get stuck on a book that’s just not your cup of tea, you might end up not reading anything else all year. Put the book down and find something else to read. Maybe the first book will sound more exciting later.
10. Set manageable goals.
If you’re a born reader, the problem might be restricting how much time you spend reading. If you’re struggling to reach your reading goals each year, though, break it up into easy stages. A chapter a day might be a good place to start.
How do you make time for reading in your busy schedule? Let us know in the comments.
For more ideas:
Help Your Baby’s Mind Develop: 5 Things You Probably Already Do