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For me, if I schedule something it immediately becomes a chore -- another to-do on the list -- and it depletes willpower from other things that I have to do. If
by gms7777 9y ago
For me, if I schedule something it immediately becomes a chore -- another to-do on the list -- and it depletes willpower from other things that I have to do. If I'm reading for work, that's fine. But if I'm reading for enjoyment, well, that kind of kills the point of it. I want something that refreshes me instead of exhausting me.
What I've found works is setting up my environment so that reading is easy and natural. The absolute most effective thing for me has been banning my laptop and tablet from my bedroom, and setting up my phone to charge on the opposite side of the room. I keep a book or my e-reader on the side of my bed and generally need some unwinding time before sleep so I end up reading before bed.
The other massive for me is audiobooks. I know everyone has their own opinion on whether this counts as reading, but as far as I'm strongly on the pro-side. I spend a significant portion of my day -- when I'm walking, driving, chores, exercise -- listening to either podcasts or audiobooks. I've read a lot more books than I would have otherwise, and it definitely reinforces the visual/normal/book reading habit as well. I particularly like whispersync when its available, and I can switch back and forth between reading on my kindle and listening on my phone.
- exodust 9y agoHow do you have patience for the slow speed of audiobooks? Is it possible to multi-task while listening to audiobooks? I'm not sure if my focus on coding would suffer, or keeping up with the book. My fav multitasking activity right now is to watch those "average" TV shows (such as most shows in existence) on a second monitor while I work. Sure I miss some scenes and dialog due to focusing on my work, but generally I keep up. Sometimes need to rewind if I missed something crucial.
- dagw 9y agoHow do you have patience for the slow speed of audiobooks? If it's a really good reader then the performance become a key part of the enjoyment, much like a great actor can really enhance the play or movie they're in. If it's not a great or interesting performance then I just use the audiobook app to speed up the playback to the point where I find a good balance between speed and intelligibility.
- exodust 9y agoI see. Honestly had forgotten that playback speed can be increased. I might look into it.
- lostcolony 9y agoBut he makes a good point; sometimes you get a very good reader, who has cadence and inflections and such that actually improve the experience. It's like being told a story, rather than someone reading to you. It can be worth listening to it at 1x in such an instance.
- rejschaap 9y agoIt is possible to multi-task while listening to audio books. I find activities such as working out or driving a good match. Coding while listening to an audio book sounds like a bad idea. Coding while watching a TV show sounds even worse to me though, so YMMV.
- exodust 9y agoWatching TV while coding has its limits and drawbacks. Only possible in home-office, and when the coding task is more routine than challenge. Probably a bad habit.
- throwanem 9y agoYou leave out a clause, I think: It is possible to multitask while listening to audiobooks, so long as you're not doing anything else that requires complex thought or processing. Walking, riding, driving, working out, washing dishes, doing laundry - these are tasks not at all harmed by listening to something while you do them, and indeed people have so alleviated their monotony since the commercialization of radio. A task like programming is something else entirely, in terms of cognitive complexity, and attempting to partake simultaneously of something that requires attention to follow means one or the other probably isn't going to get done very well.
- dangravell 9y agoI have to disagree that driving isn't a complex task. Sure, the muscle memory but is easy but what about concentration, reading the road etc?
- lostcolony 9y agoIt's no different than cleaning. Yes, it requires attention, but your attention can (and will) pass back and forth between active and passive. Evaluate, execute, evaluate, execute, with large parts of the execute phase being pure muscle memory (i.e., maintaining your speed and lane), during which you can pay attention to an audio book. In a more programmer related parlance, you can't perform the most rigorous part of driving concurrently with paying attention to an audiobook, but you -can- task switch pretty easily. The driving is pre-emptive.
- didgeoridoo 9y agoAudible lets you listen at up to 3x speed. I rarely go below 2x. I agree that listening at the default speed is maddeningly slow.
- kobeya 9y agoReally depends on the narrator. Some are actual accomplished stage actors who invest a lot of preparatory time into the book they narrate, developing the sound of each character and reading between the lines to extract the right emotional cadence for their speech in the scene. John Lee is one of my favorites in this regard: http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/narrators/john-lee/ http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/narrators/john-lee/ Listening to these audiobooks at anything other than 1x diminishes the result.
- DeanYeong 9y agoI once stumbled across an app that helps increase the speed of an audiobook. Unfortunately, forget its name. By the way, you can always listen to books while doing some simple chores like cleaning the house or walking the dog, right.
- Piskvorrr 9y agoVLC can do that, and it has an Android port.
- rorykoehler 9y agoWhen I'm reading (or listening to audio books) I'm processing and reflecting on the content. If the book isn't engaging enough to demand my full attention then it's probably not worth reading. Multi-tasking is a fallacy. It's not possible to do anything that requires a reasonable amount of concentration with mindfulness and quality if you're also trying to do something else at the same time. To try multi-task is to short change yourself of truly deep and engaging experiences.
- gms7777 9y agoThat's true, though for myself I find that in order to concentrate on something mentally engaging I need to be physically occupied. So walking, simple chores, some types of exercise, knitting, mindlessly guitar practice. It's when I don't have something mindless to do with my hands that my mind actually ends up wandering.
- GrinningFool 9y agoI've found that physical activities multitask really well, while primarily mental activities don't - I miss too much book when I do that.
- taeric 9y agoRephrase it from scheduling, to making time. That is, I don't schedule time on the guitar. I make time for it. The difference to me is some things are required, and some are priorities. Some are, of course, both.
- DeanYeong 9y agoLove your input here. Indeed, creating the right environment is a big part of building the habit of reading. For me, I don't usually listen to audiobooks. But hey, that's reading too as long as you gain insights from the books.