Same as the title.Nowadays I am not able to read a book without my arms stretching out to check the phone or go watch TV etc.
How do I get back to reading at a stretch instead of just reading it for few mins and getting distracted again?
Any tips are welcome and I am sorry if this is not the right sub.
Thanks in advance.
by ruminatingpoet
13 Comments
Turn off your phone and put it away. Go to a park or a coffee shop and leave it in your car if you have to.
You have to enjoy what you’re reading
Honestly, I’ve been putting my phone in another room while reading! I’ve also been keeping a notebook of things I want to look up later. It’s something to “do” between pages, if that would help you!
If you can concentrate on Tik Tok for 8 hours, you are perfectly capable of reading for 1 hour, and to argue that you can’t because your attention has withered and died is just infantilising yourself.
Turn the phone off, put it far away and decide for definite that reading is what you actually want to do for this time. You’ll find yourself engrossed in a few minutes once you commit
Put the phone out of reach and disable the tv.
This is what I do so I can read uninterrupted.
Put the phone away from you, well out of reach. I’ll have a special ring tone for my parents (or if you have kids) just in case some kind of emergency comes up; if I hear that, I’ll answer it. But otherwise, get your phone away from you. Silence other notifications.
Turn the TV off or go somewhere without a TV.
Start out in smaller chunks – at first read for 30 minutes without checking anything. Then 45. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
Realize that unless you are an ER doctor, nothing is so urgent that you can’t just be away from your phone for an hour or two. It takes practice.
Leave your phone in another room and don’t read in a room with a TV.
I have the Libby app, and it’s helped me read instead of doomscrolling. So now when I have the urge to open my phone for no good reason I’ll open it up instead.
I sorta Pavloved myself into wanting to read more that way. Plus I get to support my local libraries so that’s nice.
Set a timer on the phone and put it out of reach. Promise yourself you’ll read until the timer goes off. Then stick to it.
Increase the timer over time if you like.
If the book isn’t good enough to keep me from checking my phone it’s time to change books. Same with tv unless it’s something I’ve put to disassociate too and the phone helps with that.
Wanna hear smtg funny?
I was watching the new IT: Welcome to Derry show, and I got bored in the middle of the first episode so I paused it, pulled the book IT from my library to finish it (i’m in page 636) and got bored with that as well.
I bookmarked it 10 pages in, unpaused the show and watched the episode until I got bored again and paused it, opened the book again and kept reading…. I must have done this about 5 times throughout the second episode, effectively reading about 50 pages, and finishing both latest episodes.
Anyways you asked for tips. Just practice with your phone’s internet off or silenced. I noticed that after a few days, I start getting my reading ability back and I can read like 100 without thinking about anything else but the book and the story i’m engaged in.
I typically put on headphones and listen to instrumental or light music to fill the gaps of my brain that would wander. Also if you’re reaching for your phone a lot it might be worth looking into phone addiction, not saying that’s your issue, but there are most likely helpful strategies for the issues you’re facing.
Practice and self discipline. Remove the distractions, set small goals and keep on trying. It does get easier. You almost have to go through an intense detox to get to that point though. Your brain is trained now for quick dopamine hits.