Stop Procrastinating and Start Reading

Posted May 17, 2016 by @amanhimself in Books / 25 Comments

Source: artclon.com

This is a blog post as well as an alert/reminder to my brain, especially the title, and to those who have been bitten by a dog name “Reading Slump”.  No, there is no need to check with a doctor, neither you need a bibliophilist. The main occurrence of a reading slump due my observation is regardless the number of books we have on our stack, we bibliophiles, procrastinate enough to make it a distraction and cause us the slump .

One cannot eliminate procrastination in an ultimate manner from his life. But trying to eliminate it, or not thinking about it too much and just focusing on the stuff we need to het over with, in every bibliophiles case, read ’em. The aster effects of procrastination are dangerous, which happens with me, as it often leads to anxiety and guilt and causing those slumps. We waste time and time is precious to us as much as Gollum’s precious.

My general reason for sinking in a reading slump is that I have too many books to read, which is often the case with anyone, but sometimes I do nothing about it. Just hover over the titles and pick one, read its blurb on the back cover and put it back from where I picked it up. A few times this methodology has worked out for me, and I have spent some interesting times reading an interesting book. Most times it doesn’t work. It becomes a habit, then it is unhealthy and wastes a lot of time.

To overcome this, I am trying some solutions which I’d like to share with you:

  • Don’t always, pick books according to your mood. You’ll end up wasting time like I do.
  • If you studying a subject/author, plan which books to read, and stick to them. The world is full of distractions, until and unless you feel you had enough with that subject, don’t hover over the others.
  • If you can, make a list. This shouldn’t be your general TBR list. For every person’s TBR list is taller than him or her. This list has to be short. Time span it covers should be shorter like a week or a fortnight. List the books you generally read in that time and try accomplish this goal. Consider it as a short-term goal.
  • May a book always be with you. If you don’t have bag or any other luggage to do so, try to carry it with your bare hands. Having access to a book, you don’t know, when is that beneficial. 

 


How much time do you like to spend on picking out books you may read? Also, tell me, how do you come over procrastination/reading slumps?

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25 responses to “Stop Procrastinating and Start Reading

  1. I admit I tend to choose my next read based on my mood. I always carry a book around too which I find helps because if it’s there and I’m somewhere with nothing else to do then I’ll read.

    Having a short to read list is a great idea and something I do myself. I have my long one, but then I have one with books I’d like to read that week.

    Hope you’re free from your slump soon. Maybe just taking a break from reading will help?

    • The long ones are going to be with us for long long time. But looking at short lists like short term goals, and after completing those goals and then the feeling of accomplishment will drive a reader to read more. That’s my idea behind the short term list.

      I took my time, and now I am reading as much as I can. Recently finished two books: Sandman Vol1. by Neil Gaiman and Lois Lowery’s The Giver. How about you?

      • I agree about short and long term goals.

        I read Nod by Adrian Barnes this week and Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children by Ransom Riggs. Both were decent reads. I’m now reading This is not a test by Courtney Summers.

        I need to check out Sandman at one point.

  2. OK, OK! I took a 2 day break from reading because my brain needed it, but this post gave me the kick in the behind I needed. I don’t want to get into a reading slump, so thanks for the reminder to get back to reading. haha

  3. Great blog. I got out of the reading habit because I has SO much going on….time to remedy that. Thanks for the boot in the bottom I needed.

  4. It helps when you have lots of books that you can’t wait to delve into. Sometimes, I don’t read as much because the books I think I have to read next aren’t exciting at the moment. That’s usually when I change genre and choose something different. Right now, I’m on a NF streak so my fiction TBR is just on the shelf. There’s a book for every mood though.
    Great timely post considering I just read something about procrastination in the book I was reading tonight too 😀

  5. I love your blog been browsing through it for awhile, I totally agree with you on reading slumps. I tend to pick fast-paced books or reread my favorites

    • That’s good. I have fallen into the trap n number of times. May be I would follow your advice and try to select a book to read before I finish the current one. Thanks for sharing your experience.

  6. I mostly read in eReaders and they are always with us. So I can read anytime.
    But I have discovered a lethal problem with that too and am planning to have more physical copies to change that. In eReaders, changing a book is just too easy. If I find my interest flailing even for just a second, I will change the book. And thus none of them get ended up. Since you just got to open that shiny new one, doesn’t matter how much you’re loving the one you are reading.

    • Haha, that’s very true and a con of having “books” in eReader. I do that sometimes, whenever I put a new ebook, and it’s showing a “new” badge on the cover, it is, indeed, very hard to resist, very tempting. I had this desperation when I bought a eReader. It’s a matter of time when one get used to it. However, it is very hard to resist.

  7. I think you should practice randomness while selecting your books….
    We usually procrastinate when we apply excess of brains on which book to read and which not to…
    Just randomly pick any book and just start reading it…and go Wid the flow..without making any kind of opinion on it….
    (Avoid reading the back covers)
    Relish and digest whatever you are reading…
    And Sometimes its good to go down the wrong way….in order to get on the right track….so u should pick books according to your mood as well according to me may be it will help to at least keep a book in your hand than on the shelf….
    And lastly don’t count on how many books you have read…just count on…how many thoughts you have gained from it.

  8. Personally, I’m a boom hoarder and I tend to only re-read the books I have read tons of times already while I keep buying new ones… I guess it’s just that I don’t want to be disappointed by a book, so I just go back to my trusted ones like Harper Lee, Tolkien and Donna Tartt. They never disappoint. New books really need to catch my eye on the bookstore or be recommended before I even consider reading them.

    • The whole idea of reading is to read doesn’t matter if you reading a book for the first time, I guess. But personally, i feel sometimes it is good to wander in a new paradigm irrespective of the end product.

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