How Reading Everyday Has Helped Me

Hello Everyone!

Today I am doing a bit more of a chatty, discussion style post than I would usually do and that is because I wanted to tell you all about how reading everyday has helped me.

At the start of 2018, I made the decision that I was going to read every. single. day. in the coming year. I made the decision at about 11 o’clock at night, only an hour before the new year started, but so far, it has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and I have stuck to it. I haven’t yet missed a single day. The only guideline I put around the goal of ‘reading everyday’ was that it had to be a physical book, so just reading an article or magazine doesn’t count. I didn’t attach any other rules to it though, so I can read one sentence or I could read a whole book, I can read fiction or non-fiction: it is completely up to me. I did this so that it gave me more freedom and it didn’t make reading seem like a chore or just another thing to tick off the list. This way I can read everyday and I can read whatever I am in the mood for and I’m not confined by any rules.

I think the next thing I should probably do is tell you why I decided to do this: I have always been a big reader, but I found that in previous years, my reading always tended to take a back seat to things like school and I didn’t want that. I also have trouble to starting a new book once I have finished another, so I thought that committing to reading everyday would not only fix the fact that I would go weeks without reading a book because I couldn’t bring myself to start another one and it would force me to prioritise and make some time to read every day, even if it is just one sentence. Those were the two main reasons, but there were a few other, slightly smaller reasons that I decided to read everyday. I have had a huge TBR for almost 3 years now (although it is now down to a much more reasonable size) and it was stressing me out, so by reading everyday I would naturally get more books read and therefore get through my TBR quicker. The final reason is that there are so many books that I want to read, so instead of just sitting there moaning about how there isn’t enough time to read all the books I wanted to, I am actually doing something about it and getting books read, so that I can read even more.

Now that I have told you why I decided to do this, I wanted to tell you a bit more about how it has worked out and what I have gained from doing so.

I am pleased to say that, so far, I have succeeded in reading every day of 2018. I am so proud to say that because I usually don’t stick to my goals, but 2018 really has been the year of fixing that habit and doing what I said I was going to do.

As for what effect it has had and what I have gained from it… well, we might be here for a while. I am going to start by doing a little bullet point list of all the benefits it has brought me and then I will go into them in more depth:

• I have read so so so many more books! As I am writing this, I have read 52 books, but seeing as this post doesn’t go up for another few weeks I can promise I will have read more by then.
• I have gotten into the habit of making more time for me everyday in order to read and look after myself
• I have learnt loads!
• I have gotten into non-fiction (like big time)
• I have gotten more into poetry
• I have generally been able to experiment with more new genres than I ever thought I would
• It makes me feel productive everyday because I have done that one thing even if I haven’t done anything else
• It has massively improved my mental health
• It has given me the motivation to start up this blog again after letting it slip at the end of last year

As you can see, I have benefited massively from my late-night decision to read everyday and now I will explain in a bit more detail about all of these points. First of all lets talk about how many books I have read this year. 52! I never would have imagined I could read than many books in a whole year and it is only August as I write this, so I still have 4 and half months to go! I get a little warm fuzzy feeling whenever I think about how many books I have read this year because it is truly an achievement for me. This increase in my reading rate has also allowed me to read so many new genres. Since I have been reading so many books, I obviously have to buy some more books to replace the ones I have read. This has given me the opportunity to buy books from genres I wouldn’t usually and has allowed me to discover my love for poetry and for non-fiction, which is a whole own discussion on it’s own.

Committing to reading everyday has forced me to carve out a chunk of my day in order to complete that task, which has now turned into a chunk in my day that I use to read, do yoga, journal or just think. This has led to me looking after myself more and has generally improved my mental health. Speaking of improving my mental health, it really has done that. Reading has always been, and probably always will be, my escape. It is a way that I re-charge and take a break from the real world for a while, so by committing to doing it everyday, I have also unconsciously committed to taking time for myself each day. This has allowed me to get more things done and has just improved my mood in general. Like I mentioned in the bullet points, it also makes me feel productive regardless of whether I do anything else that day because I can say that I have done anything else. The satisfied and accomplished feeling I get from that usually convinces me to do the other things I have to do though, so it really is a win-win situation.

The final huge benefit it has brought me is that it convinced me to start up my blog again. I dropped it late last year when I went back to school because I didn’t feel like anyone was reading it and I had so much school work to do that I just didn’t think it was worth it. Coincidentally, that was around the same time that my mental health took a dip, which is funny because since I have started my blog up again (in late May) my mental health has been on the rise. I suppose that is another thing it has allowed me to do. It had allowed me to identify other things that help keep me happy and healthy, which is what I want. I am so glad I did make the decision to start my blog back up again because it has brought me no end of benefits, but that is a topic for another post.

So that is why I read everyday. As I am sure you can see, this has been a he success for me and I am going to hopefully continue to read everyday for the rest of my life if I can. I am currently trying to think of some other sort of challenge I could bring into my life surrounding reading everyday in order to keep it interesting and encourage me to reap some more benefits. Do you read everyday? Would you consider doing so if you don’t at the moment? I’d love to know!

Goodbye for now!

Over and Out