I miss the regimented nature of being a kid sometimes. Every year I had at least one class dedicated solely to reading at least twice a week and I can vividly recall how good learning felt then - I read House of Leaves by Danielewski in Sophomore year/10th grade and I can’t remember feeling that proud that I had finished something considered difficult even for adults.
Nowadays I’ll get halfway through a novel or history book or theory piece and just stop, fall off - my attention is desparately needed elsewhere. I’ve got a lot of half-cocked ideas I know I could solidify if only I could focus. I can read articles like crazy, though.
I’m similar. We just need different strategies as adults. It’s still hard, though.
One way I get through non-fiction is to plan only to read a chapter at a time, starting with whatever looks most interesting, and treating it as the task in itself (as opposed to finishing the book). It tricks my brain into thinking the task is manageable. This way, I’ve not ‘failed’ if I get distracted, and I can pick up the same book to read another chapter later. Sometimes this means reading books in the wrong order, but the alternative is drifting away somewhere in the middle of one of the early chapters. And if I only read the one chapter, at least I properly engaged with it while I had the book open.
Brilliant advice comrade, thank you. Compartmentalizing tasks like that is one of the only reasons I’ve been able to keep working without losing it. The journey is often as tolerable and potentially even as enjoyable as the destination if we allow it to be.
I miss the regimented nature of being a kid sometimes. Every year I had at least one class dedicated solely to reading at least twice a week and I can vividly recall how good learning felt then - I read House of Leaves by Danielewski in Sophomore year/10th grade and I can’t remember feeling that proud that I had finished something considered difficult even for adults.
Nowadays I’ll get halfway through a novel or history book or theory piece and just stop, fall off - my attention is desparately needed elsewhere. I’ve got a lot of half-cocked ideas I know I could solidify if only I could focus. I can read articles like crazy, though.
I’m similar. We just need different strategies as adults. It’s still hard, though.
One way I get through non-fiction is to plan only to read a chapter at a time, starting with whatever looks most interesting, and treating it as the task in itself (as opposed to finishing the book). It tricks my brain into thinking the task is manageable. This way, I’ve not ‘failed’ if I get distracted, and I can pick up the same book to read another chapter later. Sometimes this means reading books in the wrong order, but the alternative is drifting away somewhere in the middle of one of the early chapters. And if I only read the one chapter, at least I properly engaged with it while I had the book open.
Brilliant advice comrade, thank you. Compartmentalizing tasks like that is one of the only reasons I’ve been able to keep working without losing it. The journey is often as tolerable and potentially even as enjoyable as the destination if we allow it to be.