You can read 200 books a year if you give up social media

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Sounds like fantasy, but it's totally real.

How to find time to read

Read 500 pages every day. Knowledge accumulates like compound interest. Anyone can do it, but I guarantee not many will.

Warren Buffett, entrepreneur, investor American large investor, one of the richest people in the world

If you rarely take books, it might seem like 200 books is an unrealistic number, and 500 pages a day is librarian mode. In fact, it is really available to absolutely anyone.

Let's count. The reading speed is about 200 words per minute. The average volume of a book is about 50,000 words.

• 200 books × 50,000 words = 10,000,000 words
• 10,000,000 words / 200 words per minute = 50,000 minutes
• 50,000 minutes / 60 minutes = 833 hours

To read 200 books, you need to spend 833 hours a year reading. It turns out 2-3 hours a day. Where can we get this time?

According to the We Are Social report, Russians spend about 140 minutes a day on social networks, and Roskomnadzor claims that people from 18 to 34 years old spend 150 minutes a day watching TV.

It turns out you have 2, 5 to 5 hours to read! A whole lot of time to spend on books, and here's why.

Why it is worth replacing social media with books

You will change your perception of information

Social networks are stuffing with short information: a message, a picture, a gif. The brain gets used to such a light diet, and it becomes more and more difficult for you to concentrate. Reading a book is a long concentration on one subject.

Replace social media with books, and you'll train your brain to stay focused on the right things for longer.

You will get rid of the negative influence of social networks

Information waste affects memory and attention, impairs concentration, makes it difficult to make decisions and emotional processing - the ability to cope with past traumatic experiences without transferring it to the next events. Books do not pose any danger to cognitive function.

It will be easier for you to express yourself - both orally and in writing

Reading books directly affects how you speak, how rich your speech is. By reading fiction, you enrich your language, even if you don't notice it.

You will learn a lot of useful things

There are helpful articles and videos on social media, but there is also a lot of useless junk, and it is this junk that makes up a large part of your informational diet. In books you will find much more useful, moreover, not only in scientific, but also in fiction.

How to start changes

Moving from social media and TV to reading is not so easy: the habit of getting easy information will pull you back into the world of bright pictures and memes. But you can handle it. Here's what will help you:

Change the environment

Social media is designed to be addictive. The information is light and bright, like an advertisement. Your brain doesn't have to waste calories to process it, and it loves it. Therefore, without social media, you feel uncomfortable.

If you have ever quit smoking, then you know that cigarettes, ashtrays and anything that reminds of smoking should be removed from the house. It's the same with social media.

If you prefer paper books, put them in the most conspicuous place, if you are reading on a smartphone - demolish all social media applications or hide them away, and leave only the reader on the main page. Turn off all notifications while reading: nothing should distract you from the book.

Make a habit

When you start something new, and even more so when you break the habit of addiction, willpower is a poor helper. It dries up quickly if you are tired or sad. Unlike habit: it won't let you down in any mood.

Create a reading habit. Start with a few pages a day, with one chapter, with 15 minutes, and gradually increase the amount you read.

Choose books that really captivate you. It is very important! Don't force yourself to read boring books that you find useful. It is easy to throw unread books if they cease to interest you, and start new ones.

You must love reading, otherwise all your efforts will go to waste.

Use any free minute

Always take a book with you: who knows how much free time you will have. You can read on public transport, in line, on the toilet - fill up with reading any free minute that you would otherwise spend on Instagram feed.

This does not mean that the book will replace reality for you. Live, communicate, do not give up anything. The only thing that will change is that a ton of useless posts from social networks will be replaced by information that one day can drastically change your life.