Microblog One: A Time to Reflect
Over the course of the past couple of days, I have tried to take a look at some of my bad (and maybe good!) reading habits. Since beginning the book Delicious Foods by James Hannaham, many of my problems come from...Drum roll please... my phone! (shocker). Although teens are often warned about the "problems that phones cause for kids these days," I didn't realize that it would impact my reading this much. Every five minutes I would either receive a text from a friend, a notification, or some other distraction that would cause my phone to buzz and force my eyes off of my book and onto my "time waster."
One day, after my phone had caused a my reading to noticeably slow down, I thought it would be a good idea to spend 20 minutes reading with my phone in another room. Those 20 minutes turned out to be my most productive that day, and I soon realized the cost of reading mass amounts at one time. Without my phone, I never knew what I had missed! I would constantly be telling myself that I would go up to check it after five more pages, but that five became four, then three, until I was spending more time walking than reading. It was here, where I learned the magic of short-term goal setting. I told myself that for every 20 pages of reading, I would reward myself with five minutes on my phone. I may be putting myself in a sort of carrot-tied-on-a-stick sort of situation, but it turned out to be much more effective than running back and forth between rooms or getting nothing accomplished.
On the bright side, I've been making sure that reading feels like less of a chore! My main goal is to make the reading NOT seem like a bad thing, so that I finish quickly rather than letting the work pile up until it becomes a mess or procrastination.
One day, after my phone had caused a my reading to noticeably slow down, I thought it would be a good idea to spend 20 minutes reading with my phone in another room. Those 20 minutes turned out to be my most productive that day, and I soon realized the cost of reading mass amounts at one time. Without my phone, I never knew what I had missed! I would constantly be telling myself that I would go up to check it after five more pages, but that five became four, then three, until I was spending more time walking than reading. It was here, where I learned the magic of short-term goal setting. I told myself that for every 20 pages of reading, I would reward myself with five minutes on my phone. I may be putting myself in a sort of carrot-tied-on-a-stick sort of situation, but it turned out to be much more effective than running back and forth between rooms or getting nothing accomplished.
On the bright side, I've been making sure that reading feels like less of a chore! My main goal is to make the reading NOT seem like a bad thing, so that I finish quickly rather than letting the work pile up until it becomes a mess or procrastination.
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