I saw a unicorn at the grocery store today. Someone in an inflatable costume waddled down the cereal aisle as a giant, pink magical beast. I’m not going to lie – it was a great way to start my Monday morning.
OK, onto today’s reading thought. I have a little trick to stay focused while reading books. If my brain wanders (because I’m thinking about random things like pink unicorns), I commit to reading the next sentence as fully as possible.
Here’s how it works: By reading the next sentence of your book deeply, your brain gets a big dose of detail and substance. And guess what…brains like that stuff. It feels good to read a sentence fully, to appreciate what it’s communicating, and completely understand it. It’s also easier than getting mad about distractions, starting over, and forcing yourself to focus for an entire chapter. A sentence is much more doable.
Here, let’s try it.
Say you’re reading Crime and Punishment with me, and you feel your brain start to wander.
- Step 1: Don’t get mad at yourself for losing focus.
- Step 2: Commit to reading the next sentence fully.
Ready? Here’s the next sentence in Crime and Punishment: But no sooner had he opened the door to the entryway than he suddenly ran into Porfiry himself.
Ok, on the surface, this is a pretty basic sentence. The protagonist, Raskolnikov, runs into the police investigator in his stairwell. So what? Read it again, but think about the meaning of each word.
“But no sooner,” suggests that there’s a sense of immediacy. Our protagonist is in a rush, and as a reader, you can start to feel that sense of hurry in your heart.
“suddenly ran into…” suggests that Raskolnikov was not expecting to see the investigator there. This matters because Raskolnikov has committed a horrible crime and he’s being investigated. To find your enemy standing in your stairwell unexpectedly is quite a shock.
“Himself,” is important. Why? The investigator must have something bad on Raskolnikov if he’s willing to walk to Raskolnikov’s house and make the visit himself. Otherwise, he might have sent someone lower down in the police chain. This is not a visit of routine police work, this is about to get uncomfortable.
Do you see what we did there? We gave that sentence a chance to speak to us. By THINKING about each word, we start to see and understand things at a deeper level.
Next time your brain wanders, commit to reading the next sentence fully. You’ll give your brain a dopamine hit and you’ll be drawn back into the story. Sometimes, I have to do this several times before I can settle into a good reading session.
Until tomorrow, read slowly – take notes – apply the ideas.
-Eddy
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