Lesson: Hello and welcome to ‘The Focused Reader,’ the 30-day challenge to improving your attention while in a book. I’m here to guide you towards a goal: reading for 60 minutes straight each day. Let’s start by setting aside the Pomodoro Technique. This method involves reading for 20 minutes, and then taking a 5-minute break.Continue reading Day 1 – Forget the Pomodoro
Day 1 – Forget the Pomodoro
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My mind often wanders, and I also have a bad habit of binge-watching TV shows. I want to spend more time reading than watching TV.
I already read for more than an hour a day but I take frequent breaks. I read a few pages and take a break and then go back. I try to reflect and recall what I read during the break but I lack the stamina to read without interruption. For this challenge I will read The third Chimpanzee by Jarod Diamond and some short stories and poems from the 1914 edition of the collier Junior Classics.
My distractions mostly come for “thinks that I need to do.”
My three books: Stone by Fire, JP Penn for the adventure; The Rewire Retirement Method, Cyn Meyer for my the next chapter in my life; and A Quiet Will – The Life of Clara Barton by William E. Barton because I like historical biographies.
My mind tends to wander, especially after I’ve read a book for, say, 20 minutes and beyond. I’m also prone to check the internet and my phone, although I have apps on my computer that restrict my web searching for specific amounts of time. And, last but not least, my mind sometimes drifts to “other things I should be doing instead.”
My three books are “On the Nature of Things” by Lucretius, “The World’s Religions” by Huston Smith, and “Collected Poems” by T.S. Eliot.
Noise and distracting thoughts
The Covenant of Water, Rilke’s Book of Hours and The Everything War
I do pretty well paying attention when reading novels and lighter things. I have problems when reading history or philosophy. I think I get sort of fatigued and overwhelmed and my brain wanders. I am going to be reading history for my three books: Middlekauff “The Glorious Cause”, Sallust “The Jugurthine War” and Ambrose “Nothing Like it in the World.”
Wasting time on TV and nonsense. Need to physically remove myself from these distractions. I am happy when I am done reading and discontent and disappointed when I waste an evening watching TV.
The Demon of Unrest.
Great Expectations.
The Most Important Thing
I got out of the habit of reading for long periods of time when I was raising my high energy child. I want to get back to concentrating and interacting more deeply with what I read. My three books are:
Brooklyn by Colm Toíbín
Poet Warrior by Joy Hart
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
I tend to interrupt my reading time with thinking I need to do something RIGHT NOW and leaping up to take care of it. My thoughts wander to planning or worrying.
I am an avid reader but looking to learn some new. I usually read history but will like to challenge my mind
3 books I will read are:
Chaos: science of unpredictable by James Gleick
How the Irish saved civilization by Thomas Cahill
Niccolo’s smile: a bio of Macchiavelli by Maurizio Viroli
I can read for long periods of time but need to concentrate more deeply and retain what I read better. My books are A History of Crete, the Iliad, and The Song of Achilles.
Once I sit down to read, I am fine. My problem is coming back to the book. I really like the book but coming back to it and just being able to sit down and read it is my problem. My day is busy and stressed and I just dont go back. Two or three days will pass before I sit down with the book and these are books I am engaged with. I think about the storyline and where the book could possibly go. I just dont return the next day. Do I go on the internet, yes. Do I spend my time looking at stupid stuff, yes. This is my issue.
I have the usual distractions- tv, iPad, Facebook, wife, grandkids. In addition I have some medical issues which have affected my vision and has made reading more difficult.
The first two books are ones I have been working on for a while. “What’s gotten into you” by Dan Levitt on a Kindle. “Be useful seven rules for life” by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The last is “ The laws of human nature” by Robert Greene which has been lounging in my book shelf for several years.