If You Want To Read Much More Books To Largely Improve Your Life, Learn These 4 Tricks

Entertaining, informational, and sometimes even funny, books can be the catalyst that changes your life. You can stack them up by your bedside, carry them around in your backpack, but they won’t part their pertinent information until you actually open them and start reading. Some people spend hours engrossed in the pages of a book, while others dread opening one. Your life will not change until you do, and to get that useful information downloaded into your brain, here are 4 tips suggested by Writer, Patrick Allen at Lifehacker^[1] to help ease your way through reading.

4 Tips to Help You Read Better and Read More

Not everyone has the luxury of 5 spare hours to dedicate to reading, but the good news is that there are ways around that problem. However, before you invest in a speed reading course, this is not one of them! There’s no magic pill to swallow or formula to make you read faster- in fact, studies^[2] show that increased speed reading decreases comprehension, but there are other proven ways that can help you read more and read better.

1. Read in Intervals

When your book is fun or entertaining, it’s easy to read, but faced with a challenging text on understanding the stock market, the psychology of anything or the science of bees, keeping your focus on your book can prove to be an arduous task and your willpower breaks down fast. The trick is to read in 20-minute intervals and take 5-10 minute breaks between your reading sprints. Don’t sit and rest during these short breaks, but get up and move. It prevents you from falling asleep too if your book isn’t keeping you stimulated enough, and you have to face it, some books are just boring. Set a timer to help you stick to the intervals and be sure to remove all distractions.

Even the slightest distraction will draw you away from the page, so you must eliminate these temptations from the beginning. Turn off the television. Switch your phone to silent. Find a quiet place to read, far from everyone. A little corner of the library, outside under a tree, or a good place with bright lighting. If the noise around you is still too much, wear a pair of noise canceling headphones. But don’t make your little reading nook so comfortable that you are tempted to fall asleep!

2. Use Audio Books

Yes, audio books are not actual reading, but they still get the information from the page to the inside of your head.  Audio books make the perfect alternative for the busy person who is always on the move. You can listen to them when you are jogging, driving your car, doing yard work or cleaning the house. How does it work? You can download an audio book app to your device, or alternately access audio books through iBooks or Kindle app. Plug some earbuds in and fire it up. Not all books are available in audio format, so double check before you commit your book report if your plan is to exercise your way through the book.

3. Use Your Phone

People naturally scoop up their phones these days. Sometimes it’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you touch before going to bed at night. Make this habit work for you by downloading your book onto your phone. And instead of scrolling through your Facebook feed or checking your likes on Instagram, open up your book on your phone and read. You were going to have that phone in your hand anyway!

The beauty of reading on your phone is that you can adjust the font size and the brightness to better suit your eyes. Sometimes you can even change the font style to one that is easier to read. You can’t do that with a paperback!  However, some books may be difficult to find on your phone, like text books.

A great place to locate free classics is through Project Gutenberg^[3], which offers over 53,000 free public domain books, which they have put into ebook format. Another often overlooked place to obtain ebooks from is through your local public library system. All you need is your library card since it’s free!

4. Don’t Read Word by Word in Your Head

A final note on reading. Now that you’ve gotten the ball rolling, if you find yourself mouthing the words or reading them in your head- stop. Believe it or not, this practice does not benefit you and actually slows down your reading because your brain is concentrating on pronouncing the words, rather than just reading them. How many times have you looked at a word, known exactly what it was, or what it means in context, but when pronouncing it out loud, you get flustered or stumble over the syllables? You can always keep a pen and paper handy and jot down those incomprehensible words to look up later, but save the pronunciation for your next Toastmasters’ speech and concentrate on the gist of the words rather than each word separately.

If you find it too much of a challenge not to mouth the words, give your mouth a job to do. Chew some gum or ice. Eat a snack.

These 4 easy tips to follow will help you tackle your reading list, even if you have to rake the leaves or rush to the store for a gallon of milk. There’s a wealth of information in books just waiting to be discovered. What are you waiting for? Improve your life today.

Featured photo credit: Makunin via pixabay.com

Reference

[1]	^	Lifehacker: How to Read an Entire Book in a Single Day
[2]	^	PsychologicalScience.org: So Much to Read, So Little Time
[3]	^	Project Gutenberg: Free E-Books

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You Only Need 5 Seconds To Win People's Hearts With This Genius Hack

Making conversations with people is something that we do every day. Whether they are with old friends or new acquaintances, every relationship starts with a conversation. Some people are used to routinely asking people that they bump into, “How are you?” But do not really stop to wait for a response. Doing that shows insincerity which will not win people’s hearts.

How do you make sure that you are sincere in listening to the other person that you are talking to? Follow the tips below to start a or keep a great relationship through a conversation:

If you ask someone, “What did you eat last night?”
“I had tuna last night.”
You should say, “That is great that you had tuna!”

If you ask someone, “What do you do for work?”
“I am a carpenter.”
You should say, “Oh nice! You are a carpenter. I had to call a carpenter yesterday to fix something in our house!”

By repeating and reaffirming their exact answers, it makes them feel like you were sincere in asking them the question and that you listened to them. This trick will make you win friends. Try it next time!

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5 Unconventional Ways To Largely Improve Yourself

Adapted from Quora

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This Mindset is Essential If You Want To Feel More Comfortable Around People

Many people today struggle with some type of social anxiety whether it is related to a particular type of social situation, or it is present in any type of interaction with unfamiliar people. Being uncomfortable around people makes life a lot more complicated since in order to achieve any goal in life – personal or professional we ought to make conversations and develop relationships with others. More so, people are social beings, and it is in our DNA to want to interact with others, it is just that for some of us, it can be quite challenging at times.

The reasons we are uncomfortable around people

As mentioned earlier, we as humans are dependent upon social interactions and we essentially crave those, yet for some it may seem completely natural to express themselves in front of their close ones, while the thought of interacting with strangers seems unbearable. The fear of not being perceived by others as worthy creates a blockage in people’s thoughts preventing them from being able to think clearly, and therefore, their biggest fears come to life. The reasons may vary, but for most people the problem seems to develop out of negative self-belief. Overthinking, shyness and other side-effects have all been developed from a negative perception we have of ourselves. People who think of themselves as smart, funny, eloquent and attractive have no problem to interact with any group of people, whereas people who judge themselves too harshly often fear that others may do the same.

A mindset to help you be more comfortable around others

Contrary to the popular belief, there are no sets of skills we need to learn that would make us more comfortable when interacting with people. Even though good listening skills, empathy and body language can be beneficial, the only way that we are ever going to be comfortable around people is if we adopt the mindset that anyone who is great in different social situations has got.

It all comes down to how you see and believe yourself to be. Socially anxious people think that others perceive them as awkward, stupid or unattractive, or fear that they might if they start expressing themselves, when, in most cases, it is just their belief about themselves, and since they are so much focused on that perception, they tend to find evidence of that in social interactions.

Stop caring desperately about how other people may perceive you. Look for your positive traits and focus on those, then you will see how others respond well. You will get much more confident, because over time, you will stop caring so much what others think, since you will no longer need their validation to make you feel good. Then the magic starts to happen. You get to freely involve in many more social situations, your fear of rejection or of embarrassment disappears and you stop overthinking so much, and start acting instead. Your encounters with people improve as a result, as people like to spend time with you because you are able to develop much more meaningful conversations since you are no longer only focused on what you are about to say, and as a result, you become more engaging rather than standing on the sidelines.

Even if you find yourself in an unpleasant social situation, don’t get mad or feel hurt. Don’t let it bring you down, because if you feel bad, you will start overthinking again and your confidence level will go down. Just put on a big smile and keep going. Not everybody can like you, and that’s fine. If you stop being harsh to yourself and act instead of think, people will see how confident you are and feel attracted to you and start enjoying your company.

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When You Stop Looking At Your Phone, Amazing Things Would Happen

The techno gadget world has virtually shackled us in life chains, locking out human interaction. We are all guilty of being glued to social media.

Gary Turk, writer, filmmaker and spoken word artist, reflects on the social media weapon of human disintegration in his  Youtube video, ‘Look up,’ which has taken the foreground  in urging audiences to LOOK UP.

“I have 422 friends, yet I’m lonely.”  In his video, a man decides to ask for directions instead of scrolling Google maps. The video skips ahead to the future showing a true love scene that needed interaction to launch. The video shares concern for children experiencing life clogged in social media.

“When you’re too busy looking down, you don’t see the chances you miss.”

He then ends by asserting this:

“Stop watching this video,” he concludes, “and live life the real way.”

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If You Want To Be Successful, Stop Trying To Please Everybody

Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.

Arnold H. Glasow summarized his reason for success in a single, simple sentence. Here comes the question that has perpetually mystified human beings: what is the right thing to do?

They say curiosity kills the cat. In a sense, that is true. Every time we make a decision, we constantly question ourselves, “what if we did it the other way round?”. We initiate battles within ourselves, leading us to be miserable no matter what we chose or did in the end. Perhaps it comes with experience, but as I grew up, I began to realize that many of these battles began because we weren’t choosing the option we really wanted. We weren’t acknowledging our own desires. And if we want success that bad, we just have to stop trying to please everybody.

Don’t say maybe if you want to say no.

It’s pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it?

It doesn’t seem appropriate to say “no” when someone is enthusiastically asking you to a party. I know I would have a hard time because that would mean looking at the crestfallen face of your friend and feeling guilty. Moreover, no one likes a killjoy. So you say, “maybe… I’ll see” instead. But once you said that, you started feeling a pull, an obligation to go and when you ended up in a place where you didn’t even want to be in, you started wondering how it had come down to this.

The truth is – you need to start saying no instead of maybe. Shake your head instead of shrugging. It’s okay to be polite, but not to the point when you have to force yourself to be somewhere or do something you don’t want to. There is only so much time you can spend and so many things you can do. Don’t waste it on the non-essentials.

One aspect of your life is going to affect other aspects of your life.

The four burners theory mentioned that you would need to cut off something from your life if you want to be successful.^[1] That’s because the people that constitute the different aspects of your life are going to expect you to go an extra mile for them. They don’t mean to make your life difficult. But do you remember your boss asking if you can help with an extra project? Or your husband or wife other asking if you can help with the kids on the weekends when they meet up with their friends?

When you agree with one side, you are going to have to stretch certain areas in your life, such as your health. Your choice has unconsciously affected your entire life. More importantly, when one area of your life is out of alignment, every area of your life suffers. The more you work for others instead of yourself, the more you are going to feel like your life is getting torn asunder.

Remember: everyone has their expectations, but it’s not your obligation to do what they want you to do. You own yourself.

Don’t let “should”s hold sway over you.

It’s alright if you think you should do something because it would make yourself happy. However, most of the times, our mind goes like this:

“I should join their gossiping or else I am going to look out of place eating lunch alone.”

“I should probably go to this dinner or my friends are going to feel bad.”

Nothing leads to indecision faster than letting your actions be guided by the desire to impress or satisfy others. – Iyanla Vanzant

There are a lot of things that you will feel that you should do. But as you go on in life, you will realize these are not things that you must do. There is only one right thing to do, and that is the things that you do for yourself and yourself only.

Featured photo credit: Picjumbo via Picjumbo.com

Reference

[1]

^

Lifehack: If You Want To Be Successful, You May Need To Cut Off Something From Life

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One Simple and Natural Way To Help You Stay Energetic After A Night Of Insomnia

Sleepless nights are just something that we must endure from time to time due to various reasons, such as a change in our daily schedule, side effects of certain medicines, or we simply have too much on our minds. This is just something we all go through. However, if it starts happening on a daily bases, it is a serious problem. Staying awake and focused after a sleepless night can be challenging, but instead of drinking one cup of coffee after another, there is a simpler way to get us going.

Drinking too much coffee can take a toll on the sleeping cycle

Most of us start our day with a cup of coffee to keep us going throughout the day, and we continue to fill ourselves with coffee just to make it through the day. Yet, we rarely stop to think the effect caffeine can have on our bodies. We forget that caffeine can also be found in other drinks we consume such as tea, soft drinks, and various sports drinks, thus we take more caffeine than necessary. The intake of too much caffeine can lead to sleepless nights, and furthermore, the more caffeine we consume, the more immune our bodies becomes to it.

Your lifestyle can influence your ability to sleep

You also need to be aware that certain habits can impair your ability to sleep well at night. If you stay up late staring at your smartphone or laptop, don’t be surprised if you find yourself rolling in your bed afterwards. Moreover, eating a large meal before you hit the sack can deprive you of sleep.

Say hello to sunlight and goodbye to insomnia

The negative effects of insomnia are numerous, from reducing performance at work or school, slower reaction times, which can be dangerous if you are driving, and in the longer run, it may lead to some serious health problems, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. Luckily for you, you don’t need to reach for the medications right away.

There are many known benefits of the sunlight such as helping in building strong bones and healing skin conditions. It is also responsible for increasing the levels of serotonin, which is a hormone that can boost our mood. Also, the lack of sunlight may cause an imbalance in the hypothalamus, which is a gland responsible for regulating our sleep and energy levels. Our biological clocks are sensitive to changes in light, thus if you don’t have enough sunlight exposure during the day, you will feel tired. This is due to a hormone called melatonin, which is produced during the night when there is no light; it tells your body to calm down and go to sleep. Sunlight suppresses the production of this hormone during the day, and you feel energized as a result. However, if you miss out on sunlight because you wake up later in the day or work in a space with little natural light, you might feel depressed and constantly tired.

Embrace the sunlight

To make your biological clock function properly as to feel awake and ready to work during the day, and to sleep well during the night, try to soak up as much sunlight as possible. Get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning and do a few exercises in front of a window. Also, when working, if possible sit close to a source of natural sunlight. In case that’s not possible, use your lunch break to go and eat outside, instead of sitting at your desk. After work, walk a couple of blocks on your way home, while there is still sunlight. If you are meeting your friends, arrange it to be during the day and sit outside and enjoy the sunlight, rather than sitting in a stuffy bar in the evening.

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