How to Find Motivation & Fight your way out of a Reading Slump!

Hi, friends! As promised in my yesterday’s post – March 2020 Wrap Up, where I talked about the reading slump that has been haunting me since the end of February, here is a list of things I’ve been doing to try and fight my way out of this horrible feeling! 

This is still work in progress, but considering that I’m planning to finish my 11th and 12th books of this month, I think it’s actually going well and I hope that before OWLs begin I will be fully excited to emerge myself in numerous magical worlds! 

I hope that you will find at least one tip that will help you focus on wonderful books from your TBR! And would love to see what you usually do to get out of a reading slump.

HOW TO FIND MOTIVATION AND FIGHT THE READING SLUMP

1 – Actually rest and enjoy down time!

It’s important to get things done, but it’s also important to rest and relax. I’m not a good example of someone who can just relax and do nothing, so my way to relax was to tackle numerous house chores.

I usually spend most of my days staring at the computer screen at the office (which sometimes can be up to 12 hours a day), and then also try to read (with my eyes!) and work on my blog (on my laptop), therefore the best way for me to rest my eyes and ease my eye strain is to do something that doesn’t require a computer. 

Staying at home definitely helped with that. I’ve been deep cleaning one room at a time, organizing wardrobes, drawers, and multiple cabinets in my apartment. The best thing is that I can listen to audiobooks while cleaning, and still feel like I’m accomplishing some of my reading goals! 

---

2 – Rest is not everything. Push myself to actually do things! 

It is important to rest, yes. But it’s also important to not procrastinate and to not overindulge in “free time”. I can spend hours playing video games or watching YouTube videos, and while it’s a relaxing activity for me to do, it can also suck me in and waste my time. 

I’ve been slowly adding more tasks every day. Sometimes I still lack energy and motivation to accomplish them, but more and more often I actually get things done that have been nagging on me for a couple of days, weeks and sometimes months, which is the greatest feeling of them all!

It is important to know the limit though, and I’m still trying to figure it out. 

---

3 – Don’t be afraid to DNF! 

This is very important! And only because of DNFs I was able to continue reading books in March. In total, I DNF’d 3 books this month, which is very unusual for me but I’m glad I did it. After DNFing a couple of not-so-fun reads, I managed to read over 5 books in less than 10 days! 

I’m not completely out of my reading slump yet, so I’ve been focusing mostly on books that are entertaining and easy to read, i.e. middle grade and shorter audiobooks. 😀 

---

4 – Try new things! 

We change all the time, which means that our routines, organizational methods, the way we work, study and read books also need to change and adapt to us. I tried to embrace new ideas this month and didn’t let myself get down only because my routine was interrupted (I’m a creature of routine and any small changes immediately throw me off). 

If I couldn’t focus on blog post while sitting at my desk, I would try and bring my laptop over to my couch or balcony. This seems like a simple thing but it was very effective. 

I couldn’t focus on reading books, so I took advantage of Scribd free trial and listened to audiobooks instead. And yes, the first hours of the audiobook were difficult, my brain tried to resist and think about everything except what was happening in the book, but slowly I got into the groove of it and managed to listen to 4 audiobooks in just under a week!

---

5 – See what other people are doing. 

Sofi wrote recently in her post that she often finds inspiration in other blog posts and YouTube videos, and I feel the same way! When nothing seems to excite me, all I need to do is read your posts and watch a couple of booktube videos to fall back in love with reading. ❤ 

I also love watching organization videos and see how other people manage their time, organize their lives and clean their space 😀 It’s very therapeutic and motivational. I’ve been watching a lot of “clean with me” videos recently and that prompted a huge Spring clean at home as well. Lol 

Who said that YouTube was a waste of time?! 🙂 

---

6 – Share your feelings with someone close to you. 

Be it someone from the family or one of the friends, or even online community, we are all going through this together. Many of us will feel anxious about this situation, and it’s good to talk it out. 

My reading slump (and let’s admit it, blogging slump as well) has been preventing me from participating in weekly memes and blog hopping, so instead of forcing myself to write a blog post I wasn’t in a mood for, I sat down and wrote a quick Life Update. It helped tremendously! First of all, it let me see myself from a different perspective and secondly, your lovely comments were the best motivation to start writing other blog posts! 

---

These are the things that I’ve been doing since the end of February. I can’t say that I’m completely out of the reading slump yet, but I feel pretty good about the books I picked up recently, and I’m finally excited to write posts and reviews!

If you’re feeling down as well, I hope some of these tips will help you. And I’d love to know what you usually do to motivate yourselves!  Share your tips in the comments below! 

Connect with me on GoodReads | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Advertisement