I am easily distracted while reading long works. That doesn’t stop me from reading long comment threads, forum topics, or blog post after blog post, though. As best I can tell, the relevant difference is that the latter are broken up into small, easily processed chunks. Because I know I’ll be done with the chunk I’m reading soon, my mind doesn’t have reason to wander off. The commitment doesn’t feel as large, so I have less reason to subconsciously question it. Just like with food, just one more small chunk won’t matter....
My book-reading strategy lately is to discretize the material and be actively involved in the text. I scan each page, and if it looks interesting, I read it. I then try to write a couple lines of notes on the page or section I am considering. Focusing on what is worth writing down also keeps me from wandering off.
This strategy probably wouldn’t work as well for fiction, but that usually requires less motivation. I hope my personal observations are of some help.
I have the same problem with finding it much harder to concentrate while reading an actual book as opposed to forum posts etc. I used to have a huge attention span for books of any sort when I was younger, so I wonder if being used to the short content you tend to find on the internet is the issue.
My trick is to go somewhere away from my house to read. Weather permitting, I walk to a park bench about 10 minutes from where I live. It makes it much easier to focus when I know I can’t check my email or reddit almost instantly. Although it is annoying when I want to, say, look up the definition of a word.
I am easily distracted while reading long works. That doesn’t stop me from reading long comment threads, forum topics, or blog post after blog post, though. As best I can tell, the relevant difference is that the latter are broken up into small, easily processed chunks. Because I know I’ll be done with the chunk I’m reading soon, my mind doesn’t have reason to wander off. The commitment doesn’t feel as large, so I have less reason to subconsciously question it. Just like with food, just one more small chunk won’t matter....
My book-reading strategy lately is to discretize the material and be actively involved in the text. I scan each page, and if it looks interesting, I read it. I then try to write a couple lines of notes on the page or section I am considering. Focusing on what is worth writing down also keeps me from wandering off.
This strategy probably wouldn’t work as well for fiction, but that usually requires less motivation. I hope my personal observations are of some help.
I have the same problem with finding it much harder to concentrate while reading an actual book as opposed to forum posts etc. I used to have a huge attention span for books of any sort when I was younger, so I wonder if being used to the short content you tend to find on the internet is the issue.
My trick is to go somewhere away from my house to read. Weather permitting, I walk to a park bench about 10 minutes from where I live. It makes it much easier to focus when I know I can’t check my email or reddit almost instantly. Although it is annoying when I want to, say, look up the definition of a word.
I use Google SMS for that. Just text ’em with “define [word]” and you’ve got a dictionary at your fingertips.