How I Find Time to Read as a Mom

By Alissa Marquess Zorn on December 8, 2015 (updated September 8, 2017)

Reading makes me feel more human, less automaton. If I were to envision a heaven, in fact, it would be a library (maybe a library that serves coffee, garden fresh foods and craft beer….but I digress). The books – when my kids were little I hardly touched a book except to glean parenting ideas here or there. Some days it felt like parts of my brain were shrinking and blowing away.

Then I found something that gave me back time for reading again.

Perhaps the most critical part of reading more again is that I realized how important it is to take care of myself – reading is a much more nurturing activity than staring at Facebook, or working more. So I read. This post includes Amazon affiliate links.

But as far as tools one things stands out above all:

The digital collection from my library. You’ve got to see if your library has a digital collection like this.

I can check out books on my phone (I occasionally have asked my kids where my book is, but mean my phone). We also got a Kindle Paperwhite, which is nice because of the larger and more book-like screen, but I find myself using my phone most. The screen on My Google Pixel is VERY dimmable, so I put it on night mode with a black screen, and I put on airplane mode so it doesn’t beep at me, then I can read at night without waking my husband. I’m never late with a return since it’s returned automatically, the library will order books I request and I can browse for books at 2am. So nice.

Other ways I find time to read:

I discovered Audible (try it and get two free audiobooks, yay!) so now I listen to books in the car, when I’m folding clothes or sometimes in the shower (we have a speaker that links to the phone with bluetooth, so I can perch it nearby and hear the book).

I want my kids to see me reading, as they’ll imitate my actions more than my words, so I began making an effort to bring out a book and read in front of them when they’re playing with something like LEGOS, when they’re working on school work, or when they’re reading too. Every once in a while we enact a “quiet reading” time during the day after lunch and I read then.

I read in bed. For a while I tried reading when I got up in the morning for a bit like Hal Elrod suggests in Miracle Morning, but I found that I don’t want to stop reading, so that doesn’t work for me as I wind up not getting going – at night is fine though. In fact, since I’m usually reading digital books, I don’t have to worry about a nightlight to read now. I turn my phone to airplane mode so I don’t get woken by notifications, and if I can’t sleep, I read my book on it.

On the advice of a Homeschool Journal I used for a while, I put a selection of books I want to study in a basket where I see them easily so I can to remember how much I enjoy learning (again with being an example to the kids). I usually read non-fiction in little bits here and there – having these collected in a basket keeps me coming back to the topics.

And maybe this one doesn’t work for novels, but I have some beautiful cookbooks, so for now I designated Monday as Thai night and it gives me an excuse to come back to this lovely Thai cookbook and explore it bit by bit.

With all that reading, I have some books I’m really excited to share with you – books that changed my life this year. You can find the Books That Changed My Life Lists Here.