Happy Monday! Last week, you guys… last week was a rough one. I came down with a stomach bug and spent most of the week in bed and asleep. I pulled out my computer a few times to send a few emails and get a little bit of work done, but every small task I completed was followed by a nap, so I realized I wasn’t in the best shape to write anything substantial. The thing I noticed is that once I realized I was sick I started making a to-do list of things to get done for work, when really what I needed was to get some rest. There was a time when getting sick meant sleeping and reading, but those are two things I don’t take a lot of time for, even though they’re what I need to truly feel rested. Reading in particular is something that I’ve been missing. Yes, I’ve been reading, but it’s often a few chapters here and a few chapters there, slipped into in-between moments so that I can make sure I get my reading in. I’ve been able to get lost in stories, but not the way I used to. And I miss them! I also know that there are periods in life where you’re more distanced from books. That’s what I’ve been reminding myself when I look longingly at a stack of books that I want to immerse myself in. But, it’s also what I’ve been reminding myself for a few years, so I finally realized that if I’m going to read a book the way I’d like to again, I need to be more intentional about it and make sure that it fits into my life. We have to be intentional about all the things that are important to us. So, while I was sick last week I did get some work done, but I also took time to get some reading in. And it felt so, so good!

A big thing I noticed was how distracted I was when I sat down to try and read. That’s probably another thing that has inhibited my reading the last few years. It really concerned me when I realized that it was taking so long to get through one chapter just because I was so distracted. I used to have a decent attention span, where did that go? (Hint: a little device we’re all so attached to.) So, I decided I needed to fix the distraction problem. If you’d like to take time to read–or accomplish any task that requires some focus–here’s how I beat distractions to finish a book!

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