❶That everyone?s too busy these days is a cliche.❷But one specific complaint is made especially mournfully: There's never any time to read.
❶What makes the problem thornier is that the usual time management techniques don't seem sufficient.❷The web's full of articles offering tips on making time to read: "Give up TV" or "Carry a book with you at all times.?，❸But in my experience, using such methods to free up the odd 30 minutes doesn't work. 30 0Sit down to read and the flywheel of work-related thoughts keeps spinning― r else you're so exhausted that a challenging book's the last thing you need.❺The modem mind, Tim Parks, a novelist and critic, writes, "is overwhelmingly inclined toward communication...It is not simply that one is interrupted; it is that one is actually inclined to interruption.❻Deep reading requires not just time, but a special kind of time which can't be obtained merely by becoming more efficient.
❶In fact, "becoming more efficient" is part of the problem. ei8 ❷Thinking of time as a resource to be maximised means you approach it instrumentally, judging any given moment as well spent only in so far as it advances progress toward some goal. ❷Immersive reading, by contrast, depends on being willing to risk inefficiency, goallessness, even time-wasting.❹Try to slot it in as a to-do list item and you'll manage only goal-focused reading—useful, sometimes, but not the most fulfilling kind. ❺The future comes at us like empty bottles along an unstoppable and nearly infinite conveyor belt,^^ writes Gary Eberle in his book Sacred Time, and "we feel a pressure to fill these different-sized bottles (days, hours, minutes) as they pass, for if they get by without being filled, we will have wasted them."❻No mind-set could be worse for losing yourself in a book.
❶So what does work?❷Perhaps surprisingly, scheduling regular times for reading.❸You'd think this might fuel the efficiency mind-set, but in fact, Eberle notes, such ritualistic behaviour helps us "step outside time's flow" into "soul ❹You could limit distractions by reading only physical books, or on single-purpose e-readers.❺"Carry a book with you at all times^^ can actually work, too—providing you dip in often enough, so that reading becomes the default state from which you temporarily surface to take care of business, before dropping back down.❻On a really good day, it no longer feels as if you're "making time to read," but just reading, and making time for everything else. mi
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现在每个人都很忙，这是一句陈词滥调。 但是，其中一个具体而又特别可悲的抱怨是： 根本没有时间阅读。 让这个问题变得更为棘手的是，通常的 时间管理技巧似乎并不足以解决问题。网上 各种各样的文章提供了抽时间阅读的小窍 门：“放弃看电视”或“总是随身携带一本 书”。但根据我的经验，靠这些方法挤出 分钟的空余时间并不奏效。坐下来读书 的同时，与工作相关的思维飞轮仍在不停地 运转着——又或是你非常疲惫，以至于最不 想去看一本具有挑战性的书。小说家兼评论 家蒂姆•帕克斯写道：现代人的思维“都 非常倾向于交流……所以不仅仅是人们被打 断；事实上是人们自愿被打断”。（31） < 度阅读需要的不仅是时间，而且是一种特 殊的时间，这种时间无法仅靠提高效率来 获得。 实际上, “提高效率” 就是问题的 一部分。将时间看作一种需要最大限度利用 的资源意味着你功利性地对待时间，认为只 有当某一特定时刻能够推动某一目标的进程 时，才觉得没有浪费时间。相反，沉浸式阅 读需要你愿意冒低效率、无目标甚至浪费时 间的风险。试图像完成任务清单一样利用空 暇时间阅读，你将只能进行目标性强的阅 读——有时有用，但却并非最让人满意的那 种。（32） “未来向我们走来，像不可阻挡 且几近无穷的传送带上的空瓶子，”加里•埃 伯利在《神圣的时间》这本书中写道，“当 这些不同大小的瓶子（天、小时及分钟）经 过时，要填满它们，这让我们倍感压力，因 为如果它们没有被填满就经过的话，它们就 算被浪费了。”对于沉浸于一本书中而言， 没有哪种思维模式比这更糟糕了。 那么，什么方法才有用呢？ （ 33 ）答案是 安排固定的阅读时间，这或许有些出乎意料。 你会认为这可能会加剧重效率的思维倾向， 但实际上，埃伯利指出，这种例行行为有助 于我们“摆脱时间流”，从而进入“灵魂时间”。 你可以通过阅读纸质书或专用电子阅读器来 减少分心。（34） “总是随身携带一本书” 确实也起作用，前提是你得经常沉浸其中， 以使阅读成为一种默认状态，你可以暂时从 中抽身去处理事务，之后，再重新浸入阅读 中。在真正美好的一天中,你不再会感到自 己好像在“挤时间阅读”，而仅仅是在阅读， 然后挤出时间做其他事。