How To Build Focus For Reading - 3 Quick Tips

A collection of tips on how to get the most out of a book through building focus, and how it's a superpower in the 21st century.

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My collaborative novel about Melbourne: There's A Tale To This City:

[radiosilence]

I think the most important piece of advice to take away from this awesome video is to read what you love. Don't read classics to seem "smart", don't read young adult romance to seem "trendy", just read what you genuinely think could make you enjoy your existence more. Thanks for the vid, dude! <3

[yareyare]

1. Exercise
2. Read what you love
3 Appreciate your matrix
4. Build a tolerance
5. Don’t force something on yourself you do not truly want to begin.

[joselocalau]

my personal tip if you have trouble focusing is to read in a place where there’s a lot of noise. That may seem counterproductive, but i’ve found that silence and quiet makes me get lost in my thoughts or reach for my phone and having other stimuli around me helps me concentrate in the book!

[arib_bruh]

I love the way there is no background music which feels completely different to most videos. Which is a very good thing because the most enjoyful read is when it's in silence.

[jonrutherford]

Mr. Waldun, I hope hundreds or thousands of current middle- and high-school students are learning from your videos as they advance to the next phase of their education. Learners of all ages can benefit enormously from this sound advice, tailoring it to fit each individual's needs, aspirations, and abilities. The calm, low-key presentation amplifies the impact of your impressive content. Thank you!

[ylanda]

one of my insecurities is being (kind of) a slow reader (relative to the average booktuber), and therefore not being able to read 50+ books within one year…but thank you so much for sharing this perspective, i am sure this is going to help with it :)

[BillNessworthyPhotography]

Excellent tips as always. As a very selective, slow reader who annotates, I find it frustrating to see people posting to Instagram the stacks of 10 books they read each month. I have a full time job and kids, so maybe if I was younger I could get through more, but I started Plato's Republic on the 11th May, and I'm "only" halfway through Book III today. But annotating, reading two different translations side by side, I understand it a lot better than if I had just skimmed it in a week.

[EkWaqth]

Key takeaways-
1- Body needs to physically move to keep mind sane.
2- Love process of reading, not just to finish books.
3- Focus on quality reading.
30 books— little/no impact. (👎)
10 books— Concrete impact (☑️)
4- Read what you love.
5- Once in a while read an advanced book, wrestle with it to build increased focus. Later when you switch to normal books, they will seem easy to focus amd can be finished quickly.

[otomeauthor]

Actually exercise makes the most sense because your brain functions better with the more oxygen it gets, improving concentration and memory. Great video!

[robinswampangel]

I also find that reading a children's book once in a while strengthens my abilities as well. It helps me look at the world from a wildly altered perspective and challenges my focus because it's so easy that I feel silly and so I don't want to finish the book, (I especially don't want someone to SEE that I'm reading a book with print that's always really large and obviously for younger audiences) but when I push myself to continue anyways it can be really rewarding, challenging, and eye opening in a very different way.

[RebeccaJ]

I used to love reading as a kid, then I became an English major in college & started associating it with work thus ending up hating it.

[jakedesnake]

The idea of the stack is spot on. I used to be hardcore into the "Goodreads read X books per year" up until a couple of years ago. Now, I don't really care if I read one book a year or 40. What changed? Before, I had to make a conscious effort to sit down and read if I wanted to reach my target; now, it's part of my routine and don't even have to think about it. It all comes back to asking what your "why" is. I used the challenges in the past as an incentive to build a habit I wanted, and now they served their purposes and are no longer necessary to me.

[jayshine]

I have seen numerous videos with titles such as this but what I really appreciate about yours and what I got the most from this video was that to become better readers we need to focus on the internal. Building our love and appreciation while simultaneously building our "focus muscles" with the reading slightly-above-your-level concept is more in our control than simply "remove distractions and social media" tips every other video gives. Sometimes I cannot remove all distractions (I have a cat lmao) so those tips, while they certainly are helpful, are not as universal as the ones you presented so thank you!

[Eden-Restored]

I love how you focus on the love of the reading process. This is so refreshing 😊

[polyxin]

Your channel is so unique, it’s simple, genuine, and you jump right to the point, there’s no advertising, no empty words, you are just having an honest discussion with us, sharing your thoughts and experience. You’re doing a really great job, just keep going and produce more videos :D

[MrDemodeamo]

Mate I can keep listening to you explaining something for hours and hours...what an amazing mind you have...

[jiaogulan]

Wow great advice! I am in grad school and the first semester, I started to slack off on running, then noticed severe concentration issues. I had thought that running was no longer a priority, however quickly realized that without running I simply can't concentrate long enough to get everything finished.

[monchaichan]

Thanks for sharing Robin! I love these tips! I use some of these strategies to teach my 3rd-5th grade students to help them with their reading skills. Many of my students struggle with reading, but once they find the right book for them, they end up loving to read! :)

[habitsofreading]

Related to every words you said here. I remember years ago when I taught myself how to read in English and it was Nietzsche, out of my love for philosophy, I read 5 pages a day and really enjoyed it. As time went by I didn’t even realize that I was reading books in English full blown. Greatest thing that happened in my life. Man I love reading so much.

[Javieramatilde]

For people who are reluctant to exercise or don't exactly ~love~ the traditional ways of doing exercise (going to the gym, running, etc), walking is a great option. The amount of walk you have to do can be adapted to your life and increased slowly. More importantly, do whatever it is that you enjoy and look at exercise as something that you look forward to do:3 you can walk, dance, calisthenics, or anything that involves moving your body 💖