This Infographic Will Show You How A Few Minutes Of Reading Every Day Will Make You A Better Person

Do you read every day?

No? Maybe you gave up on it, because you didn’t have enough time. Work, family, friends…once you grow up, life gets very busy, very fast. I know. I’ve been there. Worst of all, once I stopped, I didn’t start again, because I thought a few minutes a day aren’t even worth it.

“I won’t get any smarter if I just read 5 minutes every day, that’s not going to get me anywhere.” I could not have been more wrong.

The National Reading Campaign teamed up with CBC Books to create an infographic with some astonishing facts about reading, which they have collected over years of research. Not only do readers have better physical and mental health, they also show a lot more empathy, which is the ability to put yourself in other people’s shows, so you can understand them better.

What happens in your body when you start reading is that your heartbeat slows, your muscles ease up and become less tense and your state of mind changes. Combined, these changes can reduce your stress level by more than half, up to 60%! Reading is also much better at reducing your stress than other common ways of battling it, such as listening to music, drinking coffee, or going for a walk.

If your alternative would be to play a video game, reading will even be six times as effective, so you’d be better off trading that Xbox controller for a book. “Yeah, sure Nik,” you might say, “but to get those benefits I probably have to read for at least half an hour a day, right?”

Nope!

Even reading for as little as 6 minutes every day will give you all these wonderful perks! Do you have 6 minutes a day? I’m sure you do :)

There are even some websites dedicated entirely to making it easier for you to read, here are 3 of my favorites:

Blinkist, for example, is a German startup that publishes book summaries of non-fiction books. In only 15 minutes you can digest the key points of an entire book!

Other apps, like Nugget, make digesting the ideas of books even easier, by giving you the best quotes and ideas from a book in a highly visual form. This way you can learn something, and simultaneously select which books you want to read next.

Lastly, some people even write about what they read, to help you learn more in less time – like me :) My passion project for 2016, Four Minute Books, let’s you learn 3 things from a book in 4 minutes or less. The question that remains is: Will you invest 6 minutes a day to actually do it?

Featured photo credit: James Tarbotton via images.unsplash.com

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