If there’s one thing many of us here at clovio love to do, it’s reading. Since we work at our computers all day, putting our noses in a good book is an excellent way to spend some time away from a screen and give our eyes the rest they need. But reading is about more than just escaping into another world. It also provides many health benefits and improves our skills. Regardless of whether you’re a Lord of the Rings fan or love crime thrillers, there are a lot of reasons why remote workers should start reading on a daily basis.
Reduces Stress
We all know that reading is relaxing. But in 2009, a study found that reading 30 minutes a day can reduce the physical and psychological signs of stress. In other words, people who have the habit of reading a little every day experience lower heart rate and blood pressure. This might be the reason why a 2017 study found that reading books is associated with a longer life, with readers having a 20% reduction in risk of mortality compared to non-readers. However, this is only true if you’re reading something you find relaxing. For example, reading the news every day might actually have the opposite effect. So, it’s recommended that you focus on novels, short stories, blogs, or any other kind of reading material instead.
Helps With the Feeling of Isolation
One of the biggest challenges that remote workers face is loneliness. Books are a good way to cope with isolation, as they allow readers to escape to another own world and become swept up in the lives of the characters. In fact, books can alleviate symptoms of depression, which is why some medical experts prescribe curated self-help books to patients with certain mental health conditions.
Improves Memory
If you’re concerned about suffering from age-related cognitive decline, you’ll be happy to know that reading is proven to improve memory and attention span. A study by Cambridge University discovered that people who read one or more times a week had a reduced risk of cognitive decline compared to those who read less often. Meanwhile, a study in China followed people aged 65 plus over the course of five years and found that those who read more had a lower risk of dementia years later.
Boosts Brain Power
It’s not only your memory that improves when you read – your analytical thinking also benefits. If you think about the last mystery novel you enjoyed, you’ll probably understand why. The simple exercise of trying to discover who the killer was before the end is exercising your brain to be more critical and analytical. Or, as Hercule Poirot put it, “it is the little gray cells, mon ami, on which one must rely”. The same is true when you’re telling a friend if the latest novel you’ve read is worth reading, as you’ll have to come up with the reasons why the book was well written (or not).
Develops Skills
We know this isn’t a health benefit and that we’re not in The Sims – we don’t just suddenly level up our skills. Still, reading technical books improves your knowledge and, therefore, your skills. While a content writer will expand their vocabulary with any reading material, an online marketer can learn new strategies to convert online content into sales by reading a marketing book. Indeed, no matter what your career, books can serve as an inspiration.
How To Create a Reading Habit
It’s challenging to change our ways, and if you’re not in the habit of reading, it may take a while until it becomes routine. We all live busy lives and it can be hard to drop other hobbies, such as gaming or watching TV, to fully embrace reading. Still, there are a few ways to easily introduce reading into your lifestyle.
Since reading improves your sleep, we highly recommend saving half an hour before going to bed to read. You can even do it while in bed, which is far better than scrolling through Instagram or Twitter on your phone. Other options include reading books or magazines about the subjects you feel most passionate about, reading a book before watching its movie version (the book is always better than the movie anyway), and taking a book with you while you’re traveling. Before you know it, you’ll be enjoying all the benefits of reading.
Leave a Reply