I’m a nerd. Always have been, always will be. I’ve been the girl with her nose stuck in a book since I could read. I loved books of all kinds – biographies, fiction, nonfiction, historical fiction, mystery, adventure, all of it. I soaked it in. I couldn’t get enough, that was until middle school hit.

Middle school felt like I never had enough time to read. So I started going through this pattern, binge reading then no reading. Then one or two weeks later, binge reading again. I naturally came to adore Christmas and Spring and Summer vacation because they became my binge reading seasons. I was suddenly unable to touch a pleasure read if it wasn’t one of those “seasons.”

As much as I loved reading I had conditioned myself into not only thinking but also believing that I could only read when I had nothing else going on! Thinking about it now, I know how ridiculous that thought is. But in Middle School Randi’s defense, I always was a little overdramatic.

My point, however, is that when I joined the Praxis community in January of 2018 Derek Magill had just shared a blog post “100 Things That Made My Year [2017].” While I don’t remember everything that made Derek’s year what I do remember and will forever remember is that he linked to another article called, “Just 25 Pages a Day.“

The title alone interested me so I followed the link and read another blog post by some super smart, cool dude. Basically, he talked about committing to just 25 pages a day. In just a week you have read 175 pages. In just a month you have read 750 pages. Most books from my experience are around 250-300 pages, so that’s about 3 books a month!

Let’s imagine how quickly that pile of books on your bedside table would shrink if you pounded out at least 3 of them a month?! (This may be considered crazy-talk, but that’s ok!)

Now I’ve been implementing just 25 pages a day in my own life, all I can say is wow. It makes me think about how I’m spending my time, knowing that I am trying to get just 25 pages in! My biggest struggle is to use that extra time I have to do something worthwhile rather than just waste it. I’ll be honest – some days I really struggle to do 25 pages a day, but my schedule currently isn’t steady enough to provide the same amount of time to read every day. Since learning about just 25 pages a day, even when I know I can’t get the full 25 pages in, I pick up the book anyway! I’ve learned that 1 page is better nothing. Somedays, I surprise myself when I crush just 25 pages a day because I’m learning to maximize the awkward time gaps in my schedule and to think – it all started with just 25 pages.