A Parent’s Guide to Clawing Back Reading Time
家长夺回阅读时间的指南

Realization struck when I got the itch to write again. I tried to fit writing time into work breaks but that didn’t pan out because I need to move my body more, not less, during breaks.
当我再次产生写作的冲动时，我意识到这一点。我尝试在工作休息时间里安排写作时间，但这并没有奏效，因为休息时我需要更多地活动身体，而不是减少。
I tried evenings after the babies went to sleep for the night, but shutting off my brain with television always won that slot. Finally, I decided writing time was worth sacrificing an hour of sleep.
我试过在孩子们晚上睡觉后晚上尝试，但用电视关闭我的大脑总是赢得那个时段。最后，我决定牺牲一个小时睡眠时间来写作时间。
Instead of going back to bed after the kids’ six a.m. bottle, I now grab a cup and hit the laptop.
现在，我不再在孩子们早上六点的奶瓶后回到床上，而是拿起一杯咖啡，打开笔记本电脑。

The addition of an early morning writing routine has me thriving, so I took on the challenge of reading time.
早起写作习惯的加入让我茁壮成长，所以我接受了阅读时间的挑战。
I reevaluated how I was spending my time and reorganized to create a sustainable, if slightly reckless, schedule (knowing that my life will not be arranged this way forever).
我重新评估了我如何花费我的时间，并重新组织以创建一个可持续的，尽管有些鲁莽的时间表（知道我的生活不会永远这样安排）。
I will note that in addition to pure sacrifice, audiobooks are the secret ingredient, offering opportunities to multitask rather than swap out regularly scheduled programming for reading time in many cases.
我会注意到，除了纯粹的牺牲之外，有声书是秘密武器，在很多情况下提供了多任务处理的机会，而不是用阅读时间替换定期安排的节目。

But sacrifice I did, and here are some of my goats:
但我确实做出了牺牲，这里有一些我的山羊：

1. Podcast listening time. I listen to dire political podcasts like it’s my duty as a liberal.
   播客收听时间。我像履行自由派义务一样听政治播客。
   It’s important to me to be aware and abreast of what’s going on in this swiftly tilting country and the world, but there are diminishing returns when you’re cramming hours of the same sort of conversation into the would-be quiet moments of your day.
   对我来说，了解并紧跟这个快速变化的国家以及世界的动态非常重要，但是当你把几个小时相同类型的对话塞进你一天中本应安静的片刻时，回报就会减少。
   So now when I’m exercising or washing dishes or doing laundry for the eleventybillionth time, I switch on an audiobook instead.
   所以现在，当我在锻炼、洗碗或洗了无数次衣服时，我会打开有声书。
2. More sleep. Minus those sleepless months of pregnancy, I’m good at conking out and tend to feel refreshed on about six hours of sleep.
   多睡觉。减去怀孕期间那些不眠之夜，我擅长入睡，通常在六个小时的睡眠后感觉精神焕发。
   Knowing this and admitting that I can’t claim to be catching up on nine months of lost sleep forever, I decided to give up 30 minutes of log sawing at the end of my day to read a nightstand book.
   了解到这一点，并承认我不能永远弥补失去的九个月睡眠，我决定放弃一天结束时锯木头的 30 分钟时间，去读一本床头柜上的书。
   For nighttime reading, I choose books that help me feel rested and don’t spark my anxiety, and I choose physical books for this one.
   对于夜间阅读，我选择那些帮助我感到放松且不会引起焦虑的书籍，而且我会选择实体书。
3. Weekend morning music. Growing up, I knew it was the weekend when Sade or Erykah Badu woke me up too early. I carry on this tradition, but lately, I’ve replaced some of that morning music time with — you guessed it — an audiobook. Sometimes I turn Peter and the Wolf on low for the babies because I can tune it out, and I still make room for music on Sundays (I don’t go to church but I do listen to Stevie Wonder).
   周末早晨的音乐。在我成长的过程中，我知道当 Sade 或 Erykah Badu 太早叫醒我时就是周末了。我继续这个传统，但最近，我用有声书代替了一些早晨音乐时间——你猜对了。有时我会为婴儿播放低音量的《彼得与狼》，因为我可以忽略它，我仍然在周日留出时间听音乐（我不去教堂，但我确实听 Stevie Wonder）。
4. The Golden Girls. Because I have no time to spare I randomly decided to take up a sewing project. Let’s not look too closely at that and focus instead on how I thought to rewatch The Golden Girls while sewing. I rarely get to stream while doing stuff because my personal pursuits aren’t usually amenable to visual multitasking (I tried watching TV while writing once, and the results were ugly).
   《黄金女郎》。因为我没有时间，所以我随机决定开始一个缝纫项目。我们不要看得太仔细，而是关注我在缝纫时如何想到重新观看《黄金女郎》。我很少在做事的时候流媒体播放，因为我的个人追求通常不适合视觉多任务处理（我曾经试过一边看电视一边写作，结果很糟糕）。
   It was fun until I realized I had to get my act together and read something for work. Goodbye, Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia. Hello, audiobooks.
   直到我意识到我得振作起来，为工作阅读一些东西时，这很有趣。再见，多萝西、罗斯、布兰奇和索菲亚。你好，有声书。
5. A few board books. My six-month-olds have no idea what I’m saying, so in addition to the board books, my partner and I read them The Neverending Story. This one’s tricky because we can only make it happen when they’re not so riled up that we have to stop every few minutes to get a finger out of an eye or intercept a frog kick to a face, but we make it work here and there.
   几本纸板书。我六个月大的孩子不知道我在说什么，所以除了纸板书，我和我的伴侣还给他们读《无尽的故事》。这本书有点棘手，因为我们只能在他们不太激动的时候才能进行，否则每隔几分钟就得停下来帮他们把手指从眼睛里拿出来或者拦截青蛙踢到脸上的攻击，但我们还是设法在这里和那里进行。

There it is. Those are my goats. All in all, these weren’t tough sacrifices, and it’s amazing how much reading can happen in minutes scraped together.
就在那里。那些是我的山羊。总的来说，这些牺牲并不艰难，而且令人惊讶的是，在拼凑起来的几分钟内可以阅读多少内容。
As my kids get older and more independent, I hope I remember these days and retain the knowledge that I can get a lot of shit done in not much time.
随着我的孩子们越来越大，越来越独立，我希望我能记住这些日子，并保留我知道我可以在很短的时间内完成很多事情的知识。
I also hope I reclaim time for pointless business that serves no purpose greater than bringing me joy because that’s important too.
我也希望我能抽出时间去做一些无意义的事情，这些事情对我来说没有任何比给我带来快乐更重要的目的，因为这也是很重要的。

What have you sacrificed for reading time? Let me know in the comments!
为了阅读时间，你都牺牲了什么？请在评论区告诉我！