The Monday After The Readathon
Posted 27th April 2015
Category: Chit-Chat Genres: N/A
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I considered writing this yesterday but wasn’t sure. Belle’s post on the same subject convinced me. Somewhat ironically the lateness of this post shows I need to be ready for Monday before the readathon starts.
I learned a fair few things this time. Firstly, that I should continue to split my time between reading and cheerleading. When I chose only to read I was too distracted by the conversations on Twitter; I felt I was missing out by focusing on books. Of course I could join in and I did, but it was easy to join in and not really go back to reading. By reading and cheerleading I was able to do both, obviously, and found splitting my time into chunks and switching ‘tasks’ works well for distraction. I’m not sure I could cheer and not read unless I only spent a few hours on the readathon or if I cheered on blogs. Cheerleading on Twitter is quick by its very nature.
Secondly, that it pays to keep to one room for cheerleading, to not bring your cheerleading with you. I found that keeping the activities separate helped me focus much more on my books because I couldn’t see what was happening on Twitter.
Thirdly, to not scrimp on sleep, even if I want to stay up just one more hour than usual. It might not ruin a pattern but it’s no fun feeling tired just to see through another hour of readathon. Quality not quantity.
Fourth, that planning this event doesn’t work for me. Not deciding on books ahead of time and just continuing what I was already reading is a good idea. That said, I was far enough through my book this time to know in advance that it was working for me.
If you joined the readathon, or have in the past, what have you come to realise? If you haven’t joined, how was your weekend?
April 27, 2015, 4:41 pm
I really like your idea of keeping the cheering to one room only, Charlie. I was on the Twitter cheering team and kept my phone beside me, so I think that might have been a larger distraction than it needed to be. (Not to mention, my Twitter app dings me whenever someone @replies me). I will have to try that next time.
April 27, 2015, 8:57 pm
I agree about the quality instead of quantity. I went to bed too late and the next morning I was very tired. I’m not 20 anymore!! haha
In my case, I love being on twitter, but I switch off very efficiently to read. The mini challenges are my challenge: I always take a look every hour and consider if I can do it or not – that takes me 10 minutes (considering) and then more minutes to do the activity, and then looking at the other participants’ activities, and then back on twitter, and then…. ;)
But I have a lot of fun!!
And regarding the books: I do it, I read what I’m currently reading and prepare another book just in case (and the case never comes, lol)
April 28, 2015, 6:18 pm
This was my first RaT and I found I read less than intended. It was still more than I would typically read on a Saturday, but I had hoped to finish my book. I spent way too much time on challenges and checking other people’s updates. I think next time I will do better now that I know how it all works.
April 28, 2015, 6:34 pm
Oh, I will always agree to any principle about getting more sleep rather than less. I’ve still to this day never done a readathon, even though there have been years and years of them. So my weekend was medium on the reading, heavy on the family stuff!
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April 27, 2015, 4:34 pm
Well done for cheering!
My ‘problem’ is that I’m less social than I plan to be, because my goal is always related to reading, so I read. So for next time, I should also set a goal such as, catching up with 5 people every hour/two hours or checking twitter (and comment) every hour or 5 minutes.