January is a great time to set goals for the new year. You might be planning to improve your fitness, health, finances or time management. But why not also improve your mind by setting a 2018 reading goal?
One way to stay on track is with the Paper and Packaging Board’s 15 Pages A Day campaign, which promotes reading on paper and illustrates the benefits of reading 15 pages each day.
Just like drinking eight glasses of water a day or taking 10,000 steps a day can help improve your health, reading 15 pages a day on paper can help improve memory and cognitive development. Setting a 2018 reading goal is good for your brain.
“We created the 15 Pages A Day campaign because we want people to make reading on paper their new best habit,” says Joan Sahlgren, the Paper and Packaging Board’s senior director of public relations. “This idea came about because people know that when you write something down on paper you tend to remember it better, and the same applies to reading on paper.”
Why Read 15 Pages A Day on Paper?
Reading 15 pages a day on paper has a wealth of benefits, including increased language and mental development and improved memory.
“What is great about 15 pages a day is that it’s something everyone can do,” says Sahlgren. “It doesn’t seem to matter what your age is or what your reading level. If you read daily on paper, it benefits you in incredible ways.”
Your 2018 reading goal is manageable if you decide your 15 pages a day can be anything you want. Parents can read a book to their kids, business professionals can print out emails to refer to or notate, and students can take a break from the computer and read from a book or handwritten notes.
Reading on paper makes a difference. In the Paper and Packaging Board’s 2017 Back-to-School Report, researchers note that more than half of college students who consider themselves focused and successful say they read on paper almost exclusively.
Researcher and professor Dr. Naomi Baron reports that “the biggest challenge everyone faces when reading onscreen is distraction. Especially with an internet connection, the temptation looms to do something else — check a [social media] status update, post a new photo. Participants in my study were abundantly aware of the problem. A whopping 94 percent said the medium on which it was easiest to concentrate when reading was hard copy.” In fact, 92 percent of the people Baron surveyed said that reading a hard copy of something helped them concentrate on the material.
This lines up with current research indicating that handwriting notes on paper really aids memory and recollection. According to a recent study, “the findings show that people who regularly read and write have a markedly slower decline in memory than people who don’t.”
Make 15 Pages a Day Your 2018 Reading Goal
Are you ready to read 15 pages a day to meet your 2018 reading goal? Join us and many others as we take the Paper and Packaging Board’s 15 Pages A Day pledge.
One of the more than 1,800 people who have pledged so far is Tia Mowry, American TV actress and model.
“Research shows that paper is central to achievements in education and promotes excellence in the classroom,” says Mowry. “My son will be in first grade this year. It’s important to my husband and me that we read to him from a printed book every night in order to help him develop lifelong habits that will help him in his education as he grows older.”
You can find out more about Domtar’s commitment to literacy through these articles:
