If you’re here right now, the odds are you can read. The ability to read is a privilege many of us take for granted. Jim Rohn once said, “those who will not read are no better off than those who cannot read.”
Reading is a common habit of our society’s highest role models, such as Warren Buffett, Oprah, and Bill Gates, and it is no coincidence. Books are a direct portal into the minds of the most intelligent people who have ever lived — if you’re looking to learn there’s no greater source of knowledge.
The task of reading a book can be a daunting one if you are unaccustomed to it, however, it will become manageable if you put a conscious effort into building the habit. Rather than trying to tackle a large book all at once, break it down into smaller pieces that you can read in chunks.
Reading becomes a lot easier when you break your reading sessions up into smaller but consistent sessions. I like to read first thing in the morning and before bed, at least 10 pages each session. That allows me to read at least 20 pages a day, assuming I hit my minimum goal for each session.
When you’re first getting started, it may make more sense to break the habit into smaller chunks, chunks that are laughably small. Don’t have time to read 10 pages? I’m sure you have time to read at least one page a day. Start with the bare minimum and start reading more and more each session until you build a habit of reading however many pages a day you strive to.
Now, we transform this habit into a book a week. In my experience, I’ve picked a lot of books that are around 200–300 pages, most on the shorter end closer to 200. If it takes you 2 minutes to read a page, you’re going to spend about 400–600 minutes reading the book, this translates to around six and a half to ten hours.
If you can find 1–1.5 hours a day to read, you’ll finish your book in a week. This seems like a lot, but we can break it down into manageable chunks to make the process easier. 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes before bed of reading give you half an hour right off the bat, now we’ve got to find an extra thirty minutes to an hour.
In 2018, Instagram found that users spent about 53 minutes a day on the platform. Screen times have skyrocketed ever since the COVID lockdowns to over 6 hours a day for the average American. Eliminating, or at least heavily reducing, time spent on social media can clear up valuable time. Not only will you get the benefits of a social media detox, but you’ll get more time to read too!
I challenge you to pick up that book you’ve been wanting to read and calculate how you’re going to finish it this week. Once you finish that first book, the sense of accomplishment will motivate you into steamrolling through another book, and then the next until you’re finally an avid reader!
Good luck and let me know how your reading journey goes!
