1 New Habit Guaranteed to Help You Read More

I have always loved to read but yet there are so many books and not enough time!  Not to mention that the Covid19 pandemic means we're all spending more time at home. Yet there doesn't seem to be enough time?  Know what I mean?

Feeling a pull to both increase my reading time and to also practice some self-care, I decided that I should read more. 

And yet it is hard to concentrate, to immerse myself into a book. I sit down.  The phone beeps.  I read one paragraph.  My mind wanders.  The Covid19 pandemic has definitely made it harder for me to focus.  You too? 

But there's one habit that you can start to help you read more books.  

At night when you are done with the kids' bedtime routine, try to sit down and immediately read for 30 minutes.  

That's the habit. Commit yourself to 30mins a night. You can set a timer, I do! You may not hit 7 nights a week. That's okay. Aim for 4-5.  It's doable. 

30 minutes. RIGHT after the kids are in bed.  The house is peaceful but you aren't seconds away from dreamland so your brain should be in a good place.

Now here's the other part of this 1 tip. We'll call it part 1b.  

If your brain is finding it hard to focus on reading right now, you have to plow through the first five minutes.  

That's what it takes for me, for my brain to shift and realize "Oh okay we aren't thinking about dying and face masks now. We are doing something else."  

Does this reading habit work?  Yes!  I've started keeping a book journal (more on that another time) and discovered that in exactly the last 4 weeks, I've completely read 6 books and am partway through another!  

Sure, some days I've read more than 30 minutes, but that half hour at night is enough to start me and more importantly to keep me fueled and WANTING to read at other times too.

tl; dr? Read for 30 mins as soon as your kids crash at night. Plow through the first 5 mins while your mind wanders. Boom. Progress through your "To Be Read" pile!