Want to read more in 2021? Top 3 roadblocks to avoid.
By: Jason Silver
Tags: Personal Growth, Learning, How To, New Years Resolutions, Reading

1. Do NOT Speed Read

There are probably people out there that can read 1,000 words per minute while both retaining what they’ve read and enjoying themselves. I am not one of them and I’ve never personally met one of them either. For me, reading is meant to be a joy, a learning experience, something to break up the status quo from the rest of my day. I didn’t find I was getting that when I was focused on how fast I was reading. Sometimes I go back and re-read parts. Other times I’ll breeze over short passages because I understand the point and don’t feel like going too deep. Having that freedom is important to me. The moment reading starts feeling like a chore, I’m done. I have enough of those elsewhere.

Key Lesson: Reading is self reinforcing. The more you read, the more you will read!

I found reading to be a self reinforcing activity. The more I read, the more I enjoy reading. The more I enjoy reading, the more I naturally find time to read. The more I find time to read, the more I read. The more I read, the more I enjoy it and the more I find time for it. The more I find time for it…I’m sure you get the picture.

I didn’t have much success trying to carve out hours a day to begin with (I still don’t), but I have found that by focusing on enjoying what I’m reading, I naturally find ways to dedicate more and more time to reading in general.

2. Do NOT Set a Goal

My goal of 50 books was arbitrary. I learned that it was doing a job for my ego and not much else. It drove me to read books for the wrong reasons e.g., because they were shorter and would keep me “on pace” for 50. My intent, however, was authentic. I wanted to learn more, understand more, be exposed to more.

Key Lesson: Focus on the habit of reading instead of a goal for how much to read.

I found that the more I paid attention to fostering the habit of reading each day and then doing it again the next day, the more successful I was. I let go of the goal (50 books, 4 per month) and found that I still read roughly the same volume (I’m currently on my 54th with 2 weeks to go in the year). Some months I would read more books, other months fewer. It all nets the same, except when I focus on the habit vs. the goal I read what I want, learn a ton and really enjoy it.

A few key tips that helped me keep the habit healthy:

Keep a backlog of books you want to read. I like the feeling of finishing one book and having another ready to go without having to figure out what to read next. Picking what to read can be daunting, so I like to separate the act of reading from figuring out what’s up next. Create time pressure. Though I don’t like strictly pacing myself week to week, I do find it helpful to know I have a deadline for a book. For me it’s usually because I have to return a book to the library by a certain date. It could also be because you have an upcoming book club. Anything that keeps timing of some kind top of mind seems to work. Set a regular reading time. It’s easy to fit a few ad hoc minutes of reading here and there throughout the day. However, without regular, dedicated reading time I also found it was easy to go days without reading. I like to read for about an hour each night before bed. Whatever works for you, I’d recommend setting some consistent time each day you can rely on.

3. Do NOT get into a committed relationship with any book

I used to view reading a book as a big commitment. Once I start, I have to finish. Also, while I’m reading one book I won’t read any others. Over time I shifted to thinking about reading more like listening to music. With music, what I listen to is highly dependent on the moment. I find reading is the same. I tend to have 2–3 books active at any time. This is really helpful so that when I sit down to read, I can jump into whatever feels right at the time.

Key Lesson: Don’t get bored! Make it really easy to read when you have the time.

How? Have 2–3 books on the go at once. I usually go with one fiction and 1–2 non-fiction “learning" books. Also, if you don’t like a book, just put it down. No one is forcing you to read it and you can always come back later if your interest picks back up in the future.