In today’s article you’re going to learn everything you need to know about how to develop reading habit.
Reading is one of the greatest pleasures in my life; over the years, it has been a source of much entertainment and a lot of new knowledge.
But not everyone feels this way. For some people, reading is a boring punishment that serves only to remind them of the worst of their school days.
If you want to get in to the habit of reading every single day, there are a lot of things you can do to make your life easier:
How To Develop Reading Habit
1. Read things that interest you.
It is also important to avoid trying to read things that do not interest you. Unless it is for work or school, or a family member’s debut novel about a man-eating squid that falls passionately in love with an oak tree, don’t read it. In all other circumstances, you control the agenda.
Find sci-fi boring? Don’t read sci-fi.
Find chick-lit boring? Don’t read chick-lit.
Find thrillers boring? Don’t read thrillers.
I think you get the idea.
Don’t force it; if you don’t like a genre on the first attempt, you won’t like it on the tenth attempt, either. There is no reason to feel bad about your own preferences; just because your friends are all reading that fantasy novel, it doesn’t mean that you have to as well.
Compare that to reading things that you love. I don’t have to force myself to read articles or books about productivity or finance; these topics are of such interest to me that I am almost always in the mood to read them (they are one of my favourite ways to procrastinate, along with watching television and doing other, lower-priority pieces of work).
2. Reading should be a leisure activity.
Don’t add it to a task list, or even the most interesting book in the world will turn in to a chore. Reading is supposed to be what you do after you have finished the tasks on your to-do list; don’t turn it in to work.
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3. Read how you want to read.
As you are reading this guide on a screen, it may seem like self-sabotage when I suggest that, if you struggle to read on a screen for any length of time, you shouldn’t force yourself to do it. Switch to good ol’ paper; your eyes will thank you. I like to keep my books short, but, if reading as little as one thousand words from a screen is too much for you, that is perfectly understandable.
Of course, ebooks have many benefits to the reader; you can read whatever you like on the train, safe from the possible negative judgment of others. Moving house with a big book collection? Let’s hope, for the sake of your sanity, that it is all contained in a device small enough to fit in to the glovebox of your car.
But good luck selling an ebook that you have already read. Good luck trying to read an ebook on the beach; it is likely that you’ll spend more time fretting about damage from sand and water, and the possible theft of your device if you so much dare as to go for a swim, or take a short nap.
Ebooks are not for everyone; be enough of a grown-up to accept that they might not be for you. It is perfectly okay to let the ‘ebook revolution’ pass you by. Although I can manage short articles online, I have bought long non-fiction books in ebook form in the past and struggled to read them. For a very long read, I prefer the feel of paper and the idea that I can disconnect from the digital world that is so all-encompassing in modern life.
4. Start small.
If you are not used to reading every day, don’t try to read for hours at a time. Instead, start by trying to read for 15 minutes each day and increase this over time.
5. Find the time to read.
I am not going to suggest that you get rid of your television. You might benefit, however, from limiting your viewing to the shows that you actually enjoy. If you ever find yourself scrolling through the listings in search for something to watch, it might be time to put the remote down and pick up a book.
Other activities that could be considered for replacement include social media use and playing games on your phone.
6. You don’t have to finish the book.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that, just because you have ‘invested’ an hour of your time in to a book, this means that you have to continue to the very end, even if you are not enjoying it. Save yourself many hours of pain and boredom; switch to something else.
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7. You don’t have to read the book ‘in order’.
Skipping through a book as you please can be a highly enjoyable activity. This doesn’t always work; with fiction, of course, you probably will have to read the pages and chapters in chronological order to understand what is going on. But this is largely not a requirement for non-fiction, where the case studies and anecdotes can often be read as stand-alone entities. If you become bored with a concept that the author has decided to explain with three different examples, when it seems that only one would have sufficed, don’t feel bad about moving on to the next section.
Bringing it all together
Keep these points in mind when you next sit down to read; with a little practice and dedication, reading every day will soon become second nature.
I want to thank you for taking the time to read my article about how to develop reading habit. I sincerely hope its contents have been a good help to you.
