I love to read self-help books. In 2020 alone, I managed to read 51 books on topics like time management, happiness, self-esteem, and creativity. That’s not an impressive statistic, I must admit. But it’s above average if you consider the amount of time that the average American devotes to reading these days.
Between 2003 and 2016, the time that average person in the United States devoted to reading dropped from 0.36 hours to 0.29 hours.1. Much time has passed since then, and it seems that reading has declined even further.
If you consider yourself to be a reluctant reader but still believe in the value of reading, then you’re in the right place. In this post, I go over 7 of the best ways that help you encourage yourself you read more books.
This Post in Summary
- When it comes to reading more books, it’s best to start small and work your way up.
- It’s important to set goals. How many pages could you read per week? How many books could you finish in a year?
- Associate reading with pleasure. Give yourself a reward after you finish and use a checklist to keep track of process.
- Make the act of picking up a book as easy as it can be. Always carry a book with you and have multiple options to chose from.
1. Set a Weekly Reading Goal
How much more do you want to read every week? 20, 50, or maybe 100 pages? Whatever your target, write it down at the beginning of every new week. Setting a weekly goal is great way to increase your reading volume over time. You can start small and then raise the bar as your reading skills improve.
A simple way to determine your weekly target is to consider how much you’d be comfortable reading every day, and then multiplying that number by 7. That way you will know how much you will need to read daily, and what your objective is for that week. If you expect to be busy, you can make a conservative guess on how much you can cover. If there’s not much on your plate you can set a higher target.
2. Keep Your Goals to Yourself
Sharing your goal with people often gives you a false sense of accomplishment. When you tell someone what you intend on achieving, you’ll likely get a compliment in response. You will then subconsciously believe that you’ve already done great work, and put in less effort as a result.
It could also lead to a decrease in motivation. If you were to announce that you want to read 100 books over the next year, and you failed to read even 10, you will experience a setback that leads to a lack of motivation. To avoid this altogether, it’s best that you keep your goals to yourself.
3. Read Multiple Books at the Same Time
I rarely ever read one book at a time. When I have a variety of books to choose from every day, I am much more likely to pick one up and read it. It also gives me something to look forward to and prevents me from losing interest. If you get bored easily, you will benefit from having several options to choose from. However, I recommend that you first focus on a single book and then add one or two more as you go along.
4. Use a Checklist and Don’t Break the Streak
Tracking progress is an effective way to build a reading habit. When you are consistent and read on a regular basis, you’re less likely to break your streak. My favourite way to do this is by checking off your calendar for every day that you read. Over time you will accumulate a collection of checkmarks, which can act as a visual reward system.
5. Associate Reading With Pleasure
All human behaviour is driven by pain and pleasure. Everything we do is to either escape punishment or pursue rewards. This also applies to reading books. People fail to get into a reading routine because they associate literature with discomfort. Maybe they have negative memories from school when they were told to read chapters of a book they didn’t like. Or perhaps they struggled to read when they were young, and it felt like a chore.
Reading can become a part of your daily life if you associate it with pleasure (This is essentially the Cliffhanger Strategy in action). One way to teach your brain that reading is a good thing is to give yourself an immediate reward after you finish your session. As soon as you put down a book, treat yourself to your favorite snack or go for a walk at your local park. Do whatever you find rewarding.
6. Take Advantage of Different Book Formats
There are many ways to consume new books. Some people like listening to audio books better than they like reading the paperback copy. Others exclusively read on their Kindle E-reader because it is cheaper. If you want to read more books throughout the day, you can experiment with different book formats. You don’t know works best for your lifestyle unless you try out different methods.
7. Always Carry a Book With You
It’s doesn’t hurt to pack a book when you leave the house. We all have a few moments during the day to catch our breath, so rather than pulling out your phone and scrolling through social media, take out your book and read a few pages. Try to squeeze in a few minutes of reading (or listening) on your commute to work or during your lunch break. You will be surprised how many pages you will have read at the end of the day.
How to Encourage Yourself to Read More Books
Now that you have a few methods for reading more books, it’s time for action. Starting out, it’s best to make small changes. Don’t try to read 100 pages in a day if you’ve never finished a book before. Take small steps and build your way up.
The first thing you can do is to prepare a reading list. Next start tackling the books page by page. It’s important that you lower your daily page count once reading feels like work. The most important thing of all is to associate reading with pleasure. If you implement that and the other suggestions I mentioned in this post, then I have no doubt that you can increase your reading time.
References
- This is according to releases posted by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences