Reading is one of the most overlooked habits of successful people. Look at any number of high-flyers and you will see that reading was part of it. President Obama is a voracious reader; Mark Cuban reads 3 hours a day. When asked about the reason for his success, Warren Buffett said, “I read a lot. I just sit in my office and read all day.” As a child, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Einstein were all avid readers. We rather think of these outliers as natural geniuses or an incredibly lucky few, but the truth is that they spent countless hours getting smarter by reading day after day. Other than its relaxing benefits, reading allows you to learn from other’s achievements without falling for rookie mistakes any person eventually makes. Every time you read you get a deeper knowledge of the things that, one day, can be very useful in your field.
Now when I say reading, I mean "deep reading" as opposed to the superficial reading we do on blogs and newspapers. This kind of deep reading in my view can only come from books. Be it digital or actual paper copies. But as long as they are long-form books. Reading, be it only 15 minutes a day will dramatically change your life. Here I will give you some tricks to develop a reading habit so that you can gain the knowledge to get to eventually get to your goals.
5 Tricks To Read More Often
Read at the Same Time
To create a habit, it's better to read at the same time every day. You can read during breakfast, on the bus, or right before going to bed. Give yourself as little as 10 minutes to read, but do it at the same time every day so that it becomes a habit.
Cut-off All Distractions
During your reading time, television, phone, the internet should be avoided. All notifications should also be turned off. Keep it quiet and the benefits will be greater. Outside of the home, a quiet spot in a park or any green space may well do the trick.
Make A List
I keep two lists. A list of books I want to read and a list of books I have already finished. (You can use any simple note taking app for this. I use Google Keep)
When someone recommends a book to me or when I see an interesting book on Amazon, I add it to the first list. This way I don’t miss out on reading ideas, and I can also vary the subjects depending on what I’m in the mood for. You should do the same.
Always Keep a Book On You
Take a book with you wherever you go. You never know when you have some free time while waiting for something. A book is a good way to pass the time and is a lot more useful than checking your social media accounts.
I recommend keeping digital versions of your books on your smartphone, that way you don’t need to carry an actual book with you. I recommend the Kindle App for iOS and Android. (You Can Sign Up Here. It’s Free)
Listen to Audiobooks
Stuck in Traffic? Need to do the dishes? Listen to an Audiobook while doing your repetitive tasks and save time while learning something new. It’s especially useful when you’re commuting.
The best service for this is Audible. It is free to use for 30 days and if you already use Kindle it syncs across all your devices so that you can start a book in audio and finish reading it from where you left off on your Kindle. Another cool feature is that you can control the speed of the playback, I play my books at 1.5x speed, and it doesn’t affect my comprehension.
I have found that some books are even better in audio format because it allows you to better understand certain intentions of the author that you would otherwise not get in writing.
Do you have other tips or tricks to maintain a reading habit? Let me know below.
