10 Simple Ways To Read More Books In 2019
The year 2019 is right around the corner, which can only mean one thing:
New Year’s Resolutions
It’s an exciting time of year. It’s an opportunity to take a big step forward in your life and end next year a better person than when you started the year.
One of the most common resolutions chosen for the New Year, aside with health or financial goals, is to “read more.”
Some of the most successful and influential people on the planet like Warren Buffet, credit their reading habit as one the critical pillars to the their success.[R]
“Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”
— Warren Buffet
If Warren Buffet believes that his reading habit has allowed him to accrue a net worth of nearly $87 Billion, then you better get started on that New Year’s Resolution.
Unfortunately, when it comes to New Year’s Resolutions, the odds are not in your favor. According to one article, 80% of New Years Resolutions fail.
Those are not great odds.
In this article, I want to turn your odds around and give you the top 10 strategies to help you stick to your goal of reading more in 2019!
1) TURN OFF YOUR TV
The arch nemesis of successfully building a reading habit is the television.
It’s too easy to get addicted to watching televsion.
It starts with just a “taste.” You watch one episode of a show on Netflix, but then the episode leaves on a cliffhanger. You can’t stop now. You must know what happens.
Next thing you know, it’s 4 a.m. and you made it through season 1 and you are no closer to reaching your goal of reading more.
Here are some heplful ways to get freedom for your TV addiction.
- Place the remote control in an inconvenient location that requires more effort than normal to accomplish like the back of the closet or in a kitchen drawer.
- Keep your TV unplugged so that you have to get up and plug it in every time you want to watch TV.
- Limit yourself to a specific length of time to watch TV per night. Use a timer on your phone.
- Use any of the other strategies in this article.
2) SPEED READING COURSES
Read more by reading faster — a “revolutionary concept.”
Of course, if you already have a reading habit, but want to read more, you can simply increase your reading speed through speed reading courses.
If you read faster that not only means that you’ll be reading more books throughout the year, but also maximizing your time, since you’ll be reading more per hour.
This can be helpful not only for personal reading habits but also can become extremely useful in business as well if your work requires lots of reading.
There are plenty speed reading courses available that will help you not only read faster, but also better retain what you’ve read.
3) READ FIRST THING IN THE MORNING
Reading first thing in the morning sets the tone for the day ahead.
If you feel like you have no time to read in the day, one of the easiest solutions is to add in more time. The best time of the day to do that is first thing in the morning.
All it takes is waking up a bit earlier than you usually do. The biggest advantage of using this strategy is it sets the tone for the day.
You’ll start your day by accomplishing a goal, which stimulates the release of dopamine in your brain, your motivation and reward neurotransmitter. This will allow you to feel great and also become more motivated to continue on with your goal of reading.
You’ll literally be jumpstarting your brain first thing in the morning with motivation and new knowledge.
4) SET GOALS FOR READING (With Rewards)
Think of it like getting 10,000 steps a day.
Obviously you won’t be reading 10,000 pages a day, but set an achievable goal that you can stick to every single day.
When I was a kid, you could barely get me to read a page out of any book. I would always read Cliffnotes and Sparknotes for very book assignment in school and would NEVER read for fun. “Reading for fun” seemed like an oxymoron.
My poor mother, in an attempt to get me to read anything, offered to buy me a TV in return for reading a book.
Guess what happened?
You guessed it. I read that book (Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone) in about 2 days. It actually got me to read the book in a record amount of time.
*My mother secretly hoped it would spark a love of reading. Unfortunately, once I got the TV, reading got put on the backburner until I was about 21.
Rewards are an extremely motivating tool to accomplish your goal of reading more. Use whatever type of reward sees fit for the goal you have in mind, just make sure that it motivates you to want to read.
Better yet, set a BIG goal with a BIG reward.
5) PUT BOOKS IN YOUR WAY (Literally)
Where do you typically put the books you are currently reading?
If you are like most people, they are probably placed somewhere that you don’t spend most of your time — a bookshelf that’s out of the way, a coffee table beside your couch, or the nightstand by your bed.
Have you ever noticed how most people put their TV remote directly in the center of the room? What do most people end up doing?
You get the picture.
If your books are out of sight, they are out of mind.
So put your books in your line of sight and in the way. Make it so that you have to physically move your books or move around the books to get by. Put them in the hallway, on your bed, on the couch, or on your desk chair.
I place my books on the couch in the living room, so that way anytime I sit down, I have to lift the books. Once I look at my books, I remember my goal and make the decision to read rather than spend the next 3 hours watching Game of Thrones.
6) MAKE READING AN EXPERIENCE
Do you like visiting new places or checking out new coffee shops?
A great way to make reading more enticing is to read in new places. Simply changing your environment can break up the monotony of reading in the same reading chair or desk every single day and can reinvigorate your love of reading.
It changes your reading from feeling like a chore to become an experience.
Plan ahead to find a coffee shop (my personal favorite), park, beach, library, or restaurant to spend some time reading and experiencing a new environment.
7) COMMIT AND GO BIG
Sometimes you just have to put your money where your mouth is.
When you put your own hard-earned money into something, you’ll immediately feel more invested and determined to see it through.
A simple way to do this is to buy a bunch of books or buy your desired reading list all at once.
If someone gifted you $100 worth of books, you wouldn’t care if you read 5 of them or none of them, but if you personally spent $100 to purchase those books, my guess is that you’ll read much more than 1.
When you invest your money and purchase the books up front, you’ll be more likely to read all those books and stick your New Year’s Resolution.
8) CREATE YOUR OWN MINI-COURSE
Have you always been interested in space, philosophy, dog psychology, or the history of cinematography?
Most courses have a “required reading” list. It’s a list of books that are essential for the course and are materials that you will be reading and referencing throughout the course.
You can create your own “mini-course” by buying several different books on a topic that you are passionate about. It’s like creating your own required reading list.
You can create a course simply for pleasure such as learning about something that you’ve always been curious about or interested in. You can also create a more functional course by reading books that help you develop a certain skill like marketing or website design.
When I first discovered that I had an interest in learning about the brain, I bought 7 different books ranging from neuroscience, diet, mindset, and even marketing to learn about the different ways in which our brains work.
Creating your own course can give you a sense of accomplishment to know that you’re learning and reaching your goal to read more while also spending far less money than paying for normal college tuition.
9) DON’T BE AFRAID TO STOP
“I’m halfway through, but this book is B-O-R-I-N-G!”
Often times, we feel a sense of guilt if we stop halfway through a book. Maybe it’s a boring read or it wasn’t as good as we thought it would be, but we have this feeling inside of us that says we need to take this book to the finish line.
There are no “rules of engagement” when it comes to reading books. If it’s not appealing to you, don’t be afraid to put the book away. Maybe it’s just not the right fit or the right time.
In fact, I would argue that your time is too valuable to waste on a book that isn’t working for you. Our time is limited and it’s not meant to be spent drudging through a book you don’t enjoy.
If you want to really read more, don’t waste your time on books that feel like work to read through.
10) READ MULTIPLE GENRES AT ONCE
It’s like creating a “reading buffet.”
My friends think I’m strange when I tell them I’m always reading 3–4 books at a time. It’s because I never know what mood I’ll be in when I sit down to read.
You may be working through a detailed business or science book that takes a lot of brain power, but after a stressful day, you may just want to unwind. It’s hard to do that with a book that takes energy and brain power to read.
It’s similar to how there are appropriate types of music for different events such as weddings, beach parties, or driving in your car.
Our brains have different modes of operation and having different genres of books is like having different types of music to suit the mood you are in.
I usually rotating through a fiction book, personal development or faith-based book, and a career development book. This allows me to maintain my goal of reading without dropping off because I wasn’t in the mood to read a specific genre of book.
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