My 3 Levels to Change Doom Scrolling With Reading
Doom scrolling is the enemy of self-improvement; here’s how to replace it with reading and become successful in no time.
Reading could change your life.
I love reading because it expands my knowledge and increases my understanding of things. There are many books out there from famous writers or people who have worked for 15 years in their mastery. They share how they went from struggle to solution and tips that we can implement. This is how reading books can be a factor in our success in the future.
We learn from the master and use that knowledge to avoid unnecessary failures that could happen.
Even so, there’s one problem that most of us struggle with when we try to read.
Doom Scrolling
We might want to remove our doom scrolling habit.
Doom scrolling is actually killing our brains slowly, with instant gratification. We seek something instantaneously, from food to work and other things that need time to get.
Doom scrolling gives us content and rewards with just one scroll over and over again. This actually backfires on us because most of the work that we do has no rewards right away.
Something that is worth getting most of the time is delayed gratification.
Well, we can’t blame ourselves sometimes because of how social media companies make their apps more engaging and faster.
It is pretty hard for us in this era to seek delayed gratification, while out there, many things are fast and cheap to get.
My struggle
Doom scrolling struggles me too to read and write.
I have an organization that I work on, and doom scrolling is my way to escape from the responsibilities sometimes. I don’t do what I need to do for my organization, and I end up escaping by doom scrolling. I always thought to myself that I needed to take a break by scrolling, but I actually did not. It’s actually a procrastination to do the thing that is working to improve my organization.
So, I started to replace my doom scrolling with reading and found myself finishing one book after another. I became more focused on and easily interested in something that was simple and fun. Overall, I became happier.
This is where I decided to always replace my doom scrolling with reading, even though sometimes I still go back to scrolling on social media.
The key that I learn to replace doom scrolling with reading is consistency and prioritization.
Let’s jump right into the levels from doom scrolling brain rot into a successful, effective reader.
Level 1: Read for One Sentence
The thing that I do to replace my doom scrolling is to read for one sentence before checking my social media or my phone.
This was hard at first, but once you can consistently do it for 3 days, according to my own experience, it will be much easier to continue. I sometimes feel guilty when I’m trying to check my phone without reading a single sentence. Once I read a sentence, I usually continue to read until one passage or one page.
The goal is to overcome procrastination so that reading feels much easier to start rather than avoid it.
After that, we can focus on the difficulty.
Level 2: Increase the Difficulty
This is where you can start increasing the difficulty.
- If you successfully read for one sentence consistently, start reading for one passage.
- If you successfully read for one passage consistently, start reading for one page.
- If you successfully read for one page consistently, start reading for one chapter.
This will gradually increase until you can read for a chapter or a certain number of minutes.
It depends on how you measure your own progress. I use one sentence to one passage progression; if you want to change it into a time progression, like one minute to 10 minutes, it’s up to you.
It depends on how comfortable you are with it and how you can focus on those minutes or chapters.
Level 3: Time Blocking
It’s time for time blocking.
This is where you can start using reading as a daily activity. You might have succeeded in reading a sentence or a passage consistently, and that’s actually enough. Even so, if you want to read a book every week, I recommend you start time blocking for reading.
For example, you can start reading for 60 minutes in the morning, or you can be flexible with it. For example, if you have some leisure time in your work session, you can start reading.
Once you get into the habit, it will be much easier to focus and effectively read. I read effectively when I already have the habit, for example, in the morning or whenever I touch my bed. That’s where I really want to open up my book and read.
I sometimes put my phone far away from the bed in order to focus while reading.
The closer the phone is to me, the less focused I am while reading.
This is different with levels 1 and 2 because time blocking is more focused on deep and effective reading sessions. You can spend an hour or more focusing on your reading and finishing your book.
This is where I easily read a book every week; it’s time-blocking.
Reading a book depends on how you treat it.
If you prioritize it, it will be a fun and enjoyable activity.
If you don’t prioritize it, it will be much harder to read a book every week or read a book effectively. You don’t have to spend two hours or more reading. Sometimes, reading one passage every day is already enough if you want to build a good habit of reading.
So, start reading now and expand your knowledge.
The more you read, the more you can understand yourself through the lens of the world.
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Essential Resources for Your Journey 📚
- My Booknotes (Free) | Download here
Understand What You Read with Implementation Guide - Life-changing Blueprint (Free) | Download Here
How to Change Your Life with Implementation Guide - 30-day Simple Habit Tracker (Free) | Download Here
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