The Key to Reading More is Winning Small Wins
It’s not about large sessions of reading to help you read more; it’s about small wins every day that you conquer
I struggle to read more.
I bought many books, but I haven’t finished any of them. I already have plans for when I finish those books. Even so, I still end up not reading all of them and procrastinating more and more.
In writing, I need to read more in order to get ideas. Other than that, I need to improve myself so that I can implement it in my daily life and share my experience through writing.
That’s why I tried to force myself to read in large sessions.
I force myself to read in large sessions, like 2 hours of reading every day or 1 hour of reading every day. It’s actually different for most people, but for me, it’s a big session of reading if I don’t have the habit yet. Then I tried to sit down and read, which I successfully did for the first 2–3 days.
After three days, I’m starting to burn out and stop reading.
I didn’t read for almost a week or more. I just picked up my book from my bed and let it sit beside me without reading it. The problem that I had was that I was forcing myself to read a book in large sessions.
I focused more on how to read in a 2-hour session and didn’t focus enough on reading the book consistently. I didn’t read my book again and again, and I started to blame myself for not reading.
I feel like a failure because I lose too many battles over and over again.
Small-session reading doesn’t work?
After a while of finding solutions, I tried to read in a small session.
This is where I feel like I’ve made progress and should focus more on progressing consistently. I read for 5 minutes every day and tried to consistently read for 7 days. Even if I had already finished reading for 5 minutes, I still kept going until I felt enough. After a while, for about 5 days, I successfully read consistently for 5 minutes every day. This feels like progress.
Even so, I didn’t manage to continue to consistently read for 5 minutes every day after that.
There are days when I feel tired and busy enough. Those are days where I didn’t touch my book and didn’t read at all. I feel like a failure for not reading on those days. Then I stopped reading again.
I feel like I can’t stick to a habit or commit to a reading session.
What is the main problem here?
I’m sure that the problem is not in small sessions, because I know that strategy will work.
Even so, I still have the ego of not wanting to make it smaller than 5 minutes of reading. I want to fasten my reading session to 2 hours as soon as I can, even though I can’t. I force myself too much and focus more on “hard work” while actually being more consistent.
Then, after a while, I tried to set aside my ego.
One sentence before checking my phone
This time, I read only one sentence every time before checking my phone.
This is called habit stacking, where we stack good habits before doing our present habit.
This is where I see progress; I read more and more and more. I didn’t force myself to read more than one sentence if I didn’t want to. I only need to read one sentence, and that’s it. I have the freedom to use my phone after that.
I successfully read more and finished reading my books.
At first, I didn’t realize that I spent more of my time reading than using reading sessions before. The reading session actually works, but in my case, it doesn’t work pretty well. So, I stay with the habit of stacking and making it as small as I can.
I successfully read a book every week.
I even didn’t realize that I had read that many at the end of the week, which motivated me to read more. I have the freedom to read more or check my phone at the end of every sentence of reading.
How to habit-stack for reading
If you are really trying to read more and replace your bad habits with reading, you can start by habit-stacking first.
Then focus on getting used to that until you are comfortable enough to increase the difficulty. You don’t have to read for one sentence; you can read for one minute or just open your book.
Just remember that whenever you start, focus on entering reading mode. This helps you tell your body and mind that you are reading, not just unconsciously reading one sentence.
This way, you will build your habit easily.
Habit stacking and small wins
The key is more than just habit-stacking.
The key that I learn from my experience or story is to make small wins. Small wins where I only need one sentence actually lead me to more reading. I gained more confidence to read more, and this led me to win more battles.
So, if you are starting out, focus on small wins and forget about the end result too much.
It is great to have a goal at the end, but the progress is much more important to focus on. Start with small wins and gradually increase the difficulty until you gain big wins. The more small wins you get, the more confidence you have to become better and better tomorrow.
If you haven’t ever tasted the feeling of winning, it’s going to be pretty hard for you to conquer the big ones.
Just like the Bible said,
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
–Luke 16:10
New Substack! ✨
I’ve been working on making my articles more structured and exclusive, and I found the perfect platform in Substack.
I’m excited to share two new newsletters with you:
- Kevin Nokia Writing: My personal journey from struggling through depression to becoming a successful individual.
- I Am Literate: Discover how to replace scrolling addiction with effective reading habits to improve focus and attention span.
Join now for exclusive articles and a growing community!
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
Track Your Daily Habits with Customizable Months
