How I Grew Up My Reading Habit Again
without blaming the digital age
I was wondering what is happening to my reading habit. Then I saw not only me, many people around me also sharing the same feeling.
Are we too busy?
Or, we are burdened with so much contents that we don’t able to actually distinguish what we should read, specially the long posts, Books are far behind.
Or, we are getting distracted too much? Like: if phone notification light blinks once, mind tells to check what it is. Okay let’s check the email once or did someone twitted me ? While doing so maybe I see some new whatsapp messages, read it, if it is interesting then reply. Okay where I was? I was reading something.
Just when I was about to keep the phone down, Oh! tomorrow is a big sale with 40% discount, notification flashed. But it’s tomorrow. So where I was? Oh I was reading.
Now I get back to it, started reading. In these process someday I may able to turn few pages of a book or some day manage to read long articles I saved in Basket for reading later.
I was thinking that where the problem lies? Digital evolution or Human nature. Businesses try to understand the human nature and to push the right things in right time. But, does it means that we will get distracted easily. Children also know when is the right time to ask money from parents for a candy or a video game. We know what is the best time to make our partner say yes or the way in which if we tell they will fall. Apps are not also different, they seduce. But it is not everything.
Where is our routine, making a habit. It is not a problem of digital age, the problem is we are not making a habit. We are not prioritizing things, we are not making slots for things we want to do, rather we are going with the flow.
I started few things to increase my reading habit. After all cultivating a habit is the underlying need to develop one. Most important is to see a benefit that your future self will reap from it.
a) I started with small targets:
Each day I will read at least 5 pages of a book and will consume 2 long read articles( 4 if short read). I made choice after lunch time for articles and post dinner time for book. I kept it in this way to ensure what I consume remains in my mind.
Everyday I put articles in Basket to read later and after lunch time I start reading them. After reading If I think anything important I just keep notes against them to help me later when working on them.
I picked a book on a topic which I think will be interesting, so that it keep my hunger growing. Oh yes! I kept my phone silent and away from my sight for that period.
b) Reminders:
Though I planned in certain way so that automatic reminders come from my mind. Like: If I had my lunch, then it is the time to read my articles. Sometimes if require, I use my phone alarm to be used as reminder( No separate app with details of reminder, at least I can use my brain for that) . It is just the trigger that help me initiating my behavior.
c) Rewarding myself:
I keep in mind the future picture. I was an avid reader once. In my childhood days I sneaked in to the other section completing all children section and knowledge books and I wanted me to gift those days again.
In morning I use NewsInShorts to read news. They curate the best news ( mainly on India right now), and provide me the cream of those in 60 words short. If I want to know more I can easily move to the details making it easy for me to consume news in short period of time.
Reddit is also became my daily dose of news source. Actually I like Reddit for it’s diversity, the stories keep changing time to time and provide a wider glance to diverse topics. Oh! yes and not to miss Quora, actually it is lot addictive than Facebook.
We the people are evolving the world, revolutionizing the industry but it hard to manage ourselves and make a good habit. I learned it is not hard it just needs an urge, to start.
Thanks for reading! If you like it, please scroll down and click the “recommend” button. It would mean so much to me. ☺
