I have always wanted to read more!

You know that feeling? I do very well. I have some "problems" that "keeps" me from reading more. This little post is about how I have tackled them.

First off, till this year I have finished one at max two books per year, and that I wanted to improve.

What are the two biggest "problems" that I'm facing when trying to read?

• I'm a slow reader, in my opinion (20 pages/hour)
• I get super easily distracted

So how did I deal with this?

Starting with "slow reader". This is of course subjective, but it often kept me from reading as I felt like I never got anywhere, so I barely bothered starting reading.

There are techniques to improve one's reading speed. But I decided that the speed wasn't the biggest problem, but more an excuse for getting started. End of 2020 I hear an Audio Book Atomic Habits by James Clear which talked about making a habit that small that you could do it every day without any chance of an excuse.

What did I do?

I started reading every night before going to bet. Just 5 minutes. So times I continued and read more, but 5 minutes was a minimum. And 5 minutes I can always find, regardless how tired I'm.

After some time, I changed my goal to 10 minutes a day, as the 5 minutes was quite easy for me to "overcome". This way I got started reading more.

Distractions

By moving my reading to the bed, I had close to no distractions. I did my reading before my girlfriend got to bet, so no watches, no mobile phone, no nothing in the bedroom to distract me.

This is also something that Atomic Habits talks about, create your environment for success. If you get easily distracted like me, It makes no sense trying to read in a room full of people talking. Set the stage and find a environment with a little as possible distractions, then you will find it easier to reach your goal.

Conclusion

First, I don't care what you are reading, read what ever you like.

The result with these two small changes means that I as of today, I have read seven books this year so far, compared to normally one at best two in a year.

I still have two more books that I want to finish this year, to reach a total of 9, I think I'll manage. Even if not, it's still been a success.