Hello, hello! Happy 2024 everyone!
I know this is the time of the year where many people come up with a new year’s resolution that they hope to meet over the next twelve months. While I haven’t made a resolution exactly, I have been thinking about habits that I want to improve in my life.
One of those habits is, predictably, taking more time to read. Even though I already read a lot in a year as is it, I really want to do better about having a steady rhythm of reading. I know how glad it makes me to constantly be finishing and starting new books, and I want to be even better about doing that, even during the busy months.
I love the idea of creating a habit instead of a resolution because it a much more relaxed approach that I feel you are likely to keep up with, and this is especially true with reading. For example, maybe you set a goal to read 100 books over this coming year. That’s a great goal to have! But in order to actually make that happen, you are going to have to instill a habit of regularly reading. Otherwise, you will either be doing some crazy speed reading at the end of the year (that really takes the point and pleasure out of the goal in the first place) or will have failed at your goal.
So whether you have a number goal for how many books you want to read in 2024 or simply wish you were better about making time for reading, this post is for you. I’ve shared my three tips to creating a reading habit in your own life.
Start with a Good Book
My first piece of advice is to choose a good book. This may seem obvious, because of course you’re going to want to read good books anyway, but I don’t necessarily mean the book that everyone that telling you is good.
What I mean in this case is to choose a good book for you right now. If you are trying to get back into the habit of reading, it is going to be a lot harder to do if the first book you read is something challenging for you. It may be a fantastic book that you intend to read someday in the future, but if it isn’t your type of book, that isn’t the best one to start with. You’re trying to build a habit here, not mark off another finished book.
Finding a good book for you can look like a lot of different things. If you’re a fantasy lover maybe it means picking up that dragon series you’ve had on your list for a while. Maybe short novels are easier for you to tackle, or maybe you read more when you have a long book to commit to. Finding the right book for you might mean you reread one of your all time favorite books, or find a book by your favorite author.
There are so many routes you could take with this, but don’t be overwhelmed! The important thing is that you choose a book that will make you excited to read!
Have a Time for Reading
There is something about having a set time to do something that makes it more likely to happen. This is, after all, how habits are formed. By continuously going through an action at the same time each day your brain begins to fall into the pattern and it becomes easier to remember.
Creating a set time for reading doesn’t always mean you plan to read from, say, 2:00-3:00 every day. You can plug it in throughout your day anytime your mind is free. Car rides are a good example of this, and so are meals or snacks that you spend alone. Audio books can be very helpful in giving you the ability to do another task at the same time.
I personally enjoy having a habit of reading in bed just before going to sleep. As someone who usually dreads going to bed (I’m too much of a night owl for my own good), reading before it gives me a reason to be excited about crawling into bed. But even though evenings are what I think of as my reading time, I still carry a book around me during the day as well.
There are so many ways you can squeeze reading into your day, and the more you read the more natural it will become for you to pick up a book at all hours. But I’d encourage you to pick one reading time to strive for when you’re getting started. If you start by reading every morning at breakfast, it will soon become easier for you to read more often, and before long you have formed a habit.
Prioritize Your Reading Time
The final tip I have to help you create a habit of reading is to make sure you are prioritizing your reading time. The most important step in creating a habit is actually doing it. Even if you have books to read and time to do it, you don’t have a habit. First, you have to follow through, daily, and to do that you must prioritize it.
As I’ve gotten older and more busy, one of the biggest problems in the way of my reading habit is lack of priority. On a busy day (or any day, for that matter) there always seems to be something else I could be doing. I’m more likely to do something more important with my reading time instead, because reading is always something I can get to tomorrow, right? There isn’t a deadline that needs to be met.
But just think of all the books you miss out on by not reading. Think of the characters you’ll never get to meet and the journeys you’ll never get to go on, all because of the time you let slide into other activities.
Of course I’m not saying nothing should ever come before your reading. There will be things in life that get in the way of your perfect plan, and there will be days you don’t make time to read. That’s okay, in fact, that’s probably good! 😉 But in order to make this into a habit you have to know where it ranks in importance in your life. Reading can’t just be something you’ll get to tomorrow, it’s something you’ll grow from today, and you have to treat it as such.
Final Thoughts
Reading adds so much value to our lives if we make the time for it. I wish you good luck wherever you are in your reading life, and hope that this post will be helpful in your reading.
Do you have a good reading habit in your life? How do you make the time and desire for it?
For the Love of Stories 