Take a peak at many ‘New Year Resolution lists’ and you will find a few common culprits of habits that most people are seeking to add to their lifestyle. There’s of course the diet component, the exercise more desire, the invest more money, spend less money. You’ll often find a list of “stop” habits - quit smoking, stop watching television all night, stop wasting money on fast food. A common habit that should be at the top of everyone’s list is the desire to read more. Read what? Anything. Reading is one of the most impactful habits a person can have in their lifestyle.

Warren Buffett, an American business icon, credits daily reading to his high level of success. Speaking to a group of students at Columbia University he had this to say,

“Read 500 pages like this every day,” Buffett said to the students, while reaching toward a stack of manuals and papers. “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will.”

Buffett estimates that he spends nearly 80% of his work day reading. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, estimates he reads 50 books per year which comes out to a book a week. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has committed to reading three hours a day. Surely all three of these successful business leaders are “busy” which is one of the common objections to adding reading to a person’s daily and weekly rhythm.

If I am lost in a book, who will manage my social media accounts? Who will possibly respond to the wave of emails both work and personal? How will it be possible to remain up to date on all the happenings of my favorite sports teams? Something about giving sole attention to one thing makes the modern person feel behind, left-out, or irresponsible. The reality is, giving sole attention to a book can add massive compounding interest to our lives both personally and professionally. The benefits of reading are substantial. It could be a stress-relief to unwind and unplug from work-related pressure. Reading expands your vocabulary as your mind engages and processes new words. Reading can lead to better writing skills. If we select the proper subjects and content it can add to significant accumulation of knowledge.

But truthfully, it is not the benefits of reading that cause us to continue to place reading as a habit we want but are not executing. We all know the value of reading, yet many of us spin our wheels and are often left with wanting to “read more” every time New Years rolls around. Here are some hacks that I believe can increase the amount of reading you are doing in your life.

1.) Identify yourself as a reader, begin to accumulate a list of books you want to read.

James Clear is an expert on the field of habits. In his book, Atomic Habits he outlines a strategy based around identity. If you want to read more, you first must identify yourself as a reader. You are a reader. You are the type of person who reads books. As you develop a habit of reading, create a list of books that you are going to read next. You have a queue on Netflix, create a reading queue. Always have your next title lined up, avoid periods of time where you are not working through a book. If your reading is dormant, you’ll likely slide back in to other forms of entertainment.

2.) Schedule your reading progress.

Establish a deadline for when you want to be done with your current read and move on to the next read. Schedule when you are going to read each day and how long you are reading (use a stopwatch if needed). Begin to forecast how long it will take for you to read a book. If you can read one page in 60 seconds, and if the book you are reading is 300 pages long it will take you five hours to complete the book. If you commit to reading 30 minutes a day it will take you 10 days to complete the book. Surely you can find 30 minutes in your day. 30 minutes a day = 36.5 books read per year!

3.) Give yourself permission to stop reading a book.

If you’re going to give your entire attention to a book for 30 minutes a day, will you want to enjoy or getting something out of the book? Many people have carried their view of reading from the school-age days into their adult life. When we think of “reading” we think of all of the boring, forced reading many had to endure in school. Your teacher or professor is not going to be checking on your reading progress. You have full permission to dump a title if it is not getting it done. If the book sucks, why labor through it? Move on to the next book in your queue and keep it rolling.

4.) Add Kindle or iBooks to your arsenal.

With our phones glued to our hands and minds why not leverage technology to add value to our minds. While we love to scroll twitter, instagram, facebook and the news - all that stuff does is numb our minds. Reading a book can add incremental value, compounded over time. By adding books to your phone, through Kindle you could be reading while waiting in line at the store. The reality is, you already are - instead of reading your uncle’s political posts on facebook you could be reading about long term investing through real estate or the future of cryptocurrency. Instead of hearing the latest trending celebrity news on twitter from TMZ, you could be learning about the mastery of leadership in the life of Abraham Lincoln. Instead of scrolling through people’s highlight posts on instagram you could be reading ways to turn your dream business idea into a real thing by taking advice from entrepreneurs who went down the same path you are on. You’re already reading more than you realize - leverage reading on your phone to add to your new identity - a reader of books.

5.) Embrace the Audio.

So it may sound amazing to cozy up with a blanket and a cup of coffee on a daily basis. But, you might be a stay at home parent. If you are lost in a book, who will watch your toddler who is about to knock your coffee on the carpet, or hit their sibling in the head with a plastic whiffle ball bat. The reality is, it may not even be possible to integrate reading a physical book into your season of life. Again, leverage technology to consume your favorite reads through your phone or soundbox. Audible and other audio book platforms have affordable memberships that will bring great reads right to you. Enjoy a good book, while you commute to and from work, fold laundry, change a diaper, or break up a toddler fight.

6.) Control your phone don’t let it control you.

We’ve already established that you are reading every day. The average adult spends 2 hours and 55 minutes on their phone a day. If you could just lower that average by one hour and devote it to reading a book you would be able to read a book a week (possibly more) AND you could still scroll your favorite social media apps, sports websites, celebrity gossip feeds, and political commentary sites for close to 2 HOURS a day! Utilize the screen time function on your phone to lock and closeout apps and functionalities of your phone. We need guardrails, we don’t need to aimlessly scroll for hours adding mind numbing content to our lives. Lock apps at 9:00 p.m. allowing your phone to be it’s original design - a phone. With all that distracts you on your phone gone, you may be left with nothing else to do but read more.

Make 2020 your best reading year yet. Use these tricks or develop tricks of your own to make reading a larger part of your life. If your looking for a place to start, take a peak at my Stay The Course Leaders Reading Challenge or my growing list of book reviews and summaries.

Stay The Course,