2022 has been a recovery from the emotional roller-coaster of the previous 2 years for most, filled with relaxation and hope for what is to come next. For me, 2022 was a peaceful year, that allowed me to work on my personal growth and learning. I took this time away from the race of trying to learn new cutting-edge technology faster than everyone else in the computer science world. I took this time to explore my strengths, and build new ones. I listened to podcasts and articles, watched YouTube to gain knowledge of art and science, and explored new meditation techniques. All of these things were great but, these were disconnected and discontinuous pieces of information scattered around millions of web pages which makes it impossible to finish studying a subject. When listening to a podcast each podcast differs in its topic, and one topic is merely introduced in a podcast, same is for articles most of the articles written by writers are on different topics and not enough to fulfill the curiosity let alone gain a foundation of knowledge.
However, books were a source of sequential, connected and complete information about a topic built on years of research. It keeps a reader engaged by keeping secrets for future chapters which could only be revealed to the reader by building the foundation through reading the early chapters. In addition, the books were long enough to keep the reader from jumping from one topic to another, which seldom is the biggest obstacle in the path of mastery. So, I started on a journey of reading books, this is how I built a habit of reading.
1. Choosing a book which appeals to you
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Choosing the right book is important in building a successful reading habit just as choosing the right major is important for building a successful career. In past, I tried reading famous fiction and nonfiction books, but wasn’t able to hook onto any of those books, because they were not aligned with my goals, interests, or needs. I figured out only recently how important it is to choose the reading material that is aligned with oneself and appeals to him/her. So, in 2022 I started with books, that I needed to read like Driven to Distraction, Atomic Habits, and Ikigai. I read books that were appealing to my concept of self and related to me like Art of Learning. Books that I knew will help me and strengthen my arsenal of knowledge rather than reading books to read books.
2. Start reading in morning within 1 hour of leaving bed.
The easiest way to build a habit of anything is by doing it first thing in the morning. Since in the morning, our prefrontal cortex is not fully awake, it is less inclined to reject an activity that otherwise will be rejected because of more dopamine-rich activities. Another advantage of this is a fixing specific time to read since a specific time becomes a cue for particular habits. Also, In the mornings we are fresh and are not distracted by countless stimuli thrown at us the whole day. So, what we read in the morning more of it we will remember.
3. Reading not more than 10 page at a time.
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Reading addictively can be counterproductive. When we sit through a whole night with a book and finish it, even if it was interesting we will feel guilt and emptiness afterward because it took time from us which didn’t belong to it. Keeping this up will create a negative feeling within us about reading, which will become an obstacle in building a reading habit.
I have had this experience with other habits in my life, where I did an activity for hours and stopped doing it from the very next day. I did not want to repeat this mistake.
So, I started a rule of reading 10 pages in the morning and not one more than 10 pages. I benefit in the following ways:
- This made the daily goal small and specific since it's just 10 pages. I was more likely to get this done on daily basis.
- This also, made me want more tomorrow. Since 10 pages didn’t always fulfill my curiosity, I was more likely to read tomorrow.
- I was able to learn the subject and got time to apply it and think about it as it was a small piece that I could process, in contrast to reading 50 pages and not being able to process it.
4. Keeping track of reading
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For all my habits that I want to build and maintain, I keep a habit tracker which is a checklist according to days that I cross each day I read. This does provide satisfaction and a kind of internal reward which does motivate me to keep the habit up. I also, keep track of the streaks, of how long I was able to maintain the habit without a break. This itself is a motivator. One of my friends had 1000 days streak on Snapchat, if keeping a track of the streak can motivate someone to post daily on social media which is not important or interesting, I figured streaks must be a great motivator and I found this out in my own experiences.
5. Finishing every book I start
There was one book, in which I had high hopes but I ended up disliking the content from the first chapter. I was disappointed by this book and wanted to just throw it away on day 5 of reading it. I even missed a few days, since it was so boring and not practical at all. But, I didn’t throw it away. I made the decision that I am glad I made, I made a decision to read it through. I had an idea that if I am able to finish this boring book, I should always be able to finish every book that is more interesting. So, I was able to finish this book, as I already built 4 months of reading every day (missing 1 or 2 days of course). So, I just endured this book which made me more stronger to read other books. I made a decision that I am glad of and which made me really strong.
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