The best habit that I have developed over time is reading more.

It took deliberate effort (e.g., selecting the right books, downloading books on my phone) in order to make regular reading a habit, but it has improved my life in so many ways which is why I am writing this post.

First, I am going to share with you some of the benefits of reading more often. Then, I will share with you ways that I found effect for making it a daily habit.

Why Reading is Helpful

Diverse Content

Reading is awesome because there is so much more diverse content than what you could find on tv or social media. You go on Netflix and you can kind of expect the plot of almost any movie. This makes sense because most movies and shows want to make money and it is a safe bet to give you a rehashed version of what people have liked in the past. It’s why there are so many sequels to movies, like Shrek 1-4 or Fast and Furious 11. But, when you read, you have a countless number of books to choose from dating back thousands of years ago and across so many different cultures.

Improved Concentration

Another benefit of reading that I found super helpful is my concentration has improved dramatically. I started reading regularly during my free time around the beginning of college, and after a few weeks, my ability to focus on one task and go really deep became more natural. This ability to concentrate well translates to your work as well.

Write and Communicate Better

Reading has helped me to become a better writer and overall communicator. When you see the way that an author describes a complex idea, or expresses an emotion in a way that you’ve never heard, you start to find yourself using similar words and expressions in your everyday conversations. And, this is so great because it makes it easier for you to be understood by the people around you, and you spend less effort having to explain yourself because the first time was precise.

You Will Learn A lot

Even if you aren’t trying to, you learn a lot from reading. I almost exclusively read fiction these days, and even though the plots are not real, the background research these authors did to motivate the story line become second hand knowledge to you as a reader. It helps you learn a lot about random stuff and you never know what kind of knowledge will come in handy one day.

I can go on and on about the benefits of reading more, but I want to transition now to how you can start reading more, which I believe is the hardest part. Most people realize why a habit of reading would be beneficial, it’s just hard to actually begin.

How to Start Reading More

Find A Fantastic Book

The first step is to find a fantastic book. I emphasize that it has to be fantastic because it has to be better than the Netflix show that just came out and is beckoning for you to being watch. The best method I use for selecting a book is I find a genre I like (e.g., philosophy, or fiction), then I go to www.goodreads.com and search that book. If the ratings are above 4.0/5.0 stars and has at least 10,000 ratings, there is a near 100% chance I will enjoy the book. This is a system that has worked for me after many years of trial and error, but it is a pretty safe filter to try out if you haven’t come up with your own method yet. The problem with just reading a recommended book or one that you happen to stumble upon by happenstance is that the quality of writing varies drastically when you are comparing books. There is no way to know if a books is good if you don’t have any data on it besides what one person thought or the title being captivating. Plus, you are about to invest a significant amount of time on the book and don’t want to read half of it be like, ‘wtf, why did I start this?’

Download The Book on Your Phone

It might sound weird, but it is much more likely that you will read if you have the book on hand wherever you go (i.e., you have your phone pretty much everywhere you go). Whenever you have down time, you can pull up your kindle or Books app and start reading where you last left off. The experience really is not bad, especially with the large screen sizes on smart phones these days. There are also great features on ebooks like digital bookmarks, the highlight features, and saving quotes. You could even share quotes via message.

Talk to People About the Plots

I find that some of the best conversations I have are about a book, maybe not explicitly, but a theme or message that was conveyed by a book that I read. There is so much wisdom condensed into a book, it is often a person’s life work that has been revised countless times for the benefit of readers. I’ve also found that people really appreciate it when you start talking about a story you liked and why. It allows you to talk about something more interesting and weighty than the frivolous small talk that characterizes so many of our daily conversations.

Okay, that about wraps this conversation up. Let me know what you think or if you have any questions!