How to start reading books

The title of this article might sound like you're being pressured into educating yourself. But rest assured, that's not the case at all. The official WIP stand is that we're not trying to make you read books or do anything else for that matter if you don't want to. Two reasons: one, because no one can ever be persuaded into doing something they don't want to do, and two, because taking action is always better than just diving into literature. So no worries there.

If you are interested in how to start reading books, though, this article is for you. You probably have a busy life - I completely understand that - and might not see how you could fit reading into your daily schedule. However, it's not as difficult as it seems. You just need to do some habit swapping.

First, ask yourself: what do you do daily that you consider enjoyment? Is it watching movies, reading the newspaper, browsing the Internet? I'm sure you do something during the day to unwind.

I'm not saying you shouldn't unwind, especially as the chances are that you have a demanding job. What I'm saying is that you probably need less time to unwind than you think. You're a superman, after all.

So, the next time you feel like unwinding and doing the thing you consider enjoyment, read a book for 10 minutes - any book you'd like to read - first, and then reward yourself for the reading with the enjoymable thing. 10 minutes is so little time anyone can do it, and you probably agree with me that taking 10 minutes away from your unwinding time doesn't make much difference - unless, of course, you only have 10 minutes or less to unwind during the entire day, in which case I suggest you evaluate whether or not that amount is enough for daily unwinding.

The keys to make this work are

that you do it daily, so as to form a habit, and
that you do it before the unwinding act, and use the unwinding act to reward yourself for the reading.

These together make reading books both something that's easy to do and something you specifically want to do. Once you start to feel 10 minutes is too little, increase the time - 15, 20, 30, 60 minutes a day, and so on.

Soon enough the act of reading books becomes your unwinding enjoyment.