2021 is already half completed. I recently did a mid-year review and figure out which habits I have been not working on and the ones that I really want to push forward. As I look back on the past half a year, there were certainly habits that I let slip more than usual like morning walks, High intensity interval training and healthy eating.
I am not saying I have deteriorated to a worse state. I am still doing ok. However as I started to reflect, I did realize there was one habit I wish I did more and it’s reading.
The book that significantly changed my direction of life was the ‘Four Hour Workweek’ by Tim Ferriss. It was really the book that got me first interested in self-development and inspired me to become a content creator.
Books really taught me a lot about life. They taught me so much about investing, health and fitness and productivity. I often found that when I could read uninterrupted in the morning, I would feel satisfied. I would feel intelligent and excited for the day.
But if I spent hours at night or weekends binging on YouTube or Netflix, I would feel drained. I don’t feel productive at all. Having a full time job and wanting to be a content creator can be really demanding. I try to follow a schedule to upload my content. I often feel like I’m falling behind, and as a result, I neglected the reading habit.
Since there are so many benefits for me reading books, I decided to focus on building up this habit for the rest of the year and next. I also want to use this article to share with you how I am going to build up this habit and stick to it. Hopefully you can apply some of the strategies to building your own habits.
The first thing I need to do is to have a specific goal. If I am saying, “I will read more books for the rest of the year…”, it is not specific. So I will say “I will read one book by next Sunday. It is a lot clearer. It is also important to say, "I'm going to do this," instead of saying, "I'm trying to do this." The latter does not show commitment and confidence.
The words that we use play a big part in our psychology. I think having that confidence from the get-go is really helpful to build up the habit.
Choose something that is not too easy or too challenging.
My first target to build my reading habit is to read one book by next Sunday which is 2 weeks. I think it is important not to create a goal that's too overwhelming or too easy. You need to find your own balance. If it's overwhelming, it creates unnecessary anxiety and stress and as a result, you might avoid the habit completely. If it’s too easy, say reading one book by next month, it will be too boring. So I thought about it and decided to give myself two weeks to read one book.
Read one book for two weeks
Design a plan
Next, design a plan. Give yourself a guide to follow. It's like opening your GPS and follow the route. Facing unforeseen circumstances is common. For example, meeting a traffic jam along the way and the GPS may suggest another route for you. The end point is still the same.
For my reading habit, I will design a reading plan for the next 3 months. I will pick 5 books for these 3 months and these 5 books will help to push me towards building the reading habit.
So the 5 books are
By planning ahead like this, it gives me less stress to come up with a book on the spot. I can change the order of the books or dig deeper if any topic inspires me. That’s totally fine with me. As I get closer to the 3 month mark, I will review and think about my next 5 books.
If your habit is healthy eating, you can put together a five day meal plan that you can follow. If you want to have regular workouts, you can plan a 5 day workout routine that you can follow every day.
Put it on your to-do list or add it to your calendar as a reminder to take action consistently. And while you've got your calendar open, take a look at any potential events that may cause you to fall off the wagon. These are going to be the periods where you have to plan ahead because they're going to be the moments when you're most likely to fail to build that habit.
Plan your tactics
The next part is to think of some tactics to make myself more successful. I've created a few ideas that will help me to read regularly. So here are my tactics…
First, have one book in hand when I am having my morning coffee. I have to set a timer for 20-30minutes depending on the schedule of the day to read. I am not allowed to surf my social media feeds during this reading time.
Next, I will put one book in my day pack so that I can take it to read when I commute via public transport. The number of pages that I read doesn’t matter. Even if it’s 10 pages, I am ok with it.
Next I will have one book beside my bed so that I can read before sleeping.
Another hack is to bring a book to the toilet if I am going to stay in there 20 minutes.
Don’t judge me please!
Create accountability
The last thing to really help me stick to this habit is to create accountability.
You can find an accountability partner like a workout buddy. You can join a running club or hire a gym instructor. You can also make a post to your own social circle online, on Instagram, to let people know what you're working on and what they can expect to see.
So for me, I am going to do two things. One is to produce a book review video on my YouTube channel in the next one month.
The other thing I am going to do is to do a sharing during the termly sharing. Termly sharing is a sharing platform in my organisation where staff can volunteer to share anything with other colleagues for 60 minutes. If you are not sharing then you have to sign up to attend any sharing that you are interested in.
So by planning for these two events to happen, I have to be accountable for them. In order to get them done, I need to READ!!!
Alright, that’s all from me sharing my plans to build up the habit of reading.
What habits are you trying to build and what are your plans to make it happen? Let me know in the comments section below.
I am excited to learn more from you.
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