About This Episode

If you know how to read, then reading books is easy. You simply have to make time to read. But you know, it’s easier said than done, of course. When I look at my own reading habit lately, I can be honest that it’s not getting that good. Listen to this episode to know how I’m making adjustments so I can read more book and finish this year strong!

For the last few months, I guess. I started to find out that I had been neglecting on spending time to read books, which honestly when I was back in Japan, it came easily for me because, you know, my life was a bit more predictable and discipline when I was doing my Ph.D., but when now I’m working alone. I mean, yeah, starting a business. There are so many other things to do. And reading a book becomes the last thing for me to think about. So that comes to the fact that …

Reading a book should not be my last priority every day.

And actually, it’s the first thing that I’m trying to do every day. Therefore these days, I try to at least have some time to read on my Kindle. Or listen to the Audible probably while doing other things, so that I can progress on the books I’m reading.

To be honest, it’s not easy to make time these days when the kids are at home, and I don’t want to be not present for them. I like to really be present for them and try to focus on whatever they need. I have one kid in primary school and two kids in kindergarten and nursery. The reality is that they still need our help so they are my most priority.

Reading more books every year is something I want to achieve.

How can I do this?

One of the things that I know, I could make progress, and it’s not like achieving to read like 30, 40 or 100 books a year, but every year at least I have spent one book per month to really read and learn something so that I can be really confident to say that,

“This year I have gone through life and that has been challenging for me, but you see, I have also read all of these books. And I learned a lot too”.

I’m not the kind of person are really reactive whenever we see viral thing popping on, and feel the need to click them immediately. I know that if I started to click on those things I would lose a lot of my time and my time is too valuable to be randomly reading all these things that I don’t know whether it is worth reading or not.

I try to not click anything. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I don’t want to learn from other people, but I am trying to choose what I put into my mind.

It is important to be really mindful about what goes into your mind.

Now I spend maybe 30 minutes in the morning when the kids are not up yet, or maybe they have gone to their nursery or kindergarten, and it’s not time for me to start work yet. I quickly just grabbed my Kindle and timed myself 15 to 30 minutes and really just continue to read whatever I’m reading that week.

But when that doesn’t happen because I’m just too busy with other things that I want to do and get started with my work, I always listen to audiobooks in the evening. What I have been using is Audible, so that’s audible.com, and I really like their system because if we purchase something from them we can return it back if we don’t like it.

Create your own library

For example, if you do not like the content at the end of the book or it doesn’t sound right or whatever, you can return it. So it’s like your library. I have been using it for quite a long time. I also have downloaded some books that I found in the middle of it. I think it’s just like…

The way that the author wrote in their book doesn’t click with my style. Sometimes I don’t finish those kinds of books. And I returned that back and changed with some other that suits me better. There are so many authors that write on a similar topic, but you have to find the one that really suits your style and your needs.

Find books that suit your soul

For example, some productivity strategies are given by men in the corporate world whatsoever, so it just doesn’t click with me sometimes. I try to learn from them too, but if it just, does not apply to my lifestyle, I can decide to continue to learning something from it, or maybe just stop altogether and find another great book for me to consume.

That is me, being honest on how I learned. Being picky about how you consume, the input that goes into your mind is really important these days,

Keep a book wish list.

I have always had a wish list of what’s the next book that I want to read. For example, if I’m reading a great book and really enjoyed them. I look at what are the references that they’re referring to.

At the back of your book, you have these references, bibliography, and whatnot, right. Look at that and go through what are some of the interesting topics and interesting titles that the author that you’re reading referred to. So, you can maybe use that as a guide for your next great read.

Strengthen whatever knowledge that you are trying to acquire.

Instead of just mindlessly walking into a bookstore and trying to find a great book for yourself, you actually have to be picky and strategize about what kind of book that you want to read because there’s a lot of it. There’s a lot of information and knowledge that is available easily around us nowadays.

You have to be concerned about what you want to achieve. What kind of knowledge, what kind of skills, right?

After all, anything is better than none

But, at the end of the day, anything is better than nothing, right? So if you kind of doesn’t know what’s your next good read will be, you can just go to the bookstore and see whatever the bestsellers are, right? That would be okay, too.

The tip I gave you in this post is a bit of an advanced technique. The way I do it is not just simply picking whatever random book at the top of the shelf in the bookstore.

Instead of doing that, I dig deep into the best sellers in the topic that I like to explore more and then look at the references of the first book you have picked up. You’ll most likely find a book that matches what’s, you’re needing right now because you are being picky about that.

That’s my tip on choosing and making reading your habit.

You need to start developing your reading habit because it’s an investment of your time and nothing is more important than your self-development. And one of the ways to do it is, of course, reading a book.

Remember every day before you move on to the normal hustle of your day, invest in yourself before your life turns into a hectic activity.

Read a book that will make you feel better, as with most habits, greatly impact your life. These will never feel urgent, but it is important, so do it now.

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