Atomic “Reading” Habits
Like Tesco. Every Little Helps
I shared my “2023 in books” LinkedIn post in December 2023, and ever since many connections have asked me how I managed to do that. 13 books is actually much lower than what I manage to read in a regular year. But I was doing something more important in 2023 - I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in April, and was keeping her (and myself) alive for the rest of it. So how do I make the time to read, many of you have asked.
⛔️ I DON’T make the time to read
Picture a woman curled up in a comfy chair, with a warm cup of tea in one hand and a book in another. As much as I love the idea, who has the time for that 😭. With a full time job, and two fuller-time children, I’m in a season of life where I am simply unable to prioritize large chunks of reading time like that.
I don’t make the time to read, it feels more appropriate to say I STEAL the time. I steal every two minute interval I can find through the day to read. Waiting in line at a grocery store? Read a page. Feeding the baby in the middle of the night? Read a page. Waiting for all attendees to join a Zoom work meeting? Read a page. I call this “Atomic reading”, a name inspired by James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits” (which is one of the books that changed the course of my life - a topic for another blog).
⭐️ Actionable tip: Utilize the little breaks in your day to make a tiny amount of reading progress. It all adds up.
📲 I Leverage Technology
I love the feeling of reading from a physical book, but I’m very unlikely to get any reading done if I insist on it. Reading on my Kindle, and very often on my phone’s Kindle app has really enabled my reading habits. I have simply replaced scrolling on my phone with reading.
⭐️ Actionable tip: Use an e-reader device or an app on your phone to read, to make reading accessible to you at all times of your day.
Which brings me to how…
😵💫 I got over my scrolling addiction
I always knew I scrolled LinkedIn and YouTube too much, but once the iPhone started reporting my screen time, I was appalled at how much of my life I was wasting online. I am almost too embarrassed to admit that I used to scroll randomly on my phone for 3+ hours a day. That is almost an entire day per week. Think about how many books you could read if you had 52 extra days a year! I took the following steps to get over this super-wasteful habit:
Read the books Digital Minimalism and How to Break Up With Your Phone in 30 Days (reading books to help read more books - very meta, I know)
Installed the One Sec app - this app is worth its weight in gold. It simply adds a few barriers to opening the apps you choose to reduce using, and it makes a WORLD of difference.
⭐️ Actionable tip: Take the next 10 minutes of your life to install and set up the One Sec app. The free version is good enough. You can thank me later.
I love reading, it’s a part of who I am. It helps me learn new things, opens my mind to new ideas, and motivates me to do better. I firmly believe that:
If something is enough of a priority for you, you will find a way to fit it in your life.
May you find your something ❤️.
Haha I’m in a similar situation as you in 2023. I had a baby on December and after watching 2 series with 7 seasons, multiple movies and finishing Harry Potter game, I decided to set goals and spend the time meeting them, which included reading books instead of watching series only.
I already read 3 and I am finishing other 2, and I feel much better. I also noticed reading physical books is much harder. I read the physical one at the playground or waiting rooms and the other two with Audible. Something that delays my reading/listening time is that I summarize what I read in Obsidian or sticky notes.