If you know me, you know that I am a huge bookwork. We’re halfway through the year and I’ve already read almost forty books. There was a point in my life where reading this many books wasn’t possible. This time being high school. I went to a college-level STEM high school, which was genuinely harder than actual college, so I had no time to read.
In my freshman year of college, I decided to change that. Within the first semester, I had managed to finish 4-7 books per month. I created this amazing habit at a time most college students are just getting the hang of things. Whenever the bookworm side of me comes out during conversations, people always respond, “I just don’t have time to read.” Here are my tips on how to do just that.
1.//Decide To Read More Books
This seems like the simplest step ever, but it’s kind of the hardest. Before you take action on anything, you have to set a goal. Don’t waste time wishing you could read more. Make a decision. Even if it’s an easy one.
At the beginning of this year, the thought of finishing forty books seemed like a daunting goal. In fact, if you go back and read New Years Goals post from the beginning of this year, you’ll see that my goal was to read 12 new books this year. One book per month. That seemed like a doable goal at the time, and it was. Start with doable and go from there. Make the decision to finish one book. The rest will follow if you keep taking action.
2.//Make A List of Books You Want To Read
This will help you keep taking action. Keep a running list written down in a notebook, so you’ll never run out of books to read. This happened to me once last year and I lost my motivation to start new books. It’s easier to break a habit than to start one, so ask friends for recommendations, find lists online, read book blogs…make sure that you never run out of things to read. Because once you do, you’ll lose your momentum.
3.//Keep A Pile Of Books To Read In Your Room
The next step is to get access to the books on your list. Borrow books from the library or from friends. Keep a giant pile of books in your room so that you can start a new book once you’ve finished the previous one. This is easily the biggest reason why I’ve read so much lately. Whenever I’m bored and have nothing else to do, there’s this big pile of books that I can start reading.
But let’s be real, that’s not motivating enough. For a lot of people, it’s the most guilt-inducing image ever. “Look, there’s a giant pile of books that I should read, but instead, I’m on my phone watching YouTube videos (that I’m not really that interested in) to pass time.” That’s a terrible feeling.
Well, my friends, I have found the solution. Due dates. I get most of my books from the library and all of those books have due dates. This means that I have a limited amount of time to finish said books. Having those due dates forces me to read all the books on my list in a timely matter.
4.//Set Aside Time To Read
In middle school, I read a book every night before I went to sleep. It was such a great habit that seems almost impossible in college. I spend most nights studying and doing homework. Once I’m done, I usually go to sleep or watch T.V. (Though, I do read short stories on my Kindle at night). After understanding my daily rhythms, I chose times that best suited me for reading. Here are some ideas for you.
- During Your Commute
- Before You Go To Sleep
- During Your Lunch Break
- In Between Class
- Listen To Audiobooks In The Car
Since I was a commuter, I spent a lot of time in the car or on the train. I chose those stretches of time as my designated reading….time (I can’t find another word). Whenever I was driving, I would listen to audiobooks that I borrowed from the library and read books on the train. That was 1-2 hours of reading every weekday and I have kept that schedule for the last two years.
Since I’ll be living on campus next year, I’ll need to find another designated reading time. Hopefully, I won’t fall out of this habit.
Photo Credit: Cindy Sanders
5.//Keep Track Of All The Books You Read
I’ve never been one to track all the books I read. Normally, I just finish a book and move on to the next one. A lot of my friends count how many books they read per year, so this year, I decided to keep track too.
Goodreads is a good platform for tracking books. It’s basically social media for readers, but if you know me at all, you know I suck at social media and I never log in the books I’ve read on time, so that platform isn’t useful for me. I still recommend you try it if you’re interested. My friends really love it.
I’m old school, so I like lists written down in notebooks. The goal planner I bought for 2018 links a bunch of free worksheets. There was a sheet for reading that I’ll link below. There’s are two sections: “Books I Want To Read” and “Books I Have Read This Year.” After I finish a book, I check it off my list if I haven’t read it before on the top half and list all the books I have read (even if I’ve reread them) in the bottom half. I’ve already started on a second sheet after finishing the first one.
There’s power in writing things down and keeping track of how many books you’ve read will help you notice your progress. Every time I reach a 10, 20, 30… milestone, seeing that number motivates me to read more books and make that number higher.
(Here’s A Link To The Reading Tracker I Use With My Powersheets Goal Planner)
6.//Make Reading Easy
The reason I’ve been able to read so much in college is that I’ve made it easy. Instead of letting the time I spend driving pass me by, I turn on audiobooks in the background. That is an example of how I use my time more efficiently, but that’s not what I mean about easy.
Time isn’t really our best excuse for not reading in college. We have plenty of opportunities to read books, but we prefer to watch movies and YouTube videos. Those two activities are convenient and if you get bored, you can move on to the next piece of entertainment without finishing the previous one.
People don’t treat books this way. We feel that leaving a book unfinished is a personal failure and have trouble starting new books when we haven’t finished the previous one. Let me give you permission. If you don’t like the book, stop reading it. I personally love the book Lord Of The Flies (I’ve read it multiple times), but I would easily admit that it is not most people’s cup of tea. When I love a book, I can finish it within a day, but when I don’t enjoy one, I can spend up to two weeks reading it little by little.
Here’s another way to make reading easier: Change your idea of what a “Real” book is. Earlier this year, I finished a graphic novel series based on my favorite T.V. show (Avatar The Last Airbender). A few years ago, I wouldn’t have counted graphic novels on my “Books I’ve Read” list because I never considered them to be as legitimate longer chapter books. A close friend of mine really wanted to start reading more classic books because she hadn’t read a lot of them and it seemed like a more “adult” reading genre. Well, it turns out that she does not enjoy classic books at all, but it took her awhile to quit that goal.
Creating a lifelong reading habit shouldn’t be about being impressive to other people. It should be about bettering ourselves by doing something we enjoy.
7.//Just Start
This is honestly my tip for every type of goal whether you want to work out more or start a blog. Just take the tiniest first step. Grab a book and finish the first page. Then finish the second. Then the third. Eventually, you will have finished the book. Right after you read this post, I want you to pick up a book you’ve been meaning to read and read the first few pages. If you reach page 50 and don’t like the book, I encourage you to stop because odds are that you won’t enjoy the rest of the book anyway. But at least you will have taken that first step. Hopefully, that won’t happen, but you never know.
Just start one book.
And try to finish it.
I hope this post has inspired you to start reading more. We college students have a tendency to make excuses for doing the bare minimum (whether it’s not reading or skipping workouts). I think that we can all find time to read more often, even if it’s not a crazy number like reading 40 books in six months.
On another note, I haven’t posted in two weeks! Let’s pretend it was my Christmas break because I didn’t post the week before or after Rojar Eid which is the celebration after Ramadan. It was a lot of fun and my cousins came from New York to celebrate with us.
That’s not the reason why I hadn’t posted. I just haven’t felt like writing recently (Even my mom noticed that I haven’t blogged much and she doesn’t even read my blog.) I will attempt to get back on a schedule this week, but I’m sure you all have already lost faith in me, so I will understand your surprise when you get a new post. Until next time!
What are your tips to start reading more in college? What are your favorite books? What books did you absolutely hate and couldn’t be bothered to finish?