How to build a sustainable reading habit in just ten pages a day

Posted on by J.J. Hamilton

We seem to have this weird fascination with reading. It’s a wonderful habit which catapults us to another plain of existence whenever we allow ourselves to be carried away by a good book.

It’s also strangely revered. If I told you that I spent 6 hours reading a book on a lazy Sunday afternoon while the rain falls down, you’d probably praise me. How lovely! You’d say. What a wonderful way to spend your day!

But if I admitted to spending 6 hours or more sat in front of a screen playing video games, everybody would lose their minds. That is in spite of the idea that lots of video games are story-based. Just like a good book, you could be fascinated by the next Uncharted or The Last of Us for hours on-end, captivated by a compelling story. And yet, spending half a day absorbing the latest game in a series is frowned upon.

I’d go so far as to say that people actively judge others for indulging in this habit too much. Reading is different. Nobody would judge you for wanting to read more. Not only is it a great way to wind down in the evenings, and therefore a wonderful addition to your nighttime routine, but it’s also useful for improving your ability to actively recall information. The more we read, the more we remember.

However, setting ambitious annual targets more often than not leads to failure and reading slumps. I’ve figured out how to build a more sustainable reading habits by setting micro-goals and stacking habits to get in just ten (or more!) pages per day.

Here’s how.

When it comes to reading more, define everything

If we’re going to be really intentional about this new habit, we need to be as clear on its parameters as possible. So, why ten pages?

Well, if you set a more lofty goal, like fifty, and one day you run out of time before going to bed, you’ll feel like a failure. You’ll feel like there’s no point in even trying, so you probably won’t read anything at all. Instead, you’ll read something a lot more accessible, like your phone, and then doom scroll for half an hour later than you’d intended to go to bed.

Sound familiar?

Great, so, just ten pages is all you need to succeed. If you read more, brilliant! The average person’s reading speed is 300 words per minute, meaning that it will take just under 17 minutes to read that much – so reading more is definitely possible but not guaranteed. In comparison, fifty pages would take the average person over an hour.

Not everyone’s got that much time.

Next, define timings. When are you going to implement this new habit? Before or after work? On a lunch break? Are you going to read for 8-and-a-half minutes when you wake up and before hitting the hay?

It’s important that you know this so that you can actively make time for reading. That’s not to say that you can’t indulge in this habit outside of those times, but you must stick with your plans if you want to make the habit more sustainable.

Finally, consider where you’ll read. Will it be in the office or your bed? On the sofa or in the garden? On the balcony, if you have one? By defining that core space for reading, you’ll start to associate it with your new habit, and you might even feel compelled to grab your book whenever you enter that room or sit in that spot.

Why micro-goals for reading works

Setting small, clearly defined micro-goals for reading makes the task a lot more manageable. It no longer feels like this massive, insurmountable task, and instead something that you’ll actually enjoy doing.

Plus, look at it this way: ten pages a day becomes seventy pages a week. Seventy pages a week will turn into 280 pages a month – or roughly a new book every four weeks. In a year, you’ll have read twelve books – after starting from just ten pages.

Once you’re comfortable with that figure and find yourself reading faster? Double it: twenty pages a day. Suddenly, you’re hitting 24 books per year, which is the maximum average for users on Goodreads who, like me, set themselves a challenge to read so many books per year.

How have you conquered your ‘to be read’ pile? Any strategies I should know? Let me know in the comments below.

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