Everyone, especially teachers and educators nowadays, emphasizes how beneficial and relaxing reading can be. To be honest, they are absolutely correct. But wait, don’t close this tab just yet! Do you know that reading can decrease 68% of your stress within 6 minutes? It’s the most efficient way to relax! Reading can be more fun than you have ever imagined. Most people’s impression of books is that only introverts read them. That’s not true at all. Reading is actually a very exciting process that adventurous people do to satisfy their wanderlust. They give us a chance to become people we could never be, travel to places where we could never go, and explore things we could never experience, That was what literature was invented for—not just a way to record and pass on knowledge, but also an art of providing entertainment! Here’s what you can do to achieve a beneficial and relaxing reading habit.
Step #1 Read About Things You Love
Achieving a good reading habit doesn’t mean that you have to frighten yourself with War and Peace or The Sound and the Fury right away. To find motivation for reading, you have to read about something you care about first to create a positive impression on books for your subconsciousness. It’s doesn’t even have to be a book. You can read a magazine, a newspaper article, or even a blog post like this one… anything to start you off. So, if you are reading this, congratulations, you are already on your way.
Step #2 Find Initial Purpose & Ultimate Goal
When you have a certain destination in mind, you have a sense of which direction to head for; when you are clear on what you want, you have an idea of how you should get it. Everyone read for their own reasons. An inventor might read for news in scientific discoveries and trends, a newbie mom may read to seek experiential guidance and advice on how to educate her child, a designer might read to find inspirations in other people’s ideas… As for me, I read simply because reading is my interest and hobby. Be clear on what you want and think about how you’ll get it.
Step #3 Create a Customized Reading Plan
Aww, you gotta plan for something as simple as reading too!? Yes.
Whoa, don’t leave yet, please! Creating reading plans is actually very enjoyable, I swear! It’s actually one of the reasons why I personally enjoy reading so much. By creating a reading strategy according to your initial purpose and ultimate goal, you have this never-ending list of books on your reading plan, which just makes you so excited because you know you won’t run out of these new, fresh, juicy stories! Here, I’ll provide you a few creative ways to generate a reading plan. Don’t worry, it’s actually very simple and easy. Remember, just see this as playing around, because all I care about is for you to have fun during the process as I had!
Fun Reading Plan Generator (try to create your own, too!)
Here’s an example template of a reading plan generator. You match the selected month to a genre to read for that month. Try making one of your own using free online tools! If you want your generator to look pretty, use the design software Canva. Otherwise, you can just type on a regular document.
Goodreads
Goodreads is a very useful app of Amazon’s where you will “meet your next favorite book”. You can keep track of your reading progress, discover books, rate and write reviews, and set an annual reading goal for yourself! You can even create a to-read-list directly on Goodreads.
Truth or Dare! (Mostly Dare)
Playing Truth or Dare might just a bit too risky to be wise, but why don’t you and your friends dare each other to read? I mean, what could go wrong? (Okay, I take that back, T&Ds always go wrong.) If you really cannot come up with any ideas, let your friends do the thinking for you! Moreover, with your friends to supervise you, you have the public pressure to motivate you to complete your challenge.
Random Inspirer
All right! You’re the nomadic and explorative kind. Well, all you have to do is list down all of the books that you want to read, others recommend, or people around you are reading. Go ahead. You can skip through the list, and satisfyingly cross out a title on the list when you finished it!
Some Tips on Achieving a Reading Habit
Set a short-term, mid-term, and long-term goal. You can always revise them. (e.g. short-term=weekly; mid-term=monthly; long-term=annual)
Focus on your initial purpose and ultimate goal for motivation
Give yourself public pressure as another motivation to persist
See it as fun and relaxing; reading isn’t something you should stress about.
However fun reading is, remember, the key to achieving a reading habit is persistence
Happy reading!📚📖👓👍💕
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