By Leo Babauta
I’m pleased to announce our new challenge for this month: the Daily Reading Challenge!
I hope you’ll join me, because I’ll be reading my ass off.
Why are we doing this challenge? Because as we might have discovered during our decluttering challenge, many of us have a pile of books we want to read. And the pile is just growing larger each month. So I propose that we do something about it: finally set aside some time for reading.
How much time? Here are some guidelines:
- If you don’t read at all at the moment, set aside just 15-20 minutes a day.
- If you read a bit but not consistently, set aside 30 minutes a day.
- If you are already a voracious reader, try 45-60 minutes as a morning practice. Feel free to continue to read the rest of the day as normal.
I recommend a daily time goal (rather than a page goal), because I’ve found it works best. Pages can take a varying amount of time to read, so it’s not very consistent.
What should you read? Books — fiction or non-fiction. Don’t count magazine articles or online reading like blogs and news sites. Make a reading list of books you want to read, and aim to tackle the books at the top of the list. Ideally, you’ll continue this reading habit beyond this month, so you’ll tackled all the books on your list!
When should you read? I recommend the morning. Set aside your reading time earlier in the morning (not earlier than you normally wake up, though you can wake 15 minutes earlier each week if you feel like it), and don’t forget to set a reminder.
I’ll share an article each week or so to help you get the most out of the reading challenge. And we’ll do a weekly check-in.
Let’s start on Monday. Or whenever you’re ready, just dive in.