Bill Gates reads around 50 books a year, Elon Musk read two books a day according to his brother. Whenever anyone asks him how he learned to build rockets, he says, ‘I read books’, Warren Buffett spends five to six hours a day reading, Mark Cuban reads for three hours every day. If people who have so much to do in a day find the time to read, I’m sure we can too. You don’t lose anything by picking up the habit of reading.

1. Picking a Regular Time to Read. Ideally some time that you have available every day of the week. This will be your hour, your 30-minutes, your little reading break. If you are starting, make at least 10 minutes a day and increase as days goes on.
2. Reading Every Day. “Every day or not at all.” This is something that is said a lot in regard to habit building. The reason for this is that just one day off can get you into old habits again and out of the roll you’ve been on. A famous quote says, “Habit miss once is a mistake, habit miss twice is a beginning of a new habit”.
3. Starting with Great Books. If you are looking at a question like this, you likely have a reading list. Start off with the best book on that list, the one that excites you the most, so you get that extra bit of motivation to start this habit.
4. Keeping it Effortless. The amount you read should be something that you can do even on a busy or bad day. There is no reason to go overboard right away. You can always increase the time later.
5. Having a Set Place to Read. Ideally a comfortable chair or couch, but a place where you do not sit for other reasons. If you do not have one, then at least turn your chair around. This small trick will link reading to a physical sensation that makes it much easier to get started.
6. Start Today. Do not wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow is a long, long, long way off. Everything begins today, there is no more time where you are heading if you did not preserve it today. Most people give excuses by saying, tomorrow I will do it and end up doing nothing. True commitment begins today.
7. Do not fret about a missed Day. It is not about how consistent you are with it but how many hits you get in in a certain timeframe. If you read 300 days out of the year with irregular breaks and no long chain, it will still be better than a single 100 day chain of reading days.
8. Read for You. Read because you enjoy it, because you love to learn or simply because it is a good habit to pick up for your life. Don’t read because someone just forced you to do so, do it with passion and for you own sake.

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