How I Read a Book a Week in 2019 (And How you Can in 2020)

I didn't have any New Year's resolutions in 2019 but I did have a goal for myself which is to read a book a week for the entire year it's now the end of April and in this video I'm gonna look back on the books I've read and how it's impacted me this is me in April trying to make this video at this point I was unsure if I could keep up with reading at this volume so I had to decided to make several monthly update videos throughout the year updating my progress to say the least I was a bit doubtful at the beginning of the year reading a book a week sounded like an impossible challenge to keep up with but somehow I did it this wasn't just one of those New Year's resolutions that fills it out after a month reading became an essential part of my dearie rituals and I committed myself completely to this new habit that's how in 2019 I read a book a week [Music] with all the things I could have focused on in 2019 why books they're quite a time equipment to read they're not cheap and they're not very easy to carry why did I do this to myself the truth is I enjoy reading I think this is true for just about everyone but in middle in grade school I was an avid reader I think because of the amount of time we got at school and the amount of incentives that were available to those who read all the time I think that really motivated me and a lot of other kids my age to read at that time but then when high school came all of that time vanished and so did my reading habit I can blame school but really it's my own fault because I haven't made time for reading in my life for me the act of reading is enjoyable it's just that sitting down to read is the hardest part compared thirty minutes on my phone to thirty minutes reading I think I would always pick up thirty minutes on my phone because whether I'm reading the news or watching YouTube or using social media or playing a game no matter what I do it has more stimuli and therefore it feels more productive than reading in truth though neither of them are inherently productive they're both leisure activities however I found myself gravitating away from reading just because it felt boring in the time we are so inundated by digital content I decided I had to prove that I could find time for books that's why when 2018 was coming to a close I decided to reprioritize reading my goal was daunting at first but a few simple techniques made it a lot easier the first thing I did is I made a bullet journal spread for tracking my reading the first day of 2019 was a Tuesday so what I did is I made a chart and wrote down the dates of every single Tuesday this chart allowed me to take a quick glance and see if I'm ahead or behind the bullet journal spread helped but I think the single most important step that I took toward reprioritizing reading was just using my time differently it's unrealistic to think that just because I want to start a reading habit I can add more time to my day my day was already filled so something had to be replaced so I could have a reading habit something that I use all the time but gives me very little value something I wouldn't feel bad about replacing something hmm I know I hate on social media a lot but that's not the only thing that I feel wasting my time personally I think when I spend a lot of time on Google News or any game in my phone or Amazon shopping looking at my dream death set up I think all of that is not inherently bad but in high volumes and frequently it's just a waste of my time I found that all of the small bricks throughout my day really added up car rides haircuts passing periods all of that time that could be time that I could use for something other than staring at my phone mindlessly over time I actually found that a majority of my time spent reading didn't come from hours long sessions with a book they actually came from these ten to fifteen minute in between periods between larger events in my life here's some very basic math if I spent 30 minutes a day on my phone doing something that is classified as wasting time I would have spent a hundred and eighty 2.5 hours in a year I would say I read the average book in about eight hours so divide 182 point five by eight that means in the span of a year if I had replaced my social media time with reading I would have read twenty three books which is almost half of my goal of reading a book a week every single wife's I'll change I've made this year can all be attributed to books books like the power of habit or essentialism or when or various self-help and nonfiction books have completely changed my lifestyle and all of that change has just come from my reorganization of my time so obviously everyone has very different schedules and it can be unrealistic to think that you have this much time to replace with reading it can also be unrealistic to think that you can just start reading at a high value but I do think no matter who you are and what schedule you have it is possible that there is some time in your day being wasted that could be reprioritized I think about myself a week or a month or a year or maybe even a decade from now what am I going to remember am I gonna remember how much time I spent on Instagram or or Google News or am I gonna remember reading the power of habit and how that completely changed my lifestyle personally I think what I learned from a book is much more valuable than what I'll get from 10 minutes on my phone that information from both will remain important to me and stick with me and influence my future self much more than 30 minutes on social media or the news will this is another personal opinion of mine but I also prefer books to YouTube videos or podcasts just because of the sheer depth they can go into a 10 minute YouTube video or a 50 minute podcast is not going to teach me what a 400 page book will the sheer depth and detail of a book it's infinitely more valuable to me than the little tidbits of information that I'm overrun with when I use my phone for 10 minutes as with any new habit you can't start all at once so if you're interested in reading I do have a few tips to help you start a reading habit and remain consistent the first to set your goals very low and by low I mean so low that it's impossible not to complete them this can be anything and it's all subjective to you but I would say like 10 pages a day or a chapter a day something like that where it's impossible for you to not find 10 minutes to complete that this way you'll force yourself to stay consistent because it'll be embarrassing to not even be able to read one or two or three pages a day after a few weeks of being consistent with this you can gradually increase and then over time that habit of reading will build and build and eventually you'll be reading a higher value the next one might seem obvious but pick books you like it's already hard enough trying to build a new habit and forcing yourself to read a big beefy boring book about something you don't care about makes it even harder if you read something you're interested in you'll want to read and that want will make you keep reading and eventually you'll be reading at a very high value no matter what your interests might be I think it's important to follow them at the beginning and then eventually you can branch out and explore other genres and don't be afraid to completely get rid of a book if you absolutely hate it this one is a personal preference but I don't buy books I think that a lot of people get optimistic when they're at Barnes & Noble and they buy a lot of books they all just get put somewhere this means that when you go to start reading you see and you just feel a little bit defeat it because you have all these books to read that you haven't even started yet to be fair I do own some books but I'm very intentional with my purchases and only buy books that I think will inspire me to read personally I prefer to use the Kindle Store or the online library to get digital loans they don't have every single book available but they have most of the ones I want and this way I can always have a book on me on my phone or on my Kindle I think the most important thing to begin a reading habit is to make reading accessible at all times this is why the Kindle app or a Kindle or just keeping a book in the car or with you at all times makes it easy to read when you find that little bit of miscellaneous time it might not seem like much at first but eventually this time will add up and you'll be reading at a volume that you didn't even think was possible with the schedule we have going into the new decade a lot of people are going to be starting new habits and I think that of all of the habits that I have started this year reading is probably the most underrated even with all of the other ways to consume information in this age reading just makes you slow down and focus I would say that my reading experiment in 2019 really paid off I've read fifty-two books this year and I've learned things in countless different subjects I'll definitely be doing something similar to this next year not sure if I'm going to be reading a book a week still or if I'm gonna try to increase the volume and challenge myself but I think reading is definitely one of the most valuable habits that I could have at this age so I encourage anyone watching this video to give it a try also as I mentioned I did read fifty-two books this year so plan on some more reading content coming your way in the future also if you're interested on seeing a full list of all the books I've read this year click on the link in the description thanks for watching and I will see you next year

Channel: Zander Betterton

Views: 6,761

Rating: 4.9358287 out of 5

Keywords: how to read more books in less time, how to read more books, how to read more books in a month, how i read 100 books a year, read a book a week, how many books did i read in 2019, read more books, how to read more books in a year, read more in 2020, how to read a book fast, how to read a book a week, how to read a book, a book a week, how to read faster, reading a book a week, a book a week challenge, how to speed read, reading a book a week is changing my life

Id: Yg61LVh4U8w

Length: 9min 32sec (572 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 31 2019