…and no, it’s not through viral “what to read instead” Instagram posts.

In my childhood home, my bed was by the window but not close to it. There was just enough space to walk to a closet by the window. Space where I would lie on my stomach every day to read.

That space is where I spent most of my time in the time I lived in this house.

Quiet summer afternoons, at night with my mom’s glaring hospital-grade white tube light on, early morning just after waking up but before even brushing my teeth.

I’d inhale almost one book a day and do nothing else. Obviously, being unemployed helped.

But even once I started working, I was an avid reader.

Until 2021 I used to read anywhere between 50 to 80 books in a year. This was on top of an already demanding full-time job. For the next 3 years, I’d not read for weeks on the end, worry that I was losing the muscle for a beloved childhood hobby, squeeze in 2-3 books, and stop again. Rinse and repeat.

It got a little better in 2025 but I also noticed one concerning issue: I was only finishing audiobooks. I could not get myself to read with my eyes anymore. I’d abandon books two chapters in if I had to read their physical copies but I could get through 2 audiobooks per week easily.

This is where the issue started becoming clear.

I read audiobooks at anywhere between 1.75x to 2x the speed, and almost always while doing something else, like reaching my step goal, at the gym, while cooking, and so on. My attention span was so fried that I could only stomach audio stimulation, that too while keeping myself busy with something mindless.

I was unfortunately in stage 4 of brain rot. Mindlessly scrolling had given me repeated stimulation with every swipe of my thumb.

…I heard it as soon as I said it.

Moving on.

Expecting my last remaining brain cells to get me to plant my behind in one place to generate my own stimulation with just one physical book was obviously challenging. There wasn’t a feed to do the work anymore. I had to do it myself.

Just saying “I want to read more” isn’t enough

And trust me, I tried.

What I actually needed was the practice and the rigor to actually implement my will when actual willpower alone was not enough.

Habit stacking

Let me start off by saying I have not read Atomic Habits or Tiny Habits or any other self-help book around fixing my life. I love me some non-fiction but self-help is something I cannot get into. But I do love reading long-form articles in general and I am very topic agnostic.

I don’t even remember when I stumbled across habit stacking but it’s a very cool premise you may unknowingly be doing even! At least I was but on a very small scale than I am now.

In habit stacking, you pick a current habit you already execute flawlessly and anchor the new habit you want to develop to it to make the second one a habit too.

Before/after <your existing habit>, I will read.

For me this looked like:

• After my strength training session, I will walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes while listening to an audiobook. (stacked two habits because ya girl’s an overachiever.)
• After dinner, I will read for a minimum of 30 minutes every day.
• Before I start work for the day, I will try to read for 30 minutes.

It actually is because of the damned phone.

Listen to your mother and get off the phone.

I stumbled across this one as well, thanks to my old iPhone 13’s dying battery. After work, I’d end up charging it for the night which meant I couldn’t doomscroll. Separating myself from my phone, especially by charging it in a different room, I was actually able to get more reading in.

Shame is a good motivator too.

…for some of us.

You are presumably more well-adjusted than me so you could skip this one. But shame and spite have been my top two motivating factors all my life.

I’d keep the book face up near my workstation all day so I know it’s judging me for not reading it.

And hey, don’t knock it until you try it. It actually works!

Use airplane mode or a dedicated e-reader

Or get your fancy iPad stolen while vacationing in Lille, France.

Oops.

That happened to me in December last year so I had to revert to my extremely old iPad mini from 2012. It is essentially just an e-reader because it is too slow to connect to any of my other apps. Which means I am not going to get distracted at all while reading.

Accept non-linear progress

(Re) Building a habit takes time! And it’s okay to fail on some days. Some reading is always better than no reading.

But please, for the love of God, drop all those Instagram carousels promising articles to read instead of doomscrolling. They are all designed to feed the algorithm, even if you ultimately do find interesting articles out of them.

Do not depend on some influencer to curate your reading for you and start finding these reads yourself, like you did when you were younger.

Your move

All of these helped me get my reading energy back, brick by brick. Of course just because these worked for me does not mean they will for everyone. But you need to start somewhere and find your rhythm. And hey, if you find some other habit that helps you, comment here to help the rest of us out?

Let’s all try to get our noses out of our screens and into some sniffable books, stat.