This post is not strictly about reading, but about all types of positive behavior, one would like to incorporate into one’s daily routine. So far, I have succeeded in making three habits part of my day-to-day by just doing them for one minute a day. Playing the guitar, reading books, and studying Japanese. This is not any revolutionary method or anything. Rather, the idea is to make everything as simple as possible to pick up new, healthy habits.
Recently, I have often seen this referred to as Kaizen (Wikipedia) and I have heard many people talk about the success they have had employing this method.
Why only one minute?
The idea behind the one minute is to make it as easy as possible for myself to actually open up a book and read every single day. If I challenged myself to more, I would have a much harder time actually getting started and sometimes feel too lazy to actually read at all. But do not be fooled, one minute does not often stay one minute. I read about four books per month simply by making sure I read for a minute a day. This is possible because getting started can be the most difficult part of actually creating a habit. Once the book is opened up and I have started reading, it is much easier to just keep going.
Optional secondary goal
Since I want to complete about one book per week, I set my secondary goal at 1/6th of a book every day. But instead of forcing myself to do that much every day, I just make sure I read for one minute, and then just go from there. Spoiler: I hardly ever only read for one minute, since reading is actually quite fun once the book is in my hand. More often than not I complete this secondary goal. This may be demotivating for some but worked well for me so far.
Planting seeds
Doing a little bit every day can quickly grow into quite serious changes in lifestyle. Once I regularly occupy myself with something, I will think about that more and more often. It shapes my way of thinking and acting.
My father likes to call this “planting seeds”. I think this is a very fitting simile because the seeds of habits can quickly grow into a more complex and much larger organism than one might expect beforehand. Also, one habit often begets another and suddenly, one is on the path of improving multiple parts of one’s life.
Making it as easy as possible
Because I want to read for a minute a day, I make sure to take my e-reader or my phone with me when I go out, also helping me in cutting down on my time on social media (Why I limit my time on social media). This gives me as many easy opportunities to read as possible. Also, I created a nice reading area for myself that I enjoy sitting in. To make picking up a new habit easy, it is imperative to make the habit as pleasant and inviting as possible. This can include setting up a nice area to do so, creating a routine to do beforehand like making a nice cup of tea or putting on some music. This should not turn into a hurdle, but make it more likely for you to get started, so do not obsess over this and just do whatever works.
No days off
Yeah, that’s the big one. No days off allowed. Of course, it can be tricky to carry around a piano when on vacation, but just a minute of practicing the technique blind can help in keeping this going (I’ll be honest, this is something I really struggle with). But reading on my phone is easy. The same goes for doing a recap on vocabulary. But really, this is the big one. This is the reason we only commit to one minute and why we try to make everything as easy as possible.
The catch
Well, I wouldn’t really call this a catch, but one has to commit to it. Doing one minute a day for one day per week is not enough to form a habit. Three weeks should be a minimum time frame to set up a habit. When I want to create a new habit I always commit for at least three weeks (usually more) to make sure they have a chance of actually sticking.
Conclusion
Obviously, this is not a revolutionary method or really anything new at all. These are just my experiences and how I succeeded in making some of the changes I wanted to see. The results were not immediate, but in hindsight, I am impressed by how quickly just a little bit of effort every day added up.
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