Recently I was having a conversation with my sister and she asked me how I read so much. Most of my family know that I'm a huge reader but none of them have really ever asked me how I read so many books until the other day.
This got me thinking.
I realised that I've never stopped and analysed how I got into reading so much myself, however when I finally thought about it turns out there is a method behind the madness and lot's of tips and tricks I've picked up over the years to read more books.
I shared this system with my sister and since then she has used this method and has already burned through 5 books, which is pretty neat considering she previously thought herself to be someone who hates reading!
Now I'm a reader, there's no doubt about that, in fact I love reading so much that it was a habit that I've actively pursued not only for myself but also my daughter.
She's in such a good habit of reading every night before bed that she cannot sleep without having read something.
So without further adieu lets dive straight into my I.C.T method which I use to read more than 50 books per year.
Identity
The I in the I.C.T method stands for identity.
Changing your habits requires a fundamental shift in identity and this applies to any habit not just the habit of reading.
In the book Psycho-Cybernetic, Dr Maltz refers to identity as the self-Image, but they are essentially the same thing.
He states that:
"The self-image (identity) is a premise, a base, or a foundation upon which your entire personality, your behaviour and even your circumstances are built...therefore all you actions, feelings, behaviours, even your abilities are always consistent with your self image"- Dr Maxwell Maltz
My sister has always identified as someone who hates reading, whenever I've spoken to her before and mentioned books that can help her in a situation she always says that she "doesn't like reading", "it's boring and time consuming" or "she'd rather watch a video instead".
If we analyse her statements, it all boils down to the fact that she didn't identify as a reader.
As she didn't have the identity or belief that she was a reader she didn't take the actions that lead to what a reader does i.e. read!
In Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about the 3 layers of behaviour change:
Behaviour change is like an onion, it includes:
- a change in identity
- a change in your processes
- a change in your outcomes
Identity is what you fundamentally believe about yourself.
Processes are what you do or the actions you take.
Outcomes are what you get as a result.
We can clearly see from the image that to effect our outcomes we must first change our identity.
To become a reader we must first instil the identity of a reader, this will then lead to actions and processes that align with that identity and eventually we will get the outcome attached to that identity.
It's very hard to maintain actions that do not align with your identity.
If you still identify as someone who doesn't like reading, or reading is boring you're less likely to go out of your way to take actions that are incongruent with that identity.
So to create a habit of reading it's important that you first identify as a reader, or someone who likes to read.
"True behaviour change is identity change...when your behaviour and your identity are fully aligned, you are no longer pursuing behaviour change. You are simply acting like the person you already believe yourself to be" - James Clear
So what if you identify as someone who doesn't like reading, how can you change your identity or self image to become a reader?
There are 2 steps to changing your identity:
- Decide the type of person you want to be.
- Prove it to yourself with small wins.
How this works for becoming a reader is that you would first decide that you want to become a reader and so what actions would a reader take? You then choose how much you would like to read?
Then you simply start to read. Every time you read a paragraph or page, you cast a vote for the identity of a reader.
As you read more and more this becomes a self fulfilling prophesy whereby you start to believe you are a reader and so read even more.
Eventually creating a habit of reading daily.
In the book Awaken The Giant Within, Tony Robbins shares that:
We all will act consistently with our views of who we truly are, whether that view is accurate or not. The reason is that one of the strongest forces in the human organism is the need for consistency"
This is known as the Galatea Effect where our own opinions about our ability and self-worth affect our performance.
The more we believe we can do something, the more likely we'll be able to do it.
Use the Galatea effect to your advantage by creating a feedback loop that slowly shifts your identity and turns you into a reader over time.
Create A System
The C in the I.C.T framework stands for "Create A System".
Now that you have set a goal to become a reader, put a number on the amount of books you would like to read per year, and you've started proving to yourself that you can read something without falling asleep or pulling your hair out!
Then what we need to do next is to create a system that you will follow every day to make reading a habit that you can stick to for the long term.
Goals that are not backed up by a system are pretty useless.
There is no point having a goal to read 52 books a year when you don't break that down to a simple (tiny) daily system that can be followed without friction.
Remember to make this small, as big drastic changes hardly ever last (trust me I've tried and made this habit forming mistake before!)
When referring to tiny changes Dr BJ Fogg, Author of Tiny Habits shares that:
"While small might not be sexy, it is successful and sustainable. When it comes to most life changes that people want to make, big bold moves actually don't work as well as small stealthy ones"
But first of all let me define the difference between a system and a goal.
In Atomic Habits, James clear explains the difference between a habit and a goal:
Goals are about the results you want to achieve, systems are about the processes that lead to those results. If you want better results then forget about setting goals, focus on your system instead...goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.
With this in mind, we need to first outline the GOAL, how many books do you want to read in the year?
Let's say you're just starting off so you don't want to be too ambitious, so you decide to choose to read 25 books per year.
That's still an impressive number of books, especially if you are someone who has not read a book for a while or read very rarely. Don't make your goal so big that instead of motivating you it scares you into inaction.
Then, you need to work backwards and break that goal down to create a system that you can follow along with, so pull that yearly goal into the present.
Let say the average book has 200 pages, if you times that by 25 books that give us 5000 pages, now if we divide that by 52 (for the number of pages per week) we will get around 96 pages/week.
We can then divide 96 by 6 to give us 16, so this is the number of pages you need to focus on reading per day (giving you 1 day to skip/rest).
This then forms your system.
Every day all you need to focus on is to read 16 pages of your book and you'll know that so long as you do that you will have read around 25 books by the end of the year by default.
Bear in mind though that this is just an estimate as some books may be shorter or longer and also some days you may get into the flow and read a lot more.
The point is to calculate the minimum effort required so that you know not to fall below that.
Now I know some of you may balk at the thought of reading 16 pages a day, especially if you are a slow reader and just starting out.
You don't have to read a physical book though, you can listen to it via Audible, get a summary of it from apps such as Blinkist, or even have a Kindle version where you can read on the go while commuting.
You can even take steps to improve your reading speed (to read more).
The other thing to understand is that any habit worth creating takes time and so no one expects you to start reading 16 pages right off the bat. You have full freedom to start with just 1 page, then slowly work your way up.
Sure you may read less books over the year but reading 1 page every day is much better than not reading at all.
Also referring to my first point, reading 1 page every day casts a vote in your favour to prove to yourself that you have the identity of someone who reads every day (even if its 1 page).
The consistency and repetition is the most important thing here.
Use Tabs
So let's move on to the T in the I.C.T method which is to use Tabs.
Now this is more of a concept as opposed to actual tabs, but you can use actual tabs too. The whole premise behind this step is to create some sort of visual representation of your system so that it becomes a no-brainer.
You need to make it extremely clear how many pages you need to get through every day.
For this step you can use physical tabs in the form of post it notes, by adding them in the book for every 16th page and tab it out that way.
All you need to work on is reading up to the next tab without having to count the 16 pages out each time.
The whole point of this step is to take the thinking out of the tasks you have identified as part of your system. We need to make reading a no-brainer, the less you have to use your brain power or energy the better. This reduces the friction and that's exactly what you want at the beginning stages of forming a habit.
The less decisions or choices you have to make the easier the task becomes. You can take the use of tabs even further by putting tabs on which books you will be reading and in what order.
Basically everything you are doing at this stage is to reduce the friction in actually following through with the system you have created.
If you are using a Kindle device then you can write down the range of pages you need to read through and tab it out that way, the great thing about Kindle is that they also give you a cool representation of your reading insights too, keeping you motivated and showing you your progress.
So there you have it, that's the basic I.C.T Framework I use to read 50+ books/year. Give it a go and let me know how it goes for you.