How to Build a Reading Habit: 8 Steps to Read More Books
You don't need more time. You need a fixed slot, a book you want to read and a phone that's out of reach.
Key takeaways
- Read a small, fixed amount every day, like 10 minutes or five pages, right after something you already do.
- At an average adult reading speed, 10 minutes a day adds up to roughly a book a month.
- Choose books you want to read, keep the next one ready, and quit the ones that feel like a chore.
- Keep the book in sight and the phone out of reach while you read.
- Count the days you read, not the pages; new habits took 66 days on average to feel automatic in one study, with a wide range.
To build a reading habit, read a small, fixed amount, like 10 minutes or five pages, at the same moment every day, right after something you already do. Keep the book where you'll see it and your phone where you won't. Choose a book you actually want to read, count the days you read rather than the pages, and let the amount grow on its own. Ten minutes a day adds up to more books than most people expect.
Most people who want to read more don't lack time. They lack a slot. Reading competes with a phone that's always closer, louder and easier to pick up. A reading habit gives books a fixed place in your day, before the phone gets a say.
What 5 to 30 minutes a day adds up to
| Minutes a day | Words a year | Books a year |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | About 456,000 | About 6 |
| 10 | About 913,000 | About 11 |
| 15 | About 1.4 million | About 17 |
| 20 | About 1.8 million | About 23 |
| 30 | About 2.7 million | About 34 |
The math uses 250 words a minute, between the average adult silent reading speeds for nonfiction (238) and fiction (260) found in a 2019 analysis of 190 studies by Marc Brysbaert, and a book of 80,000 words. Real life is slower: you'll miss days, reread passages and pick up longer books. Halve every number and the point still stands. Small daily amounts add up.
Why most reading habits fail
- No fixed time. "I'll read when I have time" means reading competes with everything else, and loses.
- The wrong book. A book you think you should read gets put down. A book you want to read gets picked up.
- Goals that are too big. "52 books this year" turns a pleasure into a quota.
- The phone is closer than the book. When you have five free minutes, the nearest object wins.
How to build a reading habit in 8 steps
Choose a book you want to read
Not the classic you feel you should finish, but the one you'd take on holiday. Momentum matters more than ambition at the start. Fiction, memoir, a book about your hobby: anything that makes you want to turn the page.
Start smaller than you think
Ten minutes or five pages a day. Small enough for your worst day, which is exactly the day a habit is made or broken. On good days you'll read more without trying.
Anchor it to a daily moment
Pick a moment that already happens every day: your morning coffee, the train ride, getting into bed. Then use the formula "After I [current habit], I read." This is habit stacking, and it means reading no longer depends on remembering.
Keep the book in sight
Put the book where your anchor happens: on the kitchen table, on your pillow, in your bag. If you have to search for it, you won't start.
Move the phone out of reach
The phone is reading's biggest competitor. Leave it in another room while you read, or block distracting apps until you finish a habit. Our guide on how to focus explains why even a silent phone nearby pulls at your attention.
Always have the next book ready
The gap between books is where reading habits quietly die. Keep a short list of what's next, and get the next book onto your shelf before you finish the current one.
Give yourself permission to quit
If a book feels like a chore after 50 pages, put it down and start another. Forcing your way through a book you dislike teaches you that reading is a chore. Your habit is reading, not finishing.
Track days, not pages
Mark each day you read, even if it was one page. And expect it to take a while before reading feels automatic: in a 2010 study at University College London, new daily habits took 66 days on average to become automatic, with individual times ranging from 18 to 254 days. There's more on that in how long it takes to form a habit.
How many pages should you read a day?
For building the habit, five to ten pages is plenty. Pages vary a lot between books, since a page of a fast thriller goes by much quicker than a page of dense history, so minutes are often the more honest unit. Pick whichever unit feels easier to hit, then hold it steady for a few weeks before you raise it. Raising the target too early is an easy way to turn a pleasant habit back into a chore. And keep a one-page minimum for the days that go wrong: one page still counts as a day.
Is it better to read in the morning or before bed?
Both work, so pick the slot you can protect. Morning reading fits naturally into a morning routine, with your coffee and before your phone. Reading in bed is a classic last step of an evening routine. If you read at night, a printed book is the safer choice: in a small 2015 lab study, people who read on a light-emitting tablet before bed took longer to fall asleep and were less alert the next morning than when they read a printed book.
Do audiobooks count?
If your goal is to spend more time with books, yes. Audiobooks fit into commutes, walks and chores where a paper book can't. Many people use both: an audiobook on the go and a paper book at home. For the daily habit, though, keep one fixed reading moment, so the habit has an anchor that doesn't depend on your commute.
Should you try speed reading?
Probably not. A 2016 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest by Keith Rayner and colleagues found a trade-off between speed and understanding: reading much faster than normal means understanding and remembering less. What does make you faster over time is reading a lot. Your daily habit is the speed-reading course.
Set time goals, not book counts
Yearly book goals are popular, and they can backfire. A count rewards short books, makes long ones feel like a threat to your number, and turns a slow month into a failure you can see. A daily time goal does the opposite: it rewards showing up, whatever you happen to be reading. If you enjoy a yearly number, track it quietly in the background and let the daily slot be the real goal.
Worked example: Nadia gets back into reading
Worked example
Nadia, a fictional example, read constantly as a teenager but hadn't finished a book in three years. Her evenings ended with an hour of short videos. Here's how she rebuilt the habit:
- Week 1She picks a thriller a friend loved, not the prize-winning novel on her shelf. After brushing her teeth, she reads five pages in bed.
- Week 2Her phone now charges in the hallway. Without it, five pages often turns into twenty.
- Week 3She adds a second, smaller slot: ten minutes with her morning coffee.
- Week 6She finishes her second book and already has the third on her nightstand.
She didn't find more time. She moved reading in front of the phone.
In Greatr, reading is a habit you can add to any routine. You pick the book you're reading, run a timer and log your pages, and the social apps you choose stay locked until you finish your routine, so a morning book can come before the feed.
How to get back into reading after a slump
- Reread a favorite. A book you already loved takes away all the risk.
- Go shorter. Short stories, novellas and essays give you a finish line within days.
- Change format. If paper feels heavy, try an e-reader or an audiobook for a while.
- Lower the bar to one page. One page a day keeps the habit alive until the appetite comes back.
- Read what you'd watch. If you love crime series, read crime. Interest beats intention.
Reading more isn't about willpower or speed. It's a slot, a book you want and a phone in another room. Start with five pages tonight.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages should I read a day to build a habit?
Start with five pages or 10 minutes, small enough for your worst day. The number matters less than reading at the same moment every day. On good days you will often read more without trying. Once the habit feels automatic you can raise the target, but keep a one-page minimum for busy days.
How can I read more books?
Give reading a fixed daily slot, tied to something you already do, like your morning coffee or getting into bed. Choose books you actually want to read, keep the next one ready, and put your phone in another room while you read. Small amounts add up: at an average reading speed, 10 minutes a day is roughly a book a month.
Is it better to read in the morning or at night?
Both work, so choose the slot you can protect every day. Morning reading fits well with coffee and before your phone. Night reading is a calm end to an evening routine. If you read in bed, a printed book is the safer choice, since reading on a light-emitting tablet before bed has been linked to falling asleep later.
How long does it take to build a reading habit?
It varies a lot between people. In a well-known 2010 study, new daily habits took 66 days on average to feel automatic, with individual times from 18 to 254 days. Expect a couple of months, count the days you read rather than the pages, and do not treat a missed day as a reason to stop.
How do I get back into reading after a long break?
Lower the stakes. Reread a book you loved, try short stories or a short novel, or pick a genre you already enjoy on screen. Read one page a day if that is all you can manage. The goal is to make reading a daily habit again before you worry about how much you read.
Sources
- How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate
- So Much to Read, So Little Time: How Do We Read, and Can Speed Reading Help?
- Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness
- How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world
About this article
Co-founder of Greatr
Jip Groen is a co-founder of Greatr who writes about routines, mornings and screen time: reading the research carefully, trying it on real mornings and turning it into one step you can take tomorrow.
Read full bioHow we wrote this
Jip Groen wrote this guide from the studies and sources listed above, linked so you can check them. Greatr is our own app: we mention it where it fits, and it never decides what a study says. First published Jun 16, 2026. Last updated Oct 30, 2026. Read our editorial policy.
