In 2017, I challenged myself to read 20 books and I was able to read 22 books.

In 2018, I raised the bar to 30 books, but I was only able to read 16.

In 2019, I’m still aiming for 30 books; how can I make this happen?

So far in 2019 I’ve already read 7 books and have found good strategies for frequent and consistent reading.

I’ve started reading during boring activities that don’t require my eyes. I read in bed when I’m struggling to fall asleep. I read in the morning when I’m riding my stationary bike. This is similar to the idea of listening to a podcast while driving to work.

I’ve started buying books in groups of three. Always having something in the queue decreases the number of times that I have to figure out what I’m going to read next.

I’ve started asking my friends for book recommendations. This decreases the risk of starting a bad book and relieves decision paralysis. I’ll show the list of books I want to read to a friend and ask if they recommend anything on the list, essentially cross referencing my interests with their recommendations.

I’ve started sharing what I’m reading. When I make my three-book purchase, I share a screenshot on Twitter. This creates pseudo social pressure to finish and sharing it in the open helps solidify my identity as a “reader.”