7 small habits to help you read more this year

Damian Hughes is a performance expert who coaches businesses and sportspeople alike, and co-hosts The High Performance Podcast with Jake Humphrey.

When people tell me they want to read more, they often identify similar blockers: “I just can’t seem to stick with it”, “I don’t have the attention span anymore” and “I start, then I stop.” It’s not that they don’t like books; it’s that life is busy.

Some people struggle with time: their days are full, their evenings exhausting, and reading feels like something that requires a clear runway they never quite get. Others struggle with confidence, distraction, or social perception of what “counts” as reading. None of these factors are about individual shortcomings: they are environmental realities.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from studying high performance in my work advising athletes, leaders and performers – and in writing Micro-Habits – it’s this: sustainable change rarely starts with huge, vaulting ambition. It starts much smaller, by paying attention to habits.

This year, the National Year of Reading, offers a rare opportunity to rethink not what we read, but how we read. It's not about setting targets, challenges or quotas, but instead trialling small, flexible behaviours (or “micro-habits”) that make reading easier to start and incorporate into daily life.

Micro-habits for reading more in 2026

1. Read one page – then stop

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, used a great line in our interview with him: the heaviest weight in the gym is the front door. Once you’re inside, momentum usually takes care of the rest. Reading works in the same way.

Reading just one page a day removes pressure. It feels harmless. Non-threatening. There’s no commitment to a chapter, let alone a whole book. You’re not promising yourself anything heroic – just a single page.

Yet once you’ve started, something interesting often happens: the page turns into two, then two turns into three. It's not because you forced yourself to continue, but because momentum quietly took over.

The aim here isn’t to trick yourself into reading more. It’s to make starting so easy that stopping becomes the only decision you have to make.

2. Attach reading to something you already do

Rather than reading having to earn a place in your day, let it sneak into the margins. Why not read one page after making a coffee, skim a paragraph before brushing your teeth or take a few minutes once you’re already in bed?

These moments already exist and don’t require extra time or energy. By attaching reading to an already-established habit, you remove the need for decision-making. The cue is already there.

Over time, the coffee becomes the trigger, the bedtime routine becomes the reminder and reading stops feeling like something you have to remember and starts feeling like something that naturally follows.

3. Keep your book visible

Behaviour is shaped by your environment. If your phone is always within reach and your book isn’t, your attention will go where access is easiest. A book on the table beats one on a shelf; a magazine left open beats one tucked away. Visibility reduces friction, and friction is often the real enemy of habits.

So, keep your book within reaching distance – maybe on a nightstand, or open on the table. The goal isn’t to remove all temptation or distraction but to make reading the path of least resistance.

4. Re-read books you already love

We rarely judge ourselves for re-watching a favourite film or listening to a beloved song on repeat. Yet with books, we often feel we should always be moving forwards, upwards, and on to something more impressive or ‘worthy’. We choose the book we think we should read, rather than the one we want to devour.

Re-reading a beloved book removes that pressure. When you already know the characters, the rhythm, and the arc of the story, your brain relaxes and, crucially, you start to rebuild evidence that reading can feel easy and enjoyable again. Reading doesn’t have to be worthy, but it does have to be absorbing.

5. Quit books early and without guilt

Life is too short for books that feel like a chore. There’s a persistent idea that finishing a book you don’t enjoy somehow builds character. But actually, it builds the belief that reading equals obligation rather than pleasure.

High performers are surprisingly good quitters. They know when something isn’t serving them and move on without drama. You can apply the same thinking here: instead of viewing putting down a book as a failure, see it as discernment. Every time you make that choice, you gather more evidence that reading is something you control, not something that controls you.

6. Redefine what counts as reading

In over 400 interviews on High Performance Podcast, we open with the same question: “What is your definition of high performance?” We have yet to receive a single consistent answer, which shows that success has always been subjective.

The same thinking applies to reading. Audiobooks, comics, short stories, essays, magazines – they all count. Stories are stories, regardless of format.

With that realisation comes freedom, as different moments suit different kinds of reading. Maybe you’ll keep a physical book by the bed, an audiobook for walking or commuting, and something short and light on your phone. Fit the reading into your life, not your life into the reading.

7. Shrink the session

Reading for 10 minutes every day beats reading for an hour once a month because consistency beats intensity – not just in reading, but in building any habit that lasts.

Behavioural scientist Philippa Lally and her colleagues studied how habits are formed by tracking people as they embedded small daily behaviours into their lives. They found habits didn’t form because the behaviour was big, ambitious or impressive; they formed because behaviour was repeated consistently.

So, instead of chasing an ambitious target, such as a chapter or page count, set aside a window of time: read for just 10 uninterrupted minutes. When the bar is low, it’s easier to step over it and, once a streak exists, we’re naturally motivated to protect it. Repeated often enough, the habit rewires what your brain expects, making reading a manageable daily habit.

Don't miss Damian Hughes and Jake Humphrey's interview on Andrew Scaramucci's Open Book podcast, where they share more micro-habits to incorporate into your daily life.