Three Things I Do to Find More Time to Read
Simple habits that helped me
Every year I swear I’m going to read more, and every year I discover that reading doesn’t magically happen unless I carve out deliberate space for it. Life expands to the edges of whatever time we give it, and somehow reading—this thing I love, this thing that makes me feel more human—gets squeezed out by the noise.
Here are the three simple, completely un-glamorous things I’ve changed that have helped me read more than I have in years.
1. I Stopped Watching So Much TV
Look, I love TV. Prestige dramas, British mysteries, chaotic reality shows where no one seems to know the rules—I’m not above any of it. But when I looked at how I was spending my evenings, I realized I was burning two, sometimes three hours a night passively absorbing content I wouldn’t remember a week later.
So I made a deal with myself: if I’m going to watch TV, it has to be something I intentionally choose, not something that just auto-plays its way into the next hour of my life. That shift alone opened up pockets of time I didn’t even know I had.
When you stop defaulting to the screen, you start reaching for stories that stay with you.
2. I Put Books in My Line of Sight
I used to keep my books neatly shelved—alphabetized, arranged by color, all very aesthetically pleasing and absolutely useless for encouraging me to actually read them.
Now? My home looks like someone mildly literate but extremely disorganized lives here. Books on the coffee table. Books on the nightstand. Books in my bag. Books on the kitchen counter next to the fruit bowl. I keep a physical book open and facedown (sorry, librarians) so that when I walk by, the threshold to picking it up is practically zero.
The trick isn’t discipline; it’s proximity. I read more because the books are right there, looking at me, asking, You got five minutes?
And most of the time, I do.
3. Audiobooks. Enough of the Debate—Audiobooks Are Reading.
Let me say this clearly, for the people in the back:
Audiobooks. Are. Reading.
I don’t care what anyone says, what imaginary hierarchy they’ve created, or what purist rules they try to impose. Stories are stories, and if you’re engaging with a book—its ideas, its plot, its prose, its characters—you’re reading it.
Audiobooks have become my secret weapon. They fill all the cracks in my day: walks, laundry, commutes, the moments when I’m too tired for a page but not too tired for a voice. Some books even shine in audio—memoirs read by their authors, immersive nonfiction, novels with great voice actors.
When I let go of the idea that reading only “counts” if I’m holding paper, my reading life doubled.
What It All Comes Down To
I read more now not because I magically found more hours in the day, but because I stopped letting the default settings of modern life dictate my attention.
Less TV. Visible books. Audiobooks without shame.
It’s not complicated, but it’s been transformative. And the best part? You can start today—literally in the next ten minutes.
Put down the remote. Put a book in your path. Put a story in your ears.
Reading is waiting for you.
And hey, if you want your kids, nieces, grandkids, or even your dog (no judgment if you’re raising a highly literate golden retriever) to read more, here’s a sneaky trick: give them books that practically demand to be read.
Good news: you can get signed copies of all my books over at my personal store.
The Iggy & Oz series has everything a young reader (or a very ambitious dog) could want:
The Plastic Dinos of Doom – Toy dinosaurs come to life. What could possibly go wrong?
The Soda Pop Wars – Soda that gives kids superpowers. This is why adults don’t trust us.
The Living Snot – A giant blob of sentient snot, because literature is beautiful.
The Great Ice Cream Truck Heist – Ice cream that hypnotizes kids. Honestly, relatable.
If you’re trying to turn a reluctant reader into a gleeful one, start with chaos. Kids love chaos.
Signed copies await. Your dog will thank you.
Or if you are an ebook reader, put that tablet with your reading glasses (if you need them) where you most often sit to relax. Choose to read over the TV and do NOT go into anything but your ebook on your ereader/tablet/phone.