Tried to build a reading habit for two years. Finally figured out what was actually stopping me.

I used to read a lot in my early twenties. Then life got busier, I started doom-scrolling more, and at some point I noticed I hadn't finished a book in almost eight months. I kept telling myself I needed to read more and kept not doing it.

For two years I tried the standard stuff. 10 pages before bed. A book on the nightstand. Tracking on an app. Setting a yearly Goodreads goal. None of it stuck for more than a few weeks. I'd do well for a bit and then miss a day and then somehow it was three weeks later.

What finally worked was embarrassingly simple: I stopped trying to read at night.

I'm not a night person, I'm tired by 9pm, my comprehension goes way down and I keep rereading the same paragraph. But I kept defaulting to "reading before bed" because that's what you're supposed to do. Meanwhile I spend about 25 minutes every morning waiting for coffee and kind of staring at my phone for no real reason.

I moved the book to the kitchen counter. I read during coffee in the morning. I've now finished 11 books since February and I haven't had to think about it once or use any kind of tracker or motivate myself in any way. It just happens because I'm already sitting there with nothing else I need to be doing.

The habit advice I kept getting was about discipline and consistency. The actual fix was location and timing. I wasn't a person who didn't read, I was a person trying to read at the wrong time of day.