2 Easy-to-Implement Tips to Avoid Reading ‘Too Much’

Books are incredible.

Reading sharpens your mind, improves your language skills, and some books are nothing short of miraculous; a great book can change your entire life. With all the benefits of reading, it’s easy to understand why everyone wants to read more. However, as the saying goes, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. And reading is no exception. It has many benefits, for sure, but overindulgence can become a problem, as I’ve personally experienced it.

So how exactly can reading ‘too much’ become a problem?

There are two main reasons to consider:

1. Poor Time Management

‘Too much’ is a subjective term.

For a kid with more free time in a day than most of us have in a week, and little to no responsibilities, reading all day is not a problem. To the contrary, I would argue that it is healthier for the kid to follow his curiosity and devour any book he founds captivating. Similarly, a retired entrepreneur with 30 million in the bank, can sit in his Swiss chalet and read for as long as he likes without worry. But for the rest of us, proper time management is crucial. Tightrope walkers on the thin filament of life, we need to balance our hobbies, with our goals and responsibilities — at all times.

Poor time management in regards to reading will negatively impact other areas of your life.

Last week, for example, I got caught up in reading the ‘Three-Body Problem’ trilogy. Fantastic books, would recommend to all sci-fi enthusiasts. But because I mismanaged my time, I didn’t get much done, left many checkboxes unchecked, and as a result, my career as a digital writer took a hit.

To give you an idea of what mismanaging time looks like, here’s the progression I went through:

Initially, I only read in the evenings. Then, I read whenever I had some free time during the day; waiting the bus, at lunch table, sometimes even in you-know-where. When the book got interesting, I read even when I had to be working. Just don’t you might say, but it’s more complicated than that. Reading had turned into a tool for procrastination. I read to avoid working.

This doesn’t just apply to fiction books, however. While there’s no plot or story to get you absorbed in reading, self-help books can still turn into a tool for procrastination, and this brings us to the second main reason…

2. Procrastination Disguised as Learning

Most people consider reading self-help books to be more ‘productive’ than reading fiction books, because you are learning something. While this can be true, it is important to first understand the distinction between just-in-time learning and just-in-case learning.

Just-in-time learning is a highly productive activity. It means learning something exactly when you need it. Oftentimes, it won’t require reading an entire book, but rather reading and rereading a selection of chapters and supplementing with online content. For example, if I don’t know how to write the headline, I’ll revisit a chapter from ’s book, watch some youtube videos, read a few articles, and then immediately apply what I’ve learned.

Just-in-case learning on the other hand, is not about learning something specific, but rather exploring your curiosity. It has it’s place, but it is only slightly more productive than reading fictional books. But bluntly, it is absolutely NOT something more productive than doing your work.

Reading about how to arrange a remote-work agreement with your boss might be useful in the future… but it won’t help you complete writing your motivation letter that you must finish by tomorrow (true story). This is procrastination disguised as learning. You might feel productive (after all, you are not scrolling on twitter or whatever), but in reality, you are just putting off important work for something more passive, that is, reading.

So, how can we avoid this?

I have two easy-to-implement tips for you:

1. Prioritize

Here’s a hard pill to swallow: If you are reading a book—fiction or non-fiction—while your priority tasks for the day aren't done yet, you are procrastinating and effectively wasting your time.

I am intentionally being blunt here, because unlike other forms of procrastination, reading feels somewhat.. better. If I were to, God forbid, scroll on TikTok instead of working, alarm bells would ring. I’d feel like a loser because it’d be obviously clear to me that I am procrastinating.

With reading, those alarm bells don’t ring as loudly. Sure I have to finish writing this week’s letter, but I’ll become a ghostwriter in the future, so reading this book on ghostwriting isn’t really wasting time, right?

Maybe.

Just-in-case learning is founded upon the word “maybe”. Maybe it will be useful. Maybe what I learn will change my life. Maybe an idea from this book fix all of my problems.

Let’s be real. Our ideal selves don’t build their lives around “maybes”.

They build their lives around their priorities. And that’s the way to go for us as well. We must be crystal clear about our priorities, and know that reading comes only after them.

Now, show that you aren’t just reading passively. Take the action step below:

Action Step 1:

• Take a look at your to-do list.

• Pick 3-5 tasks and mark them as priorities by adding a star (★), a flag (⚑) or any other symbol you like. Make sure it’s clear.

• Now, make a commitment to yourself that you are only going to read when these priority tasks are completed.

Note: reading only after all tasks on the to-do list are done is also a good option, but usually, once the big priority tasks are done, it is easy to manage the remaining ones.

2. Plan in Advance

To ensure you are not reading more than you’d want to, the most reliable method is to plan in advance. Because what reading ‘too much’ really means is reading ‘more than you had planned’. It’s not about how much your read, but how you fit reading in your life.

Planning changes everything:

If, on a busy day, someone reads to escape reality for just an hour in the middle of the day, there’s a chance it will screw his or her daily schedule.

On the other hand, if he or she had planned the day before to carve out an hour for reading in the evening, and read for an hour in the evening, everything will be fine.

Another example: if you’re on vacation, and you feel a little bored so you just read the whole day, there’s a chance you will feel like you just wasted an entire day. On the other hand, if you had planned in advance that the coming holiday I will freaking devour this book, then, after an entire day of reading you won’t feel like you have wasted your day, to the contrary, you will feel accomplished.

Action Step 2:

• Open your calendar, and for the next week, block out time for reading. Let’s call these your “reading blocks”.

• Make a commitment to only read inside these reading blocks. Ex: if I blocked out time for reading 1 hour before bedtime, from 22:00 to 23:00, I can only read from 22 o’clock to 23 o’clock.

Note: The week after that, you can read more, outside your reading blocks. Still keep in mind the Action Step 1, you are only allowed to read more if your priority tasks for the day are done.

Thank you for reading this week’s letter!

I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If so, please don’t forget to like this post, share it with a friend and make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on my future letters!