As you may know, if you’ve been following me for a while, I originally began posting about books on Instagram. There, I’ve built a small but mighty community of people who love books as much as I do, and it’s such a delight to be able to share my love of reading with people who are passionate about the topic too.

I started thinking about different ways I might be able to provide more value with my content in that space, and one of the things that was top of mind for me is a core question that I get asked repeatedly: how is it that I have the time to read as much as I do?

Full disclosure, reading is my main hobby. It’s the thing that I do most often in my spare time, and I’m aware that it’s a privilege at this stage in my life that it’s just my husband and I and I have the free time to be able to pursue this hobby so passionately. That said, there are a few small things I’ve done that have made a big difference in my daily reading routines.

Below are some of the key ways that I’ve been able to fit more reading time into my life (and that will hopefully help you to do the same):

• I replaced screen time before bed with reading

I used to spend a fair bit of time before I went to sleep doom-scrolling my social media networks and generally distracting myself from the anxiety of a) trying to get to sleep at a decent hour and b) planning for all the things I needed to do the next day. Without even noticing, I’d kill a full hour just scrolling through my phone or watching mindless TV, and then I’d have to try to force myself to sleep as quickly as possible.

At some point, I realized that for me, this wasn’t the healthiest routine, so I started plugging in my phone across the room an hour before bed and picking up my book instead. Not only has this reduced my overall anxiety around bedtime, but it’s also meant that I can guarantee I get to pick up my book and make my way through more of it. It sometimes means I *accidentally* stay up later than I planned, but more often than not, I’m able to stick to the hour and get more progress in than I would have otherwise in my daily reading.

• I use part of my lunch hour to read

This one may not work for everyone, but I use some of my lunch hour to read each day. I work from home, so I found that often, I’d just keep working through lunch instead of taking any time to relax. I now force myself to take at least a half hour to read. It helps me to squeeze in some extra time for my books, and I also come back to work a little more refreshed after taking an actual break.

• I listen to my books while being productive

I wrote an entire article on how audiobooks can help you get more reading in (coming soon), so I won’t go into too much detail, but this one has been a game-changer for me. Listening to audiobooks while I clean, run errands, or do things like yard work allows me to get way more reading time in.

• I do weekend reading sprints

I cherish the free time that’s available to me on the weekends. Each weekend, on at least one of my days off, I try to plan a reading sprint to ensure that I’m getting time to fit in some of my books in addition to all of the other things competing for my attention.

A reading sprint is simply a predetermined amount of time that you set aside where during that time, you do nothing but focus on reading as much as possible. So for example, on Saturdays, before I do the productive things I need to do to make my life easier, I’ll often plan to wake up, make a cup of coffee, and spend the first hour of my day doing a reading sprint. From 8 am-9am, I let myself do nothing but read whatever book I’m into, getting in as many pages as I can. This ensures that even on my busiest days, I’ve still managed to make some progress on my current read.

While these tactics might not work for everyone, adjusting my daily routines to include these reading priorities has been revolutionary in helping me to make more time for reading.

How do you make time for reading? What’s a tactic that’s worked for you?