The Gamification of Reading
I’m not much of a reader. I try to be, but if I’m really honest, reading is not something that is consistent in my life.
Here’s a graph to prove that:
You might see this graph and think “Wow, that’s pretty good. Sure it fluctuates but that’s not horrible!” Here’s my 2024 stats:
I can’t make an excuse for this - having a daughter is not an excuse for this. I have started and completed 8 video games this year. One of which took me 78 hours. So, what happened to my reading habits and how do I get back on track?
Gamifying Reading
It was a month away from my final summer of college. The Shepherd’s Conference was going on and my church was hosting Albert Mohler for a Q+A. I thought I’d ask “what one book should I read during my final summer break.” He said “Churchill:Walking With Destiny by Andrew Roberts and John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion.” He cheated.
I bought Churchill: Walking With Destiny immediately and was shocked at the size of it. A hardcover tome with 1152 pages and (I’m pretty sure) 8pt font. I started reading it almost immediately and was absorbed. The only issue was I felt like I wasn’t making any progress.
Have you ever set out to finish a task that felt so daunting you got discouraged and then eventually dropped it? Me too. I wanted to ensure that didn’t happen while reading this book so I gamified the reading process and it helped me finish the book.
Here’s that process.
Set a Timer
When talking about reading my dad always says “Just put 30 minutes on the time. Boom - go.” I love this. Setting a reading timer is like a declaration that the next 30 minutes are devoted to reading. Obviously, this becomes tricky when you have a baby in the house, but even a 15-minute or 5-minute timer feels like a success.
For me, setting a timer helps me focus on the task at hand.
Chunk it Out
Did not take long to get into the weeds.
As I was reading Churchill I kept wondering how much longer I had left. Not page-wise, but time-wise. It started distracting me so I decided to keep track of how many pages I could read in 30 minutes. After a couple of reading sessions, I got my average.
I divided the total pages left in the book to find how much time I had left and how many 30-minute sessions I had left. (I know this sounds wild.)
Knowing the amount of time it would take me to finish the book helped me intentionally find time to read. Finishing a book can feel like an arbitrary goal. I don’t know how long it’s going to take and therefore don’t know how much time to budget for it.
Knowing that a book will take me 20 hours to read makes it much easier for me to set time aside and chunk out the work.
Track Your Progress
Another nice addition to knowing how much time you have left is knowing what percentage you have left. I use Story Graphs to track my reading progress and book collection.
Every time I finish reading a book I update what page I’m on and it shows me what percentage I’ve read. It’s a really nice thing to have. I also really enjoy being able to track what books I own and see data on my reading habits (if you think that’s nerdy wait till you see my board game spreadsheet).
Read More
Revisiting this method I used to finish Churchill has made me want to use it again. It’s been a wild ride of a year and sometimes it feels easier to watch something and play something, but I’m a fan of having a “healthy media diet”, and books are good!
Anyway, I hope you found this interesting and maybe you can use it to boost your reading habits.