(AND WHAT I DID ABOUT IT)
There was a time when finishing a book felt… normal.
You’d pick it up, get into the story, and before you knew it — you were halfway through, emotionally attached, and slightly ignoring real life.
Now?
You read:
👉 3 pages
👉 check your phone
👉 read 2 more
👉 open Instagram “just for a second”
And suddenly… it’s been 40 minutes and you don’t even remember what you read.
Yeah. Same.
The Problem Isn’t That You Don’t Like Reading
This is the part I had to accept.
It’s not that I lost interest in books.
It’s not that my attention span magically disappeared.
It’s just that…
👉 my phone is more interesting in the moment.
Not better.
Not more fulfilling.
Just faster.
Because books ask for:
- time
- focus
- imagination
But your phone?
👉 gives you instant dopamine.
- quick reels
- short videos
- endless scrolling
No effort. No patience required.
So your brain slowly starts choosing:
👉 easy over meaningful
And reading starts to feel like… work.
The “Just One Scroll” Lie
This one is dangerous.
You tell yourself:
👉 “I’ll just check my phone for a minute.”
But your phone doesn’t work in minutes.
It works in:
👉 loops.
One reel → another → another → something interesting → something random → something you didn’t even want to see
And by the time you look up?
👉 your reading mood is gone.
Not because you didn’t want to read…
but because your brain is now overstimulated.
What It Actually Did to My Reading Habit
I didn’t stop reading completely.
I just became:
- slower
- distracted
- inconsistent
Books that I would’ve finished in 3 days?
👉 took 3 weeks.
Not because they were boring.
But because I kept breaking the connection.
And reading only works when you stay in it.
What I Did About It (Without Becoming “That Person”)
No, I didn’t:
- delete all my apps
- go offline for 30 days
- suddenly become super disciplined
I just made a few small changes.
1. I stopped reading with my phone next to me
Not in my hand.
Not face down.
Not “just in case.”
👉 Completely away.
Because if it’s there…
👉 I will check it.
2. I gave myself “low expectation reading time”
Instead of:
👉 “I’ll read for an hour”
I told myself:
👉 “just 10 minutes”
And somehow?
👉 those 10 minutes turned into 25… sometimes more.
Because starting is the hardest part.
3. I replaced scrolling with reading (only at night)
This one changed everything.
Instead of:
👉 lying in bed scrolling endlessly
I kept a book next to me.
Some nights I still chose my phone.
But slowly?
👉 the book started winning.
📖 4. I stopped forcing “serious” books
A big mistake I was making.
Trying to read:
- heavy
- intellectual
- “this will improve me” books
When my brain just wanted something:
👉 easy
👉 fun
👉 addictive
So I switched to:
- light romance
- fast-paced thrillers
- anything that made me want to continue
And that helped more than anything else.
The Realisation
You don’t hate reading.
You’re just used to:
👉 faster entertainment
👉 easier distraction
👉 constant stimulation
And books?
👉 ask you to slow down.
Which feels uncomfortable at first.
But once you get back into it…
👉 nothing else feels the same.
Final Thought
Maybe the problem isn’t that you can’t finish a book.
Maybe it’s just that your phone has trained your brain to expect everything faster.
And reading?
was never meant to be fast.
So tell me —
when was the last time you read a book
and didn’t check your phone even once…
and what do you think is actually stopping you from getting back to that? 👀
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