How To Read 2x More Without Changing Your Schedule

(1) The Idea: Intentionality > Time

In the reading world, people complain about time the same way they complain about money.

“If I had 3 hours over the weekend to read, then I’ll start the Dune series.”

“I wish my crazy uncle wasn’t in town last week because I would’ve started Thinking, Fast and Slow.”

“I work full time, and that’s why I didn’t finish a book in 2025.”

What’s the problem here? Yes, people believe that if they had more time, then all their reading problems would disappear. We dream of that someday where we’ll magically land a life with no responsibilities and combust into a perfect reader. But in reality, this is wishful thinking that stalls our progress today.

In fact, I always found that I read way more during busy periods. In 2024, I read around 70 books while I was writing a thesis, running a business and going on research trips. But in 2025, with all the free time in the world, I struggled to finish even 1 book a month.

What’s happening here? If you want to take away anything from this post, let it be this:

Quality reading isn’t a result of how much time you put towards it, but a byproduct of being ruthlessly intentional.

In other words, if we start reading with no intention but a vague desire to read more, then we’ll keep wasting our time without progressing at all.

So, in this post, I want to convince you that you already have all the time to become an excellent reader. You’re perfectly capable of reading a lot without screwing around with your schedule. All you need is a time-efficient reading budget. Here are the protocols for setting one up.

1: Go on offence

I wrote about this in last week’s letter, but here’s a quick summary:

Most aspiring readers fail because they start to confuse reading with a moral duty.

They think any reading is good reading and end up wasting time on books that aren’t right for them. In reality, the choice is ours. We get to decide which books are the best tools to colour our world, fix our problems and probe into our interests.

So, the first step is to go on offence: set up a lean, intentional TBR that fits into three categories:

1: What do I want to work on in my life? (Practical books)

2: What am I interested in? (Non-Fiction books)

3: What aspiration titles do I want to finish? (Long-term reading projects)

Again, I covered this in my workshop back in December. If you want a step-by-step walkthrough that’ll help you develop this lean TBR, click the thumbnail below:

By the end of this process, you should have a list of 12-20 books (depending on your reading level) that are custom-tailored to your needs. And just like a financial budget, this lean TBR isn’t supposed to be restrictive. It just cuts out a lot of guessing work when you go about planning your reading for the year.

You’ll always know what to prioritise when you’re flooded with choices, and as a result, reading will no longer be that stalking cloud of guilt. It’ll be a pleasant daily ritual that slowly accumulates into impressive volumes. Speaking of which, let’s move on to:

2: Read in daily chunks, not weekend lumps