Read every day for 15 minutes - 2022 Edition

Japanese Reading
1

If you are having trouble finding time to read or stay focused, this might be the challenge that could change your reading habits.

Last year, I barely finished any Japanese books. Between grad school, work, and my own side projects, I was always occupied and too exhausted to read Japanese books.

Since starting this challenge in February, I’ve consistently read 15 minutes or more, completing 1-2 books every month.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to stay consistent:

  1. Close everything on your computer apart from your book.
  2. Set down a 15-minute physical timer.
    – This is the most important psychological trick, often referred to as the cue.
    Use one with a large display.
  3. Don’t stop until the timer rings.
  4. Log your progress immediately on learnnatively.com.
    – This triggers a reward that could reinforce this habit.

You could continue reading if you want to, but 15-minute is the minimum.

Studies suggest that you could move on to increasing that minimum after 30 days of forming the habit, but it took me almost 4 months before I’ve increased my minimum to 20-30 minutes every day.

Recently, I shared this on Discord and a lot of people find 15-minute to be a good starting point for them as well.

Would you like to participate?
  • Yes
  • Yes, but more than 15 minutes
  • Not sure
  • No

0 voters

6 Likes
2

Participants:

Feel free to add your username to the list!
Note: please try to keep this alphabetical

Username Date Joined Days Completed
Megumin 18 Jun 2022 18
Naphthalene 17 Jun 2022 4
Niffer 19 Jun 2022
Yui 16 Jun 2022 8
4 Likes
3

I usually try to read about an hour or so each day (my reading speed is relatively slow, so I try to free up time to read so it doesn’t take me months to finish things :joy:) I’m not too good at posting daily in these type of threads but I will follow along and try to post updates when I can.

1 Like
4

I probably won’t participate myself, but that’s mostly due to me already being in the habit/telling other people I’m going to read in order to hold myself accountable. It’s a great idea, though, and a schedule’s the best way to get into a habit. I always enjoy reading people’s updates, too, so I’ll probably be hanging around for that~

2 Likes
5

Maybe this can be integrated somehow with the functions on the Natively site. It already has a way to record your progress. Like maybe if there was an easy way to link your recent reading activity.

For example if you go to your dashboard and look at your activity it shows what you are reading. So you could use a snipping tool and post the image or if there was an automatic way to link to it.

Or maybe there could be a group feature added, for example “everyday reading club”. Then you could easily check the activity in the group from your dashboard.

4 Likes
6

Yes, reading club support / book discussion integration into the main website (dashboard, book pages, club search… etc) is a part of the core plan… it’ll be really great! Won’t be for a little while though. First step was starting the forums.

And reading challenge threads / book discussion threads will always be the main focal point for these things, so appreciate @Yui looking to start one! :slight_smile:

5 Likes
7

Speaking of which, if you turn the second post into a wiki, others could add themselves to the table :smile:

1 Like
8

Is this something @Yui can do or do you need certain trust levels? And for editing?

2 Likes
9

Think it requires an admin.

2 Likes
10

You have to be a regular to make your own posts into a wiki, and admin to make the posts of others into a wiki.

You have to be a member to edit :sweat_smile:

2 Likes
11

Ok! @Yui It’s a wiki now :slight_smile:

From my understanding, lvl 1 users should be able to edit… so I think everyone should be good. The default lvl of everyone at this moment is lvl 1.

Soon, I will change it so that new users will be coming in at lvl 0, but won’t be for a few days yet.

3 Likes
12

I just put myself in the list. I don’t know if I’ll update everyday, but I’m reading at least that much everyday, so I might as well join.

3 Likes
13

Also, @Yui I’d recommend everyone puts their Natively profile, rather than Discourse profile :slight_smile:

4 Likes
14

I’m not sure if it counts as participating or not because I use a different method–I do it by paragraphs > pages > chapters rather than minutes. I do it this way because a good portion of the time reading might be taken up by using the dictionary. I started off by being able to read a few sentences or a paragraph on a page and then moved up into reading a few pages a day. Now I’m working on reading a chapter, even if I have to break it into several sessions throughout the day.

3 Likes
15

Yes, even the newcomers can edit once–I’ve done it before with the bot during the tutorial.

2 Likes
16

Joining! Let’s do it, minna :slight_smile:

1 Like
17

I’m gonna join too! I’ll try do long sessions of 30 mins, but 15 minutes as starting point sounds good.

Been very busy lately and I’ve noticed that sessions of 10 minutes or less are not that productive speed/comprenhension wise.

3 Likes
18

This is a great idea! Even just 15 minutes of reading a day makes all the difference.

I’ve fallen off the wagon in recent months because I’ve been so busy with studying for the JLPT but I need to get back into it, even if it’s just 15 minutes. So I’d like to join too!

(Although note: I won’t be able to update my progress all that much because I am so busy right now.)

2 Likes
19

Wait, I just realized that, having copied your line, I had Jan instead of Jun as my starting month. But considering the start date of this thread was June 17, that was a mistake on my part :stuck_out_tongue: I haven’t modified anyone else, just in case it was on purpose.

20

@yui it seems people are putting their join date for Natively, not the thread. I would assume that we want people putting the start date when they joined the thread, no?

2 Likes