How Coffee Can Help You Read More
How Coffee and a book has changed our mornings
It was a Wednesday night, and I am winding down the day with some ice cream in bed and watching some YouTube that I say will only take about 30 minutes but it actually turns into 2 1/2 hours.
You stumble across self-help videos and realize that I’d like to read more books in my spare time. Time to press the search bar and type in “How to read more books.”
This was about 2 weeks ago, and I have read 2 novels in the meantime.
You’re probably wondering what the hell was I watching that made me so motivated to read?
One of the YouTube videos I watched was about the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Within the book is a section on Habit Stacking, explaining how combining an existing habit with a new habit will help maintain that new habit and become a ritual. James talks about how it’s essentially inviting a new skill into a well-defined cycle of neurons that are already churning.
James has a lot more info on his article if you would like to view more detailed information about Habit Stacking, and I suggest reading his book Atomic Habits.
I thought this theory of Habit Stacking was new and intriguing, so I put this concept to the test and wrote the sentence…
“After I brew my coffee and sit on the couch, I will read my book for 30 minutes.”
30 minutes is like watching a couple of YouTube videos, so naturally, anyone would doubt how long they’ll last before closing the book and succumbing to the trap that is the iPhone. I went through the first page, then the second, then the third, and then it happened. The sudden yet familiar buzzing of the phone on the coffee table.
Knowing that this is probably not gonna be the first and last time my phone will buzz while I am reading, I turned do not disturb mode on. From then on, I just kept reading, not having a care for the world, and finally could not think about what Twitter was going to be like that day.
The 30-minute timer on my phone was done, and the result left me with two insights. One, I could have read longer before feeling tired and exhausted, and two, it did not feel like 30 minutes.
Maybe it was the coffee, or it was just a really good start to the book. Either way, combining the coffee time allowed me to focus on reading, which was a lot more fun than just spontaneously picking up a random book and forcing myself to dive in.
As this cycle went on, I read the book within a 2-week period, and the book before that one took me almost 5 months, and it had fewer pages.
Is this something that I discovered out of the depths of the internet where hidden gems are like a needle in a haystack, no? In fact, research and many acclaimed individuals found that coffee and a book are some of the most complimentary tasks a person can accommodate themselves with. Coffee itself has been proven to help readers read faster than well.
“A single dose of 200 mg caffeine improved global processing, without any effect on local information processing, alerting, spatial attention and executive or phonological functions, the study showed.” -Journal Of Psychopharmacology, Milan
In two double-blind studies involving 78 participants, the researchers have found that a single dose of 200 mg caffeine has significant improvements on one’s ability to process and read the text.
With that in mind, along with James Clear’s theory of Habit Stacking, it’s an easy decision.
However, regarding Habit Stacking, Coffee just doesn’t help with reading alone. Naturally, it helps with focus, but it also facilitates new skills and habits that become its own ritual. The benefits compliment you and what you are trying to learn, whether it's reading a book, learning a language, or even spending more time with people you care about.
Whether it's coffee, tea, a smoke (probably not the best start to your day), or a nice pastry, combine it with a habit you want to start so you can expand your skillset.
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