In September 2023 it was time to get some structure back into my life. I had finished all my university courses, got into a graduation project that did not go according to plan at all, stopped the project and spent over a month in uncertainty over my next project. When my partner went away for a week I decided it was time to get some structure back into my life.

One of the goals I had for the week was to finish the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. It had appeared multiple times on my Storytel app, and I had gotten curious. Installing a rigorous morning routine seemed like a good step in organizing my life. What I did not realize at the time was to what extent this book would change my reading behavior. Elrod describes reading books as gaining access to an unlimited supply of knowledge, boundless growth and life changing ideas he could gain from some of the most brilliant, successful individuals in the world.

He is right.

Books are amazing for the simple reason that they provide access to the experience and knowledge of another person over their lifetime – curated to skip the boring, uninformative parts. If written well, books provide a source of ideas that would otherwise have to be gathered over multiple events in your life. Now they are just being handed to you.

Since the Miracle Morning I read a bit of a book everyday, amounting to having read:

1. The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
2. Blondes Invest Better by Janneke Willemse
3. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by Harv Eker
4. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
5. Zen and the Art of Simple Living by Shunmyo Masuno
6. Hyperfocus by Chris Baily
7. Someday is Today by Matthew Dicks
8. How to Know Everything by Elke Wiss
9. Eat that Frog by Brian Tracey
10. Master Your Mindset by Michael Pilarczyk
11. The Art & Business of Online Writing by Nicholas Cole
12. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
13. The Ten Year Career by Jodie Cook
14. Feel-Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal
15. Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman
16. Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
17. The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
18. A Man’s Guide to Women by John Gottman, Julie Schwartz Gottman, Douglas Abrams and Rachel Carlton Abrams
19. The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington
20. … and all 7 books in the Harry Potter series.

Additionally, many of these books I have reread to further internalize the ideas and be reminded of the lessons.

Here’s what changed through reading these books:

• I have much more interesting discussions with others.
• I am more confident in my own ability to handle difficult situations.
• I am more proactively listening to others, instead of pushing my ideas while not accepting theirs.
• My appartment looks much better, thanks to Marie Kondo.
• I know multiple parts of the Harry Potter series by heart (not recommended).

I never set a lower limit to how much I had to read, so if I did not feel like it half a page would do. And I believe this is the key to sustaining this habit: to make it easy.

I would recommend anyone to start reading on a regular basis, and really do the assignments that authors give you! It worked wonders for me over the past year.