How do you read more books when you're busy?

Most people who say they don't have time to read have plenty of time; it is just chopped into pieces and already spoken for, usually by a screen. The trick is not to find a free afternoon. It is to make reading the thing that fills the gaps.

Carry a book, always

The single most useful habit is boring: have a book with you wherever you go. A paperback in the bag, an ebook on the phone, an audiobook in the earphones. Queues, waiting rooms, late trains and the ten minutes before a meeting add up to a surprising amount of reading over a month. If the book is not with you, the phone will win every time.

Read in the gaps you already have

Rather than inventing new reading time, attach reading to moments that already exist:

• The commute, on foot, by train or on a bus.
• Coffee, the first ten minutes with a cup.
• Lunch alone, a book is better company than the news. See /mindset/eating-alone-in-a-restaurant/ if that feels awkward.
• Bed, a few pages before the light goes off.

Ten pages a day is a book or so a month for most novels. That is not a heroic target; it is an achievable rhythm.

Put the book where the phone goes

Wherever your hand reaches for the phone without thinking, on the bedside table, the sofa arm, the kitchen counter, put a book there instead and move the phone a few steps away. Reading before you check the phone in the morning, or instead of it in the evening, is the change most readers notice soonest.

Quit books you are not enjoying

Life is too short for a book you dread opening. A boring book does not just waste the hours you spend on it; it stops you reading anything else while it sits there unfinished. Give a book a fair chance, fifty pages or so, then let it go if it is not working.

You are in good company. The French writer Daniel Pennac, in Comme un roman (1992), published in English as The Rights of the Reader, sets out ten rights every reader has, among them the right not to read, the right to skip, the right not to finish a book, the right to read anything and the right to dip in. The list alone is an excellent antidote to reading guilt.

Audiobooks count

Listening to a book is reading a book, for every purpose that matters: the story, the ideas, the conversation afterwards. Audiobooks are perfect for walking, cooking and long drives, which are exactly the times paper is no use. Pair them with a walk and you have two good habits in one.

Make it social, a little

Telling one friend what you are reading, swapping books, or joining a club creates a gentle expectation that keeps you going. See /books/starting-a-book-club-that-lasts/.

Don't count, unless you enjoy counting

Yearly reading targets work for some people and turn reading into homework for others. If a number motivates you, keep it modest. If it makes you choose short books to hit the total, drop it. The aim is to enjoy reading more, not to read more for the sake of the figure.