12 Amazing Benefits of Reading - How to Build Daily Reading Habit?

Introduction

Do you read?...

Oh, you call reading Twitter posts or news headlines real reading?...

When was the last time you actually picked a book and read the text or at least read an article online about maybe “How to cook Lasagna?”. Never???

In this information age, we are actually forgetting the essence or benefits of reading. Reading shouldn’t succumb to just reading educational textbooks until college years, it should be a continued part of everyone's everyday life. Whether you are a Data Scientist by profession, or student in preparation for future jobs, or a dedicated mother, devoting time to reading should be a necessary indulgence rather than just a choice.

If you think reading should be just a cup of tea for someone who is in a dedicated job, studying in school or so, you couldn't get more wrong than that.

Reading is essential for everyone (yes even you reading this guide). Any type of reading, leisure reading, academic reading, professional reading, or more, reading daily should be part of the routine.

Wondering why we are emphasizing it so much, well here are the 12 incredible benefits of reading books or any reading resource offline or digitally as it can restore your life quality. After that, there are also worth pointing out tips that can help you read daily. And if you don’t enjoy just reading a book, here are some other options that you can explore.

12 Mind-Blowing Benefits of Reading Books or Any Resource!

Reading a book or any resource has a lot of benefits you could imagine. If you are not an ardent reader, it’s time you invest in some casual or pensive reading daily, any book page, a news headline on a tablet, or any article or blog. Here are the 12 incredible reasons telling how is reading good for you.

1. Reading Reduces Stress (which is much needed)

“Reading for at least 6 minutes daily can help you reduce stress by 68%, claims University of Sussex.”

Reading gives you a way to escape to a new world of literacy, imagination, fiction, facts, calms your mind, diverts & relaxes your brain from daily stressors, just like meditation does to you. It soothes your mind, eases up your heart rate, and untangles muscle tension.

As per a 2009 study, they say “doing 30 minutes or reading has similar stress-reducing effects similar to that of 30 minutes of yoga (well you should do both :D)”.

Any kind of reading material, be it a book or digital resource, gives us a sense of escapism (which we all crave, especially in these difficult times) and takes us to the more calming waters.

To get rid of work stress, check out How to Stay Organized at Work? (Work From Home Edition)!

2. Adds on to The Knowledge Curve (learning never stops)

“People who are indulged in reading have higher intelligence, general knowledge (or maybe higher GPAs) than those who don’t. No matter where you are planning to go in life, a good reading habit can help you explore life’s aspects much confidently & practically.”

Do you know the reason why eminent influencers or big personalities are able to talk on so many issues? It’s because they are good readers. They read whatever tidbit information they can from the surrounding & keeps themselves well informed on a variety of topics & subjects. That’s the reason why they are able to talk, give a speech or hold a conversation so easily.

Reading makes you wise, knowledgeable, and practical. A well-read person has enough knowledge which makes him confident enough to make firm decisions in life, escape out of challenges practically, and deal with people according to their capacity. It makes you knowledgeable enough to deal with and adapt to different aspects of life.

If you have a great knowledge curve but no experience, check out How to Get a Job with No Experience in Any Field? 10 Ways to Do That!

3. Keeps Your Mental Well Being in Check (Coz mental health is the key)

People who involve themselves in active simulation-based activities like reading, playing games, solving trivia are much more likely to stay alert and prevent mental illness.

Reading at least for a few minutes can help keep your brain stay engaged and prevent it from dysfunction or conditions like dementia or Alzheimer's. And since reading broadens your outlook towards life, it also teaches you about life’s challenges, ups & downs, and how to deal with them. With it, you become emotionally stable & stronger and keep conditions like stress, anxiety, depression at bay.

4. Your Memory Capacity Keeps Growing (Who doesn’t like a sharp-witted brain?)

"Your brain muscle needs a good workout to keep working, stay sharp, build learning capacity & reading gives it that much-needed workout.”

While you read any online resource or physical books, you simultaneously keep storing the powerhouse of information in your brain. As you do that, your memory capacity keeps increasing.

Instead of cramming information, just reading it casually in a storytelling way, where there is a story plot, characters, situations, you get to memorize any concept or pile of information well off.

5. Carves Your Stronger Analytical Skills (Good for Analytical Jobs)

Reading good books or reading material involves your brain muscles. When these muscles are put to work, they let you consume the knowledge, process it, and think about it end-to-end, it digs into its deeper meaning and understanding. Especially when you are reading mystery problem-solving reads, your mind is put to work to think of solutions, and thus make you analytically stronger. 

Not sure what career is your cup of tea? Analytical or Creative? Read - What Career is Right for Me? Know That in 10 Steps!

6. You Become Good at Holding Conversations (Yay, you can draw attention)

People who are well-informed and well-read are often vocal and able to pull up interesting and well-stretched conversations. Someone who keeps reading daily will often bring that knowledge to the table & share it with others, which others would definitely find enriching and interesting. 

Reading gives you enough words, freedom to express yourself and your thoughts. Even if you're an introverted person, it can really help you to open up and engage a tribe of people.

7. It Expands Your Focus & Concentration Level (Much Needed in this Information Age)

 Reading builds your focus and concentration level. But don’t call that a focused reading where you read an email while chatting with colleagues, check Twitter posts while hurriedly walking to your cabinet. Just don’t. We are not emphasizing that kind of reading. In fact, that kind of thing makes your mind slower and dull and gets little work done at a time or in a day.

A very focused reading, like reading a 2-minute article in one glance peacefully, reading a chapter in a book within 15 minutes, or any other kind of reading where you aren’t multitasking can help make your brain become more focused and concentrated on other tasks for the rest of the day.

Whether you are in a professional career or in your sophomore year, just devote yourself to some dedicated reading for about 20 minutes lest, you will automatically see the effects, while you will pursue other chores.

Here are the Top 10 Highest Paying Jobs Without Degrees that could use some of your improved focus & concentration level!

8. Reading Boosts Sleep Quality (Do you sleep like a baby?)

Reading really calms your mind, it acts as a destresser whenever you are tired, feared, or anxious. It nurtures your brain cells, makes them calm, and helps them and your body get sound & restful sleep.

Whenever you have a long day, reading a few lines before bedtime can help you go to quality sleep which we are devoid of in today’s time due to consistent pressure, hard work, and competition.

9. Can Make Your More Compassionate & Empathetic (Strongly Needed)

When you indulge in some interesting reads that are empathetic, cause-driven, mainly fiction, you feel connected to your emotions. You shift perspectives, understand human emotions by walking in others' shoes. This in turn makes you quite compassionate, caring, and more empathetic. Which we all need to become to make this world a better place.

10. It Builds Your Vocabulary (They Make You Smart)

We all could use some stronger vocabulary, and we also know there is no end to triumph over all vocabulary, it’s a lifelong process. When you read good resources, you often end up reading good powerful vocabulary words which can come in handy in your day-to-day routine.

If you are a working professional, you can use that new-found vocabulary to shine your emails, reports, or while communicating with colleagues, stakeholders, or management. Or if you are a student, these words could help outshine your study resources, assignments, or while you speak with friends and lecturers.

When you keep finding new words with stronger verbs, persuasion, and impact behind them, and replace them with your regular same old words, you feel confident at speaking or writing any draft. Even when you interact well with others who keep themself well-read and aware of new vocabulary words, you feel pretty confident and belong.

The best resources to build your vocabulary are novels, books, and newspapers or digital news articles, as they emphasize modern literature and powerful words.

11. Enhances Your Writing Style (Powerful Writing Triumphs)

If you are in any profession where writing whitepapers or digital content is much needed or are a student who has to create research papers with influential writing, reading can really help a lot in both arrangements.

With reading, you get exposed to others’ exceptional work. It gives you inspiration for adding more versatility, fluidity, or cadence to your own writing. It gives you an understanding of how to create meaningful sentence structures, add persuasive literary words, and use a tone that embraces the interests of the readers (those who will read up your write-up).

If you are in such an arrangement where writing is an indispensable part, reading can save you from drying your well of creativity.

12. It Increases Your Lifespan (Long Live!)

Other than just restoring your life quality, it increases your lifespan on a whole lot many levels too. Studies have found out that “people who read at least 3.5 hours/week (say almost like half-hour daily) were able to reduce their mortality rate by 17%”.

Also, people who read almost 3.5 hours daily were found to live 23 months longer than counterparts who didn’t read.

Well, it’s evident from other benefits how it deeply boosts your lifespan. It takes care of your mental well-being and that’s today is everything to function and live a most sustainable & peaceful life.

Why Do You Need to Read Almost Daily? Benefits of Reading Daily!

The above benefits of reading a book or any resource are enough to tell that if you do it daily, you can make some substantial impacts on your mental or physical well-being. Reading has a very profound impact on your life expectancy, it gives you equal benefits like eating green veggies and moving your body for 30 minutes gives you. It helps keep your mental sanity in check, which is quite an important aspect of your entire body.

“A study said, people who read 30 minutes daily were able to outlive people who didn’t do it at all”. Yes, reading helps you live longer.

Also, it boosts your attention span and calculative ability. With being exposed to digital media, where visuals have made it easy to connect dots, somewhere we don’t have attention to things or details, our mind has stopped being analytical and calculative (don’t you pick calculators for even small calculations?).

Reading almost daily for like seconds, minutes or even hours will make you actively participate in areas of life, and give you the drive to shift perspectives and opinions, and walk into others’ shoes to see and adapt according to different spheres of life.

So the Bigger Question is How to Develop That Reading Habit?

Now you know how is reading good for you on a daily basis, the next question is how to build that habit.

• Keep reading even small ounces of information from a book or any digital resources for 30 days straight. As we humans take 30 minutes to develop a habit.
• Keep a book or any reading resource right beside your bed, whenever you are crashing on your bed, remind yourself to read at least a para or a whole page on a daily basis.
• If you are a working professional or a student, take the reading material with you in a bag, and read it while you are on lunch breaks, commuting back home, or else.
• Keep reminding and acknowledging the positives of reading. If you have just started, think of how it will make you feel ecstatic, wise, and well-informed. When a long time passes by while reading, start acknowledging the benefits of reading you are witnessing in yourself.
• Find a peaceful place to read, like a park, balcony, or any other place, and read to whatever length you can.
• Search for the reading material that interests you, it could be any fiction book, magazine article, blog, even your textbooks, or any eBooks, and then find the genre that generally pleases you. It could be fashion, finance, technology, geography, or more, find your area of interest & keep getting exposure around it.

In the end, don’t stress how to cover more at speed. Go slow and steady, and once you eventually find the interesting reads, you will definitely increase your reading curiosity & speed.

What Type of Reading Resources You Can Indulge in? Other Than Reading a Book!

If you are not an ardent reader, or someone who lacks time, you certainly wouldn’t enjoy reading conventional lengthy books (that too without strong visuals), would you? So here are other types of reading materials that aren’t books, which you can incorporate into your daily life:

• eBooks - Very portable, lightweight, can be carried to any place.
• Pdfs and slideshows - Amazing visually and textually interesting to read the information on the go on any topic.
• Digital Articles or blogs - Very interesting to keep yourself updated with any hot off the press topics.
• Newspapers headlines - At least start with reading the headlines and then start with columns, they can really help in shifting your perspective (and also building your vocabulary).
• Industry Whitepapers or case studies- Very great resources to understand an issue from the perspective of the issuing body, solve a problem, make decisions.
• Magazines or manuals - Industry-relevant magazines can really help get colossal importation on any go-to topic you are interested in.

Final Thoughts on Benefits of Reading Books or Any Reading Material!

Reading shouldn’t stop, at any point in life. It should be an ongoing process. Our brain needs mental exercise to stay active and proactive, and reading helps it stay that way. Reading not just mentally shapes us, but also enhances our personality. A person who is well-read tends to appear more confident, approachable and has the ability to make well-informed decisions in any ups and downs of life. It shifts our perspectives and gives us the ability to think from others’ minds, which in summation makes us quite progressive, approachable, and adaptable.

If you have ever doubted how is reading good for you, hope these 12 incredible benefits of reading books or any resource have helped eradicate them. We also helped you with key tips that can actually make you fall in love with reading almost every day.

If you have found a fondness for reading and are interested in seeking a career that gives you a lifelong knowledge curve, we can suggest a handful of trending career options in IT and management. And if you will join any course or training program, we will nurture your learning delivery with types of reading resources.

If we have missed pointing out any other benefits of ‘how is reading good for you which you feel are important, share with us in the comments down below!

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