Start reading! Read for information, read for pleasure, read to challenge yourself. Read short-form literature or huge epics or Wattpad fan fiction. No matter what kind of reading you do, I guarantee you will get something out of it. It will give you time to process your emotions and dwell on thoughts. It will offer you a new perspective on life that you haven’t considered before. It will immerse you in a world that is nothing like your reality and allow you to sympathize with people who look nothing like you. Reading itself isn’t even hard—you’re doing it right now!

Yet building a habit of reading is much easier said than done. Extended reading demands an attention span that many dopamine-shot internet dwellers, me included, are ill-prepared for. Easing your way in ensures that your manic reading phase sticks with you this time.

Many returning readers, high off the excitement of making a life change, dive head-first into the book they’ve always wanted to say they read, be it Nietzsche or Dostoevsky or Socrates. But this is a recipe for failure. That spark for reading will fade just as fast as it appeared, and you will leave that book on your bedside table with a fold at the 20-page mark, never to be opened again. And this makes sense! Challenging books take a lot of mental fortitude to plow through, and returning readers have little to spare. This isn’t me being all high-and-mighty, looking down snobbishly on the peasant readers who can’t get through Crime and Punishment. These books are hard for everyone.

Starting to read again is about reducing the friction of picking up a book as much as possible. Don’t strive to be the ‘ideal reader’ from the start or you will burn yourself out. Instead, start with something you know you will like, which will serve as the hook to get your reading attention span back in check. Manga, fan fiction, sappy romance, YA dystopias, and cheesy thrillers are all still valid literature! I started by rereading one of my favorite books (The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien) just so I knew I would enjoy it, and I recommend you do the same. And if you get a chapter or two into a book and still aren’t into it, don’t be afraid to ditch it. There are too many books out there to slog through something you don’t like.

And don’t make any lofty goals for how long to read either. Like your choice of book, start small and work your way up. You can still finish plenty of books by only reading a chapter every day. It’s the commitment that matters, not the volume. But once you start upping the volume, it can be a struggle to find enough time in the day to fit in your habit. Since your day will never get any longer, the only way to make this time appear is to take it from another activity. This can be as easy as removing Instagram from your phone or deciding to stay in one night, or it can be as hard as locking your phone in a box that won’t open for the rest of the afternoon. It all depends on how willing you are to forego your other vices.

So, you have a good book picked out and scheduled time daily to read it. How can you make yourself sit down and pick that book up? It all comes down to habits. In Atomic Habits, James Clear outlines four laws of habit-building: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. Meeting these four goals in your reading habit means it will be sustainable in the long term.

If you chose your book right, we already have ‘make it satisfying’ down. The book should bring you some fulfillment or entertainment; otherwise, there’s no point in reading it in the first place. For the ‘easy’ and ‘obvious’ part, try making your book as accessible as possible in the areas you will be reading it; take a Kindle everywhere with you so you can whip it out during downtime or put a book on your pillow that you have to pick up before you get in bed. To further reduce the friction, only require yourself to read a single page before putting it back down again. It’s much easier to keep reading than start reading. The ‘attractive’ part is the hardest, and I don’t have any tips other than rewarding yourself for reading in some way. However, this becomes less of a deal after reading for a while, as a good book will naturally keep you coming back.

Although reading is a simple act, it’s much easier in theory than practice. I hope my tips will help you turn your drive for reading into real, concrete action. Soon enough, your Goodreads account will resemble a beautifully manicured garden instead of a barren wasteland. Onward!