The short answer: swap the moment, not the habit. Pick the times you usually scroll (waking up, the commute, lunch, bed), put a book there before the phone, and start with one page. Make the book easier to reach than the phone. You don't need to quit your phone. You just need the book to get there first.
Why willpower keeps losing
Most of us don't scroll because we decided to. We scroll because the phone is there and the moment is empty.
Leah Price, a professor of modern book history at Oxford, put it this way to Vox: "Reading was and is a crime of opportunity. The limiting factor isn't reading matter, but reading time." So the job isn't to want reading more. It's to hand reading the openings your phone usually takes.
There's also the tiredness problem. Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at UC Irvine who studies attention, told the American Psychological Association's podcast that people short on sleep "tend to do more lightweight activities like social media." When you're drained, the easy thing wins. A plan that relies on you being fresh and determined at 10pm won't last.
And the phone trains a certain kind of attention. Linguist Naomi Baron told Vox that on screens, "one keeps moving like a shark." Her point about books was the opposite: "Print is a medium that encourages stopping." You're not broken. You're switching between two very different ways of paying attention, and the book needs a head start.
Find your scroll moments
Before you change anything, notice when you actually scroll. For most people it's the same handful of moments, every day:
- Waking up. The phone is the alarm, so it's already in your hand.
- The commute. Train, bus, or passenger seat.
- Lunch. Ten minutes alone with a sandwich.
- The queue. Coffee line, waiting room, the kettle.
- Bed. The last half hour before sleep.
You don't need to fix all five. Pick the one or two where you scroll the longest and start there.
How to stop doomscrolling and read: one swap per moment
The idea is simple. In each moment, the book goes first. One page, then the phone if you still want it.
Waking up: read before you unlock. Leave the book on top of your phone at night, so you have to move it to get to the screen. Read one page before you check anything. If your phone is your alarm, charging it across the room helps, because you have to get up to reach it and the book is already beside you.
The commute: keep a book that travels. A paperback in your bag, or an ebook on your phone if that's what you'll actually carry. If you drive, try an audiobook. Vox reports there's evidence people understand and remember audiobooks about as well as print. The goal is to have something to read before you reach for the feed.
Lunch: give the book the first ten minutes. Not the whole break. Just the start. Read first, then scroll if you want. Ten minutes of reading at lunch, five days a week, adds up faster than you'd think.
The queue: one page, not one post. Short waits are where scrolling sneaks in. Keep an ebook app where your most-scrolled app used to sit on your home screen, so your thumb lands on a book. A page or two is plenty.
Bed: an easy book, and the phone out of reach. This is the hardest moment, because you're tired. Pick something light that pulls you along, not the heavy book you think you should finish. Put the book on your pillow when you make the bed, so it's there when you get in.
Make the book closer than the phone
Most of these swaps come down to one thing: the book has to be easier to reach than the phone.
Vox's Adam Clark Estes puts it bluntly: keeping a smartphone next to you while you read "is an invitation to distraction." So flip it. Keep a book where you already sit. Keep one in your bag. Keep your current read on the nightstand, and the phone somewhere else.
James Clear's habit stacking idea helps here too. You tie the new habit to something you already do. His formula is "After/Before [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]." So: after I pour my morning coffee, I will read one page. We cover more of that in our Atomic Habits review.
Start with one page
If you've tried and failed to read more, the goal was probably too big.
James Clear's Two-Minute Rule says that when you start a new habit, "it should take less than two minutes to do." His first example is reading: "Read before bed each night" becomes "Read one page." The point, he writes, "is to master the habit of showing up."
One page sounds silly. That's why it works. You'll almost never say no to one page, and once you've started, it's easy to keep going. Vox makes the same point: read a book for a few minutes every day "and you'll soon find that you can read for longer."
Two more rules make it easier to keep going:
- Quit books you don't like. Psychologist Daniel Willingham told Vox, "There are no rules about leisure reading... If you're not enjoying a book, drop it."
- Let every format count. Print, ebook, audiobook. Read whatever you'll actually pick up. There's more on this in how to read more books.
What to read first
Your first book back should feel more like a feed than homework: something that pulls you to the next page. A few we've reviewed:
- Project Hail Mary, a science fiction survival story.
- The Housemaid, a twisty thriller.
- Verity, a dark thriller. Check our review for content notes first.
- Klara and the Sun, a quieter pick if you like slower books.
Save the big classics for later. East of Eden is wonderful, but it's a long one. It's a better second or third book than a first.
If it's been years since you finished anything, start with our guide to getting back into reading.
Track it without obsessing
Count days, not pages. A small mark on the calendar for every day you read something is enough. The aim is a run of days, not a big number.
Miss a day? Just read one page the next. Clear's point about showing up applies here too. The habit is the thing you're building. The page count comes later.
Do app blockers help?
Sometimes. Gloria Mark told the APA's podcast she has studied internet blockers, and the results depended on the person. People with poor self-regulation could benefit, because the software does the self-control work for them. People who were already good at taking breaks and coming back were actually harmed. In her study they lost their quick online breaks and got burnt out. She'd rather people build their own control over their attention.
So treat a blocker as a tool, not a cure. If you're the kind of person a lock helps, use one. If you're not, the swaps above work fine on their own.
FAQ
How do I start reading instead of scrolling?
Swap the moment, not the habit. Pick the times you usually scroll, like waking up, the commute, lunch, or bed. Put a book there before the phone and start with one page. Make the book easier to reach than the phone.
What can I replace scrolling with?
A book, in whatever format you'll actually use. A paperback in your bag, an ebook on your phone, or an audiobook in the car. Match it to the moment: an easy, gripping book for bed, a page or two for a queue.
What can I do on my phone instead of scrolling?
Read on it. Keep an ebook app where your social apps used to sit on your home screen. Libby lets you borrow ebooks from your local library, and Vox's Adam Clark Estes credits it with turning him into a Kindle fan. If paper suits you better, keep a paperback with you too.
Is there an app that can help me read?
Yes. Read First, the app behind this blog, keeps the apps you pick locked until you've read today's pages.
How do I realistically stop doomscrolling?
Don't try to stop everywhere at once. Pick the one moment you scroll the longest, maybe bed or first thing in the morning, and put a book there first. Keep the phone out of reach in that moment, start with one page, and only add a second moment once the first feels normal.
Read First
This is the whole idea behind Read First: you lock apps until you read. You add your book and a finish date, it works out today's page count, and your apps open once you've read, snapped the page, and typed where you got to.