Read a fiction book. Read a non fiction book. Read a cookbook or a comic book for all I care. Just spend more time reading.
I should say that I am very much in favor of a good blockbuster movie, an exciting football game, or a taut detective thriller. And I am also asking you to try turning off the show you didn’t mean to watch, the extra 20 minutes you didn’t realize you spent on Facebook, or that part of your life you lost to Candy Crush.
Because books are every bit as good at stimulating your brain, and more.
Great books take you away to another place for a while. Great books give you perspective. Great books make you laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all. And great books make you wonder, are we alone in the universe?
When you get back from spending time alone in your head with a book, you are better suited to be with other people. You might have new insights to share with others. You may look at your life a little differently.
Whether you read the book out loud, info-snack using a Kindle, stay in bed with a flashlight under the covers until the book ends, or read in other ways and places, great books inspire. Great books stay with you and don’t let go. Great books remind you of good and bad times and those yet to be. Make sure you read some more this week and you’ll see what I mean.
Information Maven 
I’ve been on a reading binge and loving every minute of it. I struggle because there are so many books I want to read right now.
The biggest challenge for me is making the time. I think you’re spot on that noticing when you start drifting around social media or when you start tinkering with your phone, if you can get in the habit of changing that routine to read instead, that’s where you can really make improvements.
Would love to hear what you’ve done in order to develop a habit of reading.
David – two ways that I’m trying to read more: 1) read every day (a little bit in the morning, a little bit in the evening) 2) keep a stack of books from the library that I need to read (if I don’t read them in a month, they have to go back)