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Resetting my reading life and reclaiming my attention span for 2026.
The time has come to reflect and reset for a new year.
2025 was not my strongest reading year. I made the decision to opt out of a numerical reading goal. I thought not setting a goal would make reading feel less stressful and more fun again.
It turns out I need a benchmark to strive towards. I will finish 2025 with less than 40 completed books. This is not a horrible number by any means, but I am disappointed in myself because I know I could read more if I changed some habits.
2025 Reflections
I’ve been reflecting on my habits and routines a lot for the last month. I, like most people, am addicted to my cell phone and social media. It’s mostly mindless scrolling done out of boredom, but I’ve noticed I am no better than my 15-16 year old students. I am constantly staring at a screen, to the point where I get irritated when I can’t have my phone in front of me. I can’t even watch an episode of a TV show without grabbing my phone.
Honestly it scares me a little how much my addiction has escalated. I’ve noticed my attention span is pathetic now. I can’t read more than a few pages without my mind wandering to my phone and social media.
Instead of beating myself up, I’m going to work to reclaim my life in 2026. I want to find joy in reading again and not live online. I guess I’m embracing the analog trend going around on social media.
2026 Reading Goals
My reading goal in 2026 is simple: complete my own reading challenge by reading 52 books. That’s one book per week. It is a realistic, attainable goal I have met many times and one I’ve built my entire brand around.
I would love to read 100 books in a year, and maybe one day I will get to that point. But I have to fix my attention span first!
Within that reading goal, I would like to reread the Crescent City series and read 20 of my owned books in 2026. I reread the ACOTAR series in 2025 and had a blast revisiting the series that started my fantasy journey.
My owned TBR has been out of control for years. I’ve mostly accepted I will never be one of those people who can go on a buying ban until they’ve read all of their owned books. I can still be more intentional about my buying habits and of course use my Kindle and library more.
2026 Reset
Of course I can’t meet my goal without resetting some habits.
January will be a social media free month. I will be deleting the apps from my phone and only checking my Read With Allison Facebook and Instagram accounts on my home laptop.
I will also take a break from booktube videos, which is a bummer because I love beginning of the year content. Booktube leads me to a comparison game where I feel like every content creator is living this dream life where all they do is read books and make content about reading books. I’ve also been listening to booktube videos in the car instead of an audiobook, so I need to remove that distraction from my daily routine.
I hope a beginning of the year digital detox will help me reduce my screen time and reach for a book instead of my phone in 2026. I may not redownload the apps after a month-it really just depends on how I’m feeling after a month without the apps on my phone and whether or not I think I can handle having them again without reverting to old habits!
I plan to go through my entire book collection and make some more cuts. Any books I’ve owned for more than one year now have a reading deadline. If I don’t read those books in 2026, they must be unhauled this time next year. Let me know if you’d like to see a blog post where I share what titles are on that list!
More On The Blog
- Read With Allison 2026 Reading Challenge
- Best New Thriller Books of 2026
- Book Review: Overruled by Lana Ferguson
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