How to use the online timer
Half an hour of reading is enough to get past the point where you are still settling in, which for most books is somewhere around ten minutes. It is a length that fits into a commute on the metro, the quiet stretch after younger children are asleep, or a deliberate half hour set aside in the evening instead of whatever the phone was offering.
The count is there to protect the time rather than to hurry it. Start it, put the phone somewhere else entirely, and let the end arrive on its own instead of checking how far you have got. Keep this tab open on a laptop across the room rather than on the device you are reading from, since the page has to stay loaded for the countdown to survive.
Half an hour a day is roughly a book a fortnight for most readers, which is a considerably larger number over a year than it feels like in the moment. If a book is not working after a couple of sessions, putting it down is not a failure — the habit is the half hour, not any particular book, and forcing one usually costs several.
Common questions
Why set a timer for reading at all?
To protect the time rather than to hurry it. Knowing the end is being handled removes the reason to keep checking how far you have got, which is what usually breaks a reading session.
Should I finish a book I am not enjoying?
Not necessarily. The habit is the half hour, not any particular book, and persisting with one that is not working tends to cost several others that would have been read instead.
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