How to Reward Yourself for Reading More

Most people who want to read more already like reading. The trouble is that a phone is always closer than a book, and it pays out faster. A book asks for twenty minutes before it gets good. A feed gets good in two seconds.

A reward gives reading a payoff of its own on the days the book can’t compete. Here’s how to set one up so it helps instead of turning reading into homework.

1. Reward time, not finished books

“A treat for every book I finish” sounds simple, but it breaks fast. A 150-page novel and a 700-page history don’t take the same effort, and a reward that’s three weeks away does nothing for you tonight.

Pay yourself for reading time instead:

Reading	Points
10 minutes	5
20 minutes	10
30 minutes or more	15
Finishing a book	20 bonus

Ten minutes is short on purpose. On a tired evening, ten minutes is easy to start, and most nights you’ll keep going once you have.

2. Price your rewards in the same points

Now decide what the points buy. Mix small rewards for this week with bigger ones to save up for:

Small (20–40 points): a fancy coffee at a café with your book, an episode of your show, a bath
Medium (60–100 points): a new book, a takeaway night, a film
Big (200+ points): a new e-reader, a reading chair or lamp, a weekend away with a stack of books

At 10 points a night, a new book is about a week of reading. That’s often enough to keep a habit going: you can see the next reward from where you are.

More ideas in 70 ways to reward yourself, sorted by cost.

3. Let rewards feed the habit

The best reading rewards make the next reading session more likely:

The next book. Buy it only when you’ve earned it, and reading pays for more reading.
A better spot to read. A good lamp, a cushion, a blanket that lives on the reading chair.
Something that replaces the phone at night. An e-reader with a warm light, or a book light, so you can read in bed instead of scrolling.
Time. A Sunday morning at a café or in the park, just to read.

A reward that pulls you away from reading, like an evening of the same phone you’re trying to read instead of, works against you. Pick rewards that sit next to the habit.

4. Turn your yearly goal into milestones

A goal like “24 books this year” is a long way off in February. Split it into milestones and put a reward on each one:

Milestone	Reward
First book of the year	Small: a new bookmark, a café visit
A quarter of your goal	Medium: the next book on your list
Halfway	Medium: a reading day out
Three quarters	Medium
The full goal	Big: what you’ve been wanting all year

Our free reading tracker for 2027 does this on paper: a line for every book of your goal, with a reward at each quarter of the way.

5. Make slow weeks cheap, not fatal

Everyone has weeks when they barely read: a busy stretch at work, a book that dragged. Decide now what that means:

A slow week just earns fewer points. You keep what you’ve saved.
It’s fine to drop a book. A book you’re not enjoying is the most common reason people stop reading. Stop, start another one, and keep earning.
Count reading days, not books. “Read on 22 of the last 30 days” says more about the habit than a book count, and it isn’t spoiled by one long book.

6. Read with someone

Reading goals stick better when someone else knows about them. Tell a friend what you’re reading, join a book club, or swap recommendations. If you share a home, give each person their own points and their own rewards, and make the prize for reaching both goals something you do together.

Track it on your phone

Habit Rewards is a habit tracker for iPhone and Android that works like this. Add “Read 20 minutes” as a daily habit, or a few times a week, and give it a coin value. A one-off like “finish the book” can go in as a task, which pays coins too. You spend the coins on rewards you set yourself, from a coffee to a new e-reader. It keeps your reading streak, sends a reminder at the time you choose, and you can skip a day without losing the streak.

✅ Try Habit Rewards: the habit tracker that pays you

Every habit pays coins by how hard it is (1, 4, 8 or 16). Write your own reward list, put a coin price on each treat, and claim it once you've earned it.