It’s the Christmas holidays and I’m trying to catch up on the stack of papers on my computer and desk labelled “To read”, among which is a few papers on how to develope good reading habits. One has ten simple rules for developing good reading habits, including trying to avoid a pile up of “to read” papers. From Méndez (2018):

1. Develop the habit of reading on a daily basis. Alot time for reading.
2. Read thoroughly to build a sound background understanding of your topic
3. Do not ignore the pillars of your discipline; read the classics
4. If you have to get familiar with a new topic, consider reading in chronological order
5. Avoid narrow-mindedness by reading beyond your discipline
6. Create a list of relevant journals (I immediately signed up for alerts for a lot of journals, though far from the 20+ suggested)
7. Not all interesting stuff will appear in articles; read books (Yes! I love books, but often end up reading 5 at once, which gets confusing)
8. Use a reference manager to keep track of your literature (I use Mendeley)
9. Keep a long-term review for your own use as a way to remember what you read (This is actually a really good idea, hadn’t thought of that. Could be a spreadsheet for each topic and it might turn into a published review)
10. Build your own library to make yourself independent and inspire others (Definitely working on this, I love books)