Holy Speed-Reading, Batman!

In this case study, I’ll lay out the steps to comfortably read the entire Bible in less than 150 days. I know you want to. I know you’ve started and stopped (like me) more times than Leviticus has rules. And now you think it’s impossible or at least way too hard. Or maybe it’s just for people more holy than you.

Stop that nonsense!

I was a 53-year-old Christian and never read the Bible from beginning to end. That admission is embarrassing. I tried many times but got bogged down somewhere between Deuteronomy and 2 Samuel.

Why Did I Fail?

5 Reasons I Failed When Trying to Read Through the Bible

1 – I Didn’t Have a Clear Goal

“I want to read through the Bible” is fuzzy. Without a specific, measurable goal, it’s easy to lose motivation and direction. Vague intentions lead to vague results. Without clarity, I jumped around without purpose, often getting stuck or losing interest.

Here’s an essential stat about having clear goals: A review of 400 studies on goal setting found that specific, challenging goals led to higher performance 90% of the time compared to easy or vague goals.

2 – I Didn’t Have a Solid Plan

As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” It’s like heading out to sail the oceans without a compass, and you will get lost in the wilderness before finding the Promised Land.

3 – I Didn’t Have Strategies

A solid plan includes strategies to execute the plan. Good strategies keep the plan moving.

4 – I Didn’t Have Tools

Audacious goals require the right tools. Even David had a slingshot and five stones.

5 – I Didn’t Track My Progress

If anything is worth doing, it’s worth tracking because you measure what matters.

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You Will Not Fail With This Bible-Reading Plan

In this case study, I’ll give you:

• a method to create a goal
• a unique plan
• a definitive strategy
• a few simple hacks
• a way to track your progress.

This plan builds a habit you don’t want to break, and you might read the entire Bible in less than 150 days. To encourage you, I read the Bible in 107 days. 150 will be a cakewalk for you if you use this system.

I’ll also give you a bonus hack, but I don’t want you to use it.

Are you ready to get started?

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How to Read the Bible in Less Than 150 Days

1 – Make a SMART Goal to Read the Entire Bible

SMART goals are not fuzzy. Fuzzy goals are daydreams pulled along by a wet noodle. You inch forward, but at the first setback, the noodle snaps, and your goal evaporates like steam from a pasta pot. You need more than a wet noodle.

Working through your SMART goal helps determine your WHY and decide if your WHY is worthy and enduring.

Measure twice, cut once, and be among the 8% of people who accomplish their goals.

I’ll work through my SMART goal of reading the entire Bible.

S – Your Goal Should Be Specific

Goal: I will read the entire Bible in 150 days or less because every Christian should.

What was I going to read? The entire Bible, not just the Old Testament or the New Testament.

How long would it take? 150 days or less.

Why? Because I should.

My goal was specific. It answered What, When, and Why.

M – Your Goal Should Be Measurable

How did I come up with 150 days? Was 150 a random figure? No, I measured to determine the number. My old duct-taped Bible is a small print version with 1042 pages and no study notes.

1. I timed myself at 4.5 minutes per page
2. 1042 pages x 4.5 minutes per page = 4689 minutes
3. 4689/30 minutes a day = 156.3 days

I rounded down to 150 to push myself. I’m a slow reader, which is encouraging news to you. You’ll probably smash your 150-day goal.

A – Your Goal Should Be Attainable

It’s foolish for me to set a goal to be a world-renowned brain surgeon, but I can absolutely read through the Bible in 150 days if I’m breathing and following the plan.

Just read.

Every day.

R – Your Goal Should Be Relevant

Relevant means your goal aligns with your values and long-term objectives. I’m a Christian; therefore, I should put my screens down and read the entire Bible. If you’re not a Christian but consider yourself an open-minded intellectual, why not read it at least once? After all, it’s the best-selling book of all time, having sold 5 billion copies according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

You should see what all the fuss is about for yourself.

T – Your Goal Should Be Time-Bound

Set a realistic end date. But push yourself a bit. Although math told me 156 days, I shot for 150.

Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec said, “A goal without a deadline is just a dream.”

And without a deadline pushing you along, your warm, comfortable bed wins the battle too many mornings until you get frustrated and quit. Yes, you must get up early to read. More on that later.

And without a deadline pushing you along, your warm, comfortable bed wins the battle too many mornings until you get frustrated and quit. Yes, you must get up early to read. More on that later.

My SMART goal for reading the Bible was specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

2 – Develop your Consistency Superpower

“It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.” – Tony Robbins

Consistency is a superpower. You can accomplish almost any goal if you stick with it and apply consistent, daily effort.

Unfortunately, my most consistent trait had been inconsistency.

Then, in 2020, things changed. I enrolled in a live-streaming 75-hour real estate licensing course taught over six consecutive weekends. The course came with an 800-page textbook and a massive workbook I now use as a boat anchor.

Every day, before and after work, I dedicated time to reading the textbook, studying the vocabulary, and taking practice exams.

The course forced consistency upon me. It was do or die — fail, and I lost six weeks of my life, $300, and another six weeks in the future to retake the course. I used a principle called the Slight Edge from a book by Jeff Olson. It’s about how slight, consistent, positive efforts yield tremendous long-term results. Taken from its Amazon page,

The Slight Edge shows you how to create powerful results from the simple daily activities of your life by using tools already within you.

I passed the school and state exams and then slight-edged the 90 hours of post-licensing courses online over the next 18 months.

When I decided to read the entire Bible in February 2021, I was confident I could stick with something, and more importantly, I liked the feeling. Finally, I had a plan—the Slight Edge was the foundation.

That’s my history on consistency. I want you to know my background because I’m not here as someone who’s had it together my whole life. But I read through the Bible in less than 150 days, and so can you – one day at a time.

3 – Set Yourself Up for Success

You can be successful if you plan for it. An engineer builds a rocket from a set of plans. The process isn’t random. I’ll show you how to plan for success and make this project more painless than you think. We convince ourselves that reading the entire Bible is too hard, so we never start. But as the philosopher Seneca said,

We suffer more in imagination than in reality.

You need a battle plan. Quitting is too easy, especially because your archenemy, Satan, will attack your efforts. He doesn’t want you to read the Bible. I have six fundamental strategies to set you up for success.

6 Ways to Prepare to Read the Bible

One – Be Wise about Your Timing

Set your alarm 30 minutes earlier than you usually wake up. I know that sounds painful, but I promise you that it’s the key to your success. Don’t start until you’re prepared to make this commitment.

Read before your day begins.

Don’t deceive yourself into thinking you’ll read the Bible later in the day. You must do it before the wheels of your machine start turning and suck you under it.

Unexpected things come up all the time.

Doesn’t expecting the unexpected make the unexpected expected?

Bob Dylan

For 295 days in a row, I read the Bible for at least 30 minutes. Then, on the cold winter morning of day 296, my warm bed whispered sweet nothings in my ear, convincing me to sleep late and read the Bible later in the day. The wheels of the machine spun wildly out of control that day, trampling me underfoot, and I didn’t remember until 1:42 am the following day.

Consistency woke me up, screaming a Bob Dylan tune in my ear.

Plan for the unexpected by eliminating it from the equation. How many unexpected things happen before you wake up?

Two – Wake Up (Which is more than just getting out of bed)

Take a shower. An ice bath if you want, but that’s not part of my strategy. A shower wakes you up and prepares your mind so you’re not nodding off in Numbers. If coffee is standard protocol and you’re not fully human until you’ve drunk a cup, by all means, go ahead. Diet Dr. Pepper was my go-to morning perk-me-up.

Three- Let Your Online Life Wait Until You Read the Bible

Don’t check email, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, or anything else on any screen. No one knows you’re up yet. Yes, make sure your college kids didn’t text in the middle of the night needing bail money, but that’s it.

Don’t self-sabotage by creating distractions.

Four – Create a Pleasant Environment

Reading through the Bible might be the most audacious goal you’ve ever set. You must read somewhere for 75 hours over the next 150 days. Create a delightful place, a spot you’ll enjoy. You’re worth it, and this project is worth it. Choose a location away from the main thoroughfares in your house if you live with other early risers. Even a tiny corner is fine, but tidy it up. Make it neat and pleasant — light a candle. You’ll soon associate your special spot with reading the Bible and look forward to your time there in the mornings.

Five – Avoid the Study Notes in the Bible

“Heresy!” you yell. But what’s your goal? It’s “read through the Bible in 150 days,” not “study through the Bible in 150 days.” That’s why you make a SMART goal. If you read the study notes, you’ll never get through the Bible in 150 days. We failed by January 10th every other year because of the study notes.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t study the Bible. You should. Just not in this highly focused, set-apart 30 minutes. Highlight parts you want to come back and study later. Put sticky notes on the pages. When you return later, make notes in your Bible. These notes will be gold to you years down the road.

Six – Choose An Easy to Read Bible Version

God doesn’t speak in King James English. Choose a Bible version that’s easy to read and understand. This step is mission-critical for your success. I read the New Living Translation (NLT) because it’s written in plain language.

A word of caution — read a version that correctly depicts God’s intended meaning, not a man’s biased interpretation. For this reason, I can’t recommend The Passion Translation or The Message. I’m not going into the specifics here, but check out these articles from GotQuestions.org. I trust the site, and agree with its conclusions.

What is the Passion Translation of the Bible?

What is The Message (MSG)?

These six tips are your tactical battle plan for success. Don’t get started on something so lofty and important as reading the entire Bible in 150 days without a plan. Now, onto the fourth and final step.

4 – Track and Measure Your Progress

You’re going to read for 30 minutes every day. The power isn’t in what you accomplish in one day or even two.

The power is in the seven pages a day, every single day you read.

At the end of your second week, your bookmark will be on page 100. One month in, you’re on page 200. And congratulations! You made it through the first six books of the Old Testament. By now, you’re getting pumped about the pages piling up behind you. My motivational mojo got ramped up at about this point, and I started logging evening sessions in addition to the mornings. I recorded 166 reading sessions, which helped me finish in 107 days.

But you don’t have to work overtime. Just stick to the steady 30 minutes every morning, and you’ll cross the finish line in 150 days or less.

Tracking and measuring your progress is essential. Peter Drucker said,

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it

Here are three tracking tips for reading through the Bible.

3 Tracking Tips When Reading the Bible

1. Write the date above the chapter in your Bible when you begin each morning.
2. Stop at the end of a page or the top of the next page. Track your time with your phone’s stopwatch.
3. Use a spreadsheet or Google Sheet to record the following information: date, time started and ended, amount of time read, and the number of pages read.

The spreadsheet data allows you to calculate some cool things:

• Average pages read per day
• Average pages per minute or hour
• Average amount of time reading per day
• Average time you start reading in the morning

This analytical stuff excites me, maybe not you, but at the very least, record all this information in a notebook. Tracking your progress gives you motivational traction.

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An Advanced Hack to Read Through the Bible (but don’t do it!)

I hesitate to include this last strategy because I don’t want you to do it on your first run through the Bible. I used this hack for the third time through. I’ll explain what it is and then argue against it.

The You Version Bible app reads to you, and you can set the reading speed to higher than the regular rate. You still follow along in your real Bible, dating and counting those pages, just like usual, but the app’s faster reading rate pulls you forward. I settled on a rate of 1.4x, and my pages per hour exploded from 14 to 25. But I didn’t lose any comprehension because I followed along in my real Bible, highlighting key verses. Now, I watch all YouTube videos and listen to Audible books at 1.4x or higher.

So, why would I discourage you from using the Bible app?

First, I had the advantage of recent familiarity with the material before I used this audio hack. I started using the Bible app on day 288 after reading through it twice with no breaks. This familiarity made the audio hack effective for me — something you need before using it.

Second, your attention will drift when the austere-sounding British man reads in his melodic cadence. I caught myself drifting many times, and I would stop the app and go back to read what I missed. Don’t miss any words on your first successful journey through the Bible.

The point is to read the Bible, not pretend to read it. You might as well stay in bed.

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7 Life-changing Benefits from Reading the Entire Bible

I get worn out with marketers and bloggers using the cliche “life-changing.” When Amazon delivers a package to my door at 6:30 am that I had ordered in bed a few hours before — friends, that’s life-changing.

I don’t waste time driving to four stores hunting down a size 10.5 extra-wide walking shoe.

So, while I’m cautious about using the term “life-changing,” I can pull it out here. The Bible doesn’t need my help to be life-changing, but we must read it to learn any lessons from it.

It’s useless collecting dust on your coffee table.

Seven Benefits to Reading the Entire Bible

1. You capture a vast expanse of the story quickly, which makes the big picture easier to see.
2. You will glean more about God’s character and connect the dots of His faithfulness in history. Highlight every time God mentions justice for the poor, widows, and orphans.
3. You learn the history. Many people avoid the Old Testament, but that is a mistake. Saint Augustine is credited with saying, “The Old Testament is the New Testament Concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament Revealed.” Understanding the OT makes the NT so much richer and more meaningful.
4. You learn to stop taking Scriptures out of context by reading the entire text.
5. You become more aware of how much God loves you.
6. You gain confidence you’ve never had.
7. You acquire the superpower of consistency, which you can apply to any goal or dream.

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My Final Stats on Reading Through the Bible

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In Closing

Now that you have a comprehensive strategy, you can read the entire Bible in 150 days or less. Make a SMART goal, develop your consistency superpower, create an environment for success, and track your progress. These techniques will work together to create a system you can use to accomplish any goal, and one of the highest goals with the most incredible benefits is to read the entire Bible.

It will change your life.

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