Are you talking reading or writing?
I was working on a physics paper but got distracted by work and life. Someone else just published what I was working on, so the time I spent on it is now wasted. Sigh.
If you are talking about writing, just spend 1 hour a day writing. That will eventually get you there. /advice I should have taken. Sigh again...
Look for a different angle on the subject missed by the other paper and publish.
Horror story about your physics paper…but time was not wasted in the sense that you had that intense research/thinking/writing time that can only make you smarter and better.
I’m trying to write my first fiction book, which I’ve wanted to do since third grade…A lifetime of nonfiction behind me, I don’t know why it’s scary to get down to what I may (or may not) be really good at. It’s actually the only thing on my bucket list.
Good luck to you.