Pacing & Achieving Your Reading Goals

As someone who suffers quite a bit from reader’s block and burnout, I’ve come to realise the importance of pacing your reading habits (even if I, myself, am still prone to surges and drops in my desire to read) and setting attainable goals.

What many readers do is establish a quantitative yearly reading goal, such as ‘I want to read x about of books in a year.’ This is a simple and effective way of motivating yourself to keep up your reading habits.

Below is the rough maths involved for each bracket of goal:

When it comes to realistic goals, most people will only read anywhere between fifteen and thirty books in a year. This maybe isn’t as impressive as reading a book per week, but it’s no a slouch, either. So long as you read twelve or more books in a year, you’re averaging a book per month or better, which is perfectly fine for most people who study, work, and have other time commitments.

Aside from factors that take away from your free time, it’s important to realise that the speed and quantity of your reading depends on both you and the books you choose.

Consideration One: Your Reading Speed

Your reading speed, a bit like your typing speed, isn’t going to have a massive impact on a daily basis. In fact, you probably aren’t aware of your reading speed, which is a sign that you’re a content and comfortable book enjoyer.

Even if you read 10% slower than most people, that will only cost you around an hour per book. Expand this to across a year, and you’ll suddenly be losing another book or two’s worth of time across a year. This sounds bad, but I’d recommend that you don’t worry about it — reading is about pleasure and entertainment, not speed running or competing with yourself.

You will have a much nicer time simply going at your own speed and allowing your mind to be properly absorbed into the book’s contents. So, please, take your time with each book and enjoy it to the fullest.

Consideration Two: Book Length

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that reading lengthier books takes a longer amount of time, and greater commitment, than reading shorter ones. If you break it down into a matter of page count (and, for simplicity’s sake, assume every page contains a fixed amount of words), the impact of book length becomes apparent.

In theory, you can read ten 150-page books in the same amount of time that you can read five 300-page books. However, if you’re only going by an overall book count at the end of the year, reading longer books makes this more difficult to achieve.

So, for those of you who always seem to be picking up prints with 400–600 pages, perhaps you should dial back your goal to compensate for the extra time each read will take. After all, someone reading books of half the length can double the amount of books they’ve read in a year, yet the total pages will be almost the same.

Consideration Three: Book Format

This doesn’t seem all that relevant, but it actually is. Digital books — such as on Kindle or mobile — are not only more portable and convenient, but lack the need to flick through pages and handle a chunky, physical wad of paper.

You may find yourself out and about with some downtime, but you never brought a book. If you have a Kindle or smartphone to hand, then you can simply pull out your digital book and read away, even if only for a short period of time.

Also, as much as I don’t really count it as reading, audiobooks do exist for an increasing amount of titles. These can be put on at almost any time, whether at home or outdoors, and regardless of whether you’re multitasking or actively focusing on the story being read aloud. Time-wise, this makes them particularly efficient for improving your rate of reading books, especially if you are simultaneously tending to simple chores and other duties.

Consideration Four: Pacing & Your Limitations

As I said previously, reading is about enjoying the experience of escapism. Regardless of what format or genre your book is in, you do have a limit to how much you can read across a single year, and that’s not just because the clock never stops ticking.

Forget about free time and things that get in the way, because the truth is that you’re not always going to want to read. Even when the opportunity to do so is there, you might not feel interested or motivated enough.

Humans like routine, but we also like change. Your brain needs more than just printed words to be content, especially if you’re always trying to read whenever you’re free or bored. So don’t discount the notion that you’ll end up with burnout or reader’s block from time-to-time. Equally, don’t feel ashamed if you’d rather play a video game, watch a show or film, or put on some music in the time you’d usually open a book. Moreover, try getting out there when these feelings come along. You could maybe even steal a few lifestyle tips and experiences from your books, like recreating a trip the protagonist/narrator went on, or taking up a hobby mentioned in a novel.

Even if you somehow stave off these hindrances, and want to take on the hefty challenge of reading one book per week, pacing is important. You might think, ‘I don’t have time to pace myself, I want to read a book every week and that means I have to read fast!’ but that’s a trap, and a one-way route to burnout.

Trust me, if you’ve got at least a spare hour or two per day, then you can pace yourself. Let’s break down your week and treat every day equally to make a point:

• 168 total hours = 24 hours per day
• Four hours of (assumed) daily free time, of which you read for two hours
• Two hours of reading = a 100–120 pages read, minimum
• Three days of this and you can read most standard length novels (300 pages)
• Alternatively, six days of this also works if you only read for an hour per day
• This habit grants a day or more to recharge before starting another book, and doesn’t derail your whole day with reading

So yes, you can do it! And don’t forget that the world isn’t as consistent as your plans or intentions. You’ll have extra busy days when you can’t read, and you’ll have free days when you can read for hours on end.

Pacing yourself is the essential step to enjoying the experience of reading, while successfully limiting the chance for boredom or burnout. Consistency is the backbone of habit and attainment, so you’re going to need to apply it if you have substantial reading goals, but you don’t have to go crazy over it. If you’re more casual about your reading, or maybe don’t even have a goal in the first place, trying to make a loose routine can help foster your reading habits.