5 Tips to Achieve Your Reading Goal in 2023 #CuriousTitans
How many of us are including reading books in our New Year’s resolution? It’s great that you plan to read more books. If you haven’t, I hope you will after you’ve read this note. I am sharing some tips on how to set your reading goal for 2023, and better still, how to achieve it.
Cultivating the habit of reading is beneficial. Some may read for pleasure and some may read to improve themselves. The more we read, the more we increase our knowledge. Our worldview expands and we become better versions of ourselves.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”- Dr. Seuss
It is important to plan and decide on your goal beforehand. Otherwise, Reading Books will remain a resolution that you made for the past two- or three years, without any hopes of accomplishing it. The plan should be to read more books in 2023. All it needs is a system that you can easily follow.
1. Decide the number of books you plan to read in a year
It could be 10, 20 or 30, it doesn’t matter. Without deciding the number, it would be tough to reach your goal. If you read five books last year, double the number. That’s how you get to read more. Also, don’t keep the number small—decide on a number that would make you slightly uncomfortable and apprehensive. Why should you do this? Because that is going to push you to read, and ultimately help you reach your goal.
2. Prepare a list
This is an important step; if you do it right, it will help you accomplish your goal. Make a list beforehand of the books or kinds of books that you want to read. This will save you time. You will not stress out if you already have the titles. This way, you can also pick and choose the books depending on your mood or available time.
You can also catalog the titles (list) on an Excel sheet or any format. Check if the books are available in hardcopy or audiobooks. Make a note of it. Don’t allow the unavailability of a particular book to hamper your reading momentum. If you don’t have enough titles, ask friends and colleagues for suggestions. The reading community is generous, people will happily suggest great titles.
Still, have a few titles ready—those that you identified. It could be five or ten. That doesn’t matter. You can keep adding to your book list. You could also go further and sort the titles you would want to read first.
I will soon be sharing my 2022 top 10 book list. Here is my top 10 book of 2021
3. Decide your monthly goal
After setting an ambitious target and preparing a list, the numbers might be daunting. Decide how many books you want to read in a month. It could be two books or four books depending on your reading speed. Or, divide the total number of books you have by 12. How will this help? In two ways:
1. You have a target that you are comfortable with. You can easily manage it.
2. It helps you track your reading journey. You will feel good knowing you’ve read this many in the past few months.
Maybe, you picked up a thick book to read for a particular month. You could further break down the number of pages. Set up a mini-goal for the number of pages you would want to read and try to stick with it. The point is to read the book at your own pace, comfortably. Don’t let a thick book stop you from reaching your reading goal.
It may so happen that you could not complete the books you targeted for the month. Don’t give up. You are accomplishing something. That should motivate you to go on reading. You can always make it up next month. Even if you can’t, why bother? If you can read regularly that is an achievement in itself.
4. Be flexible in the initial months
Read the best books you have in the beginning. Books in your favorite genre or a book you have wanted to read for a long time. In the beginning, give yourself some leeway to finish the books. The idea is to enjoy reading the books. It’s not necessary to chase your target in the first few months. You are trying to get into the habit of reading so it’s okay even if you read two books in 2 months, against your target of four books. Once you get into the habit, you can challenge yourself in the coming months.
5. Be open to reading books in different formats
Experiment with different book formats. Don’t get stuck to only physical books or e-books or only audiobooks. Try out audiobooks if you have been reading only hard copies. Some books may be very good for audio. Likewise, if you prefer reading e-books or listening to audiobooks, try reading a few of the titles in your list in physical copy. Experimenting will lead to discovery, and you will enjoy reading in different formats. Here, you can also take stock of your reading materials and calculate how much you could spend. Some books may be cheaper in e-format while some might be readily available as hard copies. You can plan according to your budget.
Another practice I would like to recommend is to make a list of the books you’ve completed. Because this list will motivate you to read further and offers a sense of accomplishment.
You may not complete all the books on your list. But you will still end up with one or two key learnings that will help you in life. If you get one central idea of what the books are about— that’s very good. Reading is about accumulating ideas that can change your life.
So, good luck and happy reading!
#ReadBetter #LearningNeverEnds #CuriousTitans
