Do you, like me, find yourself aimlessly reading throughout the year, but you don’t really have a strategy? Beyond setting up my Goodreads Reading Goal at the start of the year, I’m awful at keeping track of all the books I’ve read. Here are some fun and different ways to track your reading and set not only achievable but unique goals!
Tips On How to Set Your Reading Goals and Reading Habits
1. Good Ol’ Goodreads
Setting your Goodreads yearly reading challenge is the quickest option when making a general reading goal. Come up with a number, put it in, and Goodreads will help you not only keep track of how many books you’ve read, but they’ll help you stay on schedule to achieve your goal. Personally, it does stress me out when Goodreads informs me that I’m X number of books behind schedule, so if you don’t want that added stress, this probably isn’t the best option for you.
2. Reading Spreadsheet
If you’re a type A person and get a kick out of graphics, this is the route for you! Tracking your reading through an Excel sheet allows you to have a graphic visualization of your reading habits, from how many total pages to the total number of books you’ve read. Or even a breakdown of how many stand-alone books you’ve read compared to series. It also helps you be aware of where your reading could use a boost. For example: if your goal is to read more non-fiction, the grid helps your notice ‘You’ve only read fiction books the first three months of the year.’ If you don’t want to go through trouble of creating your own grid, the lovely BookTuber HardBackHoarder has a grid pre-made that you can download.
3. Bullet Journaling!
If you’re itching to flex your artistic muscles, a reading bullet journal could be just the craft for you. What’s lovely is you can set it up any way you like. Pinterest can supply you with the motherlode of spread ideas or monthly layouts if you’re needing some inspiration!
These designs were made by the lovely Jasmine Hodge.
If you’re like me and don’t have an artistic bone in your body, it can still be fun to stretch your fingers out and write things manually. Below are some examples of more straightforward reading journal spreads.
Photo credit for these goes to my roommate, Shelby Parrish.
Check out even more bullet journal designs that we’re obsessed with!