Just 20 Pages- A Goal To Read More

For the past two years, I’ve made the same new years goal, read more books.

Both years I’ve failed. I would start off reading every night and a few weeks into the year something would happen to cause me to veer off course. A new side project idea, a new writing project, just to worn out, you can insert any excuse here but I just lost track.

Each year I would put on my list of goals an actionable item like read 20 books, but that number overwhelms me. It’s like standing at the base of a mountain preparing to climb it, all you see is a rough and rugged path. Of course, with climbing once you start you can’t say today I don’t feel like walking. Your only choice is to trudge along and make small gains every day until you finish.

A goal of reading a total number leaves an opening for procrastination. Today I don’t feel like reading I’ll catch up later.

Instead of continuing that same pattern I’m going to set a daily goal of twenty pages. For the average person, reading an average book, twenty should take at most half an hour. So it’s not overwhelming and something easy to block off time for.

Another benefit is by doing it daily then it’s much easier for it to turn into a long term habit.

Twenty pages is inspired by Farnam Street and Jeff recommended 25, but he is an overachiever. 🙂