For years I set reading goals for myself. It took me a while to realize these kinds of goals stressed me out.
Emphasizing quantity over quality, goals like “read 15 books this year” created unwanted pressure to forge through books I’d grown tired of. If I’d already sunk a few weeks into something that was getting stale, I plodded on anyway afraid to reckon with losing the time I’d already sunk into the book.
Of course, then it would take me even longer to actually read the book, and if I let my eye wander onto other books, I felt even worse.
Reading became a chore, a task. For what? For some stupid progress ticker on a website I didn’t even like to use.
So this year my reading goals are different.
quit on books that get boring
read on Saturday mornings, occasionally
do not read every night before bed
Maybe you have some similar goals for this year.