Guide · Reading goals
How many pages a day should you read?
The arithmetic for 12, 24 or 52 books a year, and how to choose a number that survives a busy week.
“How many pages a day should I read?” has a simple answer and a useful one. The simple answer is arithmetic. The useful one is the number you will actually keep on a busy Tuesday. This guide gives you both.
The quick answer
Take the number of books you want to finish, multiply by how long they are, and divide by the days you have. With books of about 300 pages and a whole year ahead of you:
| Books a year | Pages a day | Minutes a day |
|---|---|---|
| 12 (one a month) | 10 | 15 |
| 24 (two a month) | 20 | 30 |
| 52 (one a week) | 43 | 65 |
The minutes assume a minute and a half per page, which is a fair middle for a paperback. Dense non-fiction is slower, a page-turner is faster. If you are starting part way through the year, the reading goal calculator does the sum from today.
Start from your week, not from the target
Goals tend to fail in the same place: they are set on a quiet Sunday and tested on a hectic Wednesday. Before you pick a number, look at your real week.
- Find your reliable minutes. Ten minutes with coffee, a commute, the last fifteen minutes before sleep. Count only the time that shows up on most days.
- Turn minutes into pages. Time yourself on a few pages of the book you are reading now. That is your pace, not an average from somewhere else.
- Take a little less than that. A goal you meet on your worst normal day builds a streak. A goal you only meet on good days builds guilt.
If you can reliably find twenty minutes, about thirteen pages a day is a goal that survives real life. Over a year, that is still around fifteen books of 300 pages.
Why a small daily goal beats a big yearly one
A yearly goal is far away. In February it feels like there is plenty of time, and in October it feels impossible. A daily goal is something you can finish today, which is exactly why it works.
It also changes the question you ask yourself each evening. Not “am I on track for 30 books?”, but “did I read my 15 pages today?” The second question has an answer, and answering yes most days is how the yearly number takes care of itself.
Pages or minutes?
Pages are satisfying, because you can see them move. Minutes are fairer, because a page of philosophy is not a page of a thriller. Choose pages if you mostly read similar books. Choose minutes if you mix dense and light reading, or if you listen to audiobooks too.
In BookWorm you can set your daily goal either way, and reading and listening both count toward it.
What to do when you fall behind
You will. Everyone does. Two things help.
- Do not try to catch up in one sitting. Reading three days of pages on Sunday turns reading into homework. Just read today's goal today.
- Recalculate from today. Spread what is left over the days that are left. The new daily number is usually only a page or two higher than the old one.
A simple way to choose
- Time yourself reading for ten minutes and count the pages.
- Decide how many minutes you can give on a normal day, and take a little off.
- Multiply the two. That is your daily page goal.
- Keep it for two weeks before you raise it.
Try it in the reading goal calculator, then set the number as your daily goal in BookWorm so it is waiting for you tomorrow.
