Seven Tips for Reaching Your Reading Goals

The new year means that it's time to set a new reading goal! Exciting right? It took me while to decide how many books I wanted to aim to read for this year because I did so good last year but I knew I will be a lot busier so I had to weight it up. Eventually I decided to stay with 25 books which I think is a pretty good target; at least two books a month is achievable for me! Well I learned a lot from my 2015 reading challenge and I thought I could share some tips with you on how you can make sure you smash that goal by the end of the year - we can do it guys!

Set a realistic but exciting goal

You don't want to set yourself a goal that's too easy and you know you'll definitely achieve with almost no effort. Why you may ask? Motivation! Trust me it's so much better to challenge yourself because you'll feel like you've made a huge achievement when you get to the end. It's so worth it! If you're stuck on deciding how many then ask some family or friends for advice as I'm sure they'd be willing to help. The internet is good too haha!

Pick books you're actually interesting in

It's good to have a variety of books to read so you don't get bored of reading the same thing. Obviously if you're like me and you're not so keen on romantic books then don't read them but if you've been reading a lot of one genre then you could lose that incentive to keep reading. If you're looking for some inspiration I did a post back in July on ways to discover new books that may give you an few new ideas. You know me, always here to help!

Work around your schedule

You're going to want to have a reading goals that fits your lifestyle so map out what you do from day to day. If you're at full time study or you have a 9-5 job, why not read while you travel to and from there? Lunch is a good time as well with reading being a way of relaxing. Reading a night always helps me get to sleep after being on the computer all day so consider that too! Just squeeze in 30 minutes of reading here and there if you're mega busy and I promise you'll start to see how much you can achieve! Just don't put too much pressure on yourself - reading is meant to be fun!

Try different book types

Audiobooks. E-books. Hardbacks. Paperbacks. You see where I'm going with this. SO MIX IT UP A LITTLE! There's no limit to what type of book you can read and they all mean you can have a book with you at all times! I tend to keep my paperback and hardbacks at home (sometimes) and use my kindle for while I'm on the road but that's just me, you can do whatever suits you! Why not try an audiobook too? I'm even trying them for the first time this year so I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

Keep track of your progress

I'll be using Goodreads again this year so for my reading goal as I find it really helpful for checking how many books I've read so far in the year and the ones I've still got left to read. Also you can add your friends and see what they're up to as well! An alternative could be maybe getting a book journal? I've been thinking of getting one myself as it's always nice to have that paper version plus I love notebooks hehe! You never know that might actually suit you more!

If you don't like the book, drop it

This can be a very difficult thing to do but sometimes it's the best decision you could make! The worst thing you can do is carry on reading a book that you really don't like because it could put you off reading for a long time which will delay your progress. Don't worry even I still struggle to do this. I will try my hardest to finish a book if I've started reading it but sometimes you've got to know when to let it go and move on. It's not always a bad thing because you can just pick up a new book and try again; it's not the end of the world!

Get social to stay motivated

Like I mentioned before Goodreads is great for seeing how your friends and family are doing with their reading goal and you could even get some ideas on what book to read next as they'll most likely give their review on each book they read. I use Twitter, Instagram and sometimes Facebook as a way of posting what I've just read too as it's another to talk to others about what you thought of each one and get the conversation started. You'll be surprised how much people will want to hear what you think!

What are your reading goals for 2016, are you taking part in any challenges? How well did you do last year? I love talking books so you know you can always comment below with your book achievements! I hope you're all enjoying 2016 so far (to be fair it's been less than a week but still the thought is there) and I'll see you soon :)