Never Stop Growing: Tips & Tricks for Creating Your Own Personal Reading Challenge

A personal essay on creating tailored reading challenges to deepen knowledge, featuring steps for setting and achieving specific reading goals

I often find myself obsessing over new things to research and read about. This interest stems from my fascination with both history and culture. I love asking questions about why things are the way they are, and I love reading books that give me answers. In 2021, I read Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. This inspired me to create the Black Historical Fiction Decades Reading Challenge. Completing the challenge two years later gave me a deeper understanding of twentieth-century Black history and key figures in Black activism. This challenge, plus other nonfiction reads unrelated, has expanded my baseline knowledge on a variety of topics and can continue to expand what I don’t already know.

So creating my personal reading challenges to help me grow in the directions I want to grow in is so important to me as a reader, but also a lifelong learner. Creating a reading challenge or goal is key to surrounding yourself with new material in fun and interesting ways. Today we’ll talk about the key steps to creating your own personal reading challenge, such as deciding what your goal is going to be, what the timeline looks like, and how many books you’re reading. These steps will help you to curate a reading challenge that best fits your personal goals.

Decide on a goal.

Before starting, decide what you want to achieve with your reading challenge. Are you looking to expand your knowledge in a specific area or explore new genres? For example, I’ve created personal challenges focused on history to deepen my understanding of particular topics. Feel free to make your goal as detailed and personal as you like.

I’ve done challenges that matched the themes of the season I was experiencing. When I was curating books for my summer reading list, I knew I would be traveling, so I looked for books that interested me about traveling, eventually finding Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Traveling by Shahnaz Habib. It was the perfect read to accompany my trip through Europe.

You should look for books that excite you. They don’t have to be the most popular books on the market, but they should be something that piques your interest. Your books don’t even have to be nonfiction. Choosing to read a new trope, or a more diverse book than what you’re used to, also counts as setting a goal. One of my reading goals this year is to read 12 books by Palestinian authors. I’ve read an assortment of poetry, historical fiction, coming-of-age fiction, queer fiction, biographical nonfiction, and more because of this goal.

Make sure your goal meets the criteria for a SMART goal. This will help to ensure that you can take steps to achieve your reading goals. A SMART goal means a goal that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. My personal goals include challenges and specific reading lists, but they’re always pretty specific. For my seasonal picks, I usually select three books in advance that relate to what I’ll experience in the future. Personal challenges have a certain parameter–like reading 12 books by Palestinian authors. I have a specific goal beyond just reading diverse books, but I still get to choose as I go.

Decide on a timeline.

Once you figure out a specific goal for your reading log, it’s time to figure out the timeline. You can set annual goals, quarterly goals, or monthly goals. Starting with annual goals is my recommendation, to really figure out how to frame the rest of your goals. If your annual goal is to read 12 nonfiction books, then you know that you have to read a new nonfiction book each month. Because I also curate seasonal reading lists, I have little reading challenges to keep me going throughout the year that are on a tighter schedule, but have fewer books to read in total.

Some challenges–like my Black Historical Fiction Decades Reading Challenge–don’t have specific timelines. Learning history requires an adaptable pace. I would still incorporate new reads into my other categories, such as part of my seasonal challenges. So it’s not really mandatory for you to set a timeline as long as you make sure you’re consistently working towards finishing the challenge.

Choose a reasonable amount of books.

Consider your reading limitations realistically. Start by committing to one book a month. You might not read thirty-something books a year to start, or hundreds of books like some Bookstagrammers, and that’s okay.

I also recommend looking for ways that make reading more accessible to you. If you have a Spotify subscription, you get plenty of audiobooks for free, up to 12 hours per month. I also have the Kindle app downloaded on my phone, so if I find myself waiting for something or have extra time, I’m able to read directly on my phone. This way, I’m able to read a couple of pages here and there to help me achieve my goals.

Setting personal challenges and goals for your reading can help you expand your knowledge of the world around you, while strengthening your brain, reducing stress, and more. Studies show many lifetime benefits to developing a reading habit, and you will have the added benefit of always having something cool to talk about in social situations.