What Setting Personal Goals Is Really About

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New Year’s might as well be called the Day of the Goal. In the coming weeks, conversations and social-media feeds will drift en masse to “What do you want to achieve in 2025?” But perhaps a better question is: “How are you spending your time now, and how do you want to be spending your time next year?”

In 2019, my colleague Julie Beck spoke with Goodreads users who were imposing reading goals on themselves, often ones that proved hard to meet. She came into the conversations with a healthy dose of cynicism: “Why set yourself an unattainable goal? Why quantify your leisure reading at all?” I’m skeptical of these kinds of personal goals myself; can’t we simply trust ourselves to spend time on the things we care about? Of course, that’s easier said than done. Having a to-read list can encourage people to spend more time thinking about how much they’re reading and how much they want to be reading. Julie found in her reporting that reading goals are most useful if the person cares less about reaching a specific number and more about the increased reading they end up doing in the process. Ultimately, the point is to align your time, to the extent that you can, with the things that you find important.

On Goals

In Praise of Pointless Goals

By Gloria Liu

These achievements aren’t about productive self-improvement. They’re designed to make the pursuit of joy a deliberate practice.

Read the article.

Are You Dreaming Too Big?

By Arthur C. Brooks

Lifelong, hard-to-achieve goals might not make you happier. Small steps will.

Read the article.

The Adults Who Treat Reading Like HomeworkBy Julie BeckNo one’s making them try to read 100 books a year.

Read the article.

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P.S.

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— Isabel