How to Track Your Reading Progress
Pages, percentages or time: how to choose, when to write it down, and what a good record lets you see.
Contents
The short answer
Pick one unit for each book: pages for print, percentage for ebooks, time for audiobooks. Write down where you stopped at the end of every reading session, with the date. That running record is what shows your pace and tells you when you’re likely to finish.
Choose one unit per book
The unit matters less than using the same one from start to finish. Switching halfway, from pages to a percentage, say, makes your history hard to compare. Choose whatever your edition shows most clearly.
| Unit | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Pages | Print books | Different editions have different page counts |
| Percentage | Ebooks, or any book with an unclear end | Endnotes can make 90% the real ending |
| Time | Audiobooks | Playback speed changes the meaning of an hour |
Whatever you choose, note the end point once, when you start: the last page, 100%, or the audiobook’s full running time. Progress only means something against a finish line, and writing it down at the beginning saves you hunting for it later.
If you read one book in two formats, an ebook on the train and a paperback at home, record everything as a percentage. It’s the only unit both editions share.
Write it down when you stop
The most reliable moment to record progress is the moment you close the book. A day later you’ll remember the chapter but not the page, and a week of guessed numbers adds up to a record you can’t trust.
If you can, note how long you read as well. Pages alone say how far you went; pages and minutes together say how fast.
Keep each entry small enough that you’ll actually make it: the date, the page you stopped on, and the minutes if you know them. Anything that takes longer than closing the book is a habit that won’t survive the second week.
Keep a history, not a number
Most people track only their current page and overwrite it each time. Keep every update instead, each with its date. A list of entries shows things a single number can’t: the week you stalled, the weekend you read a third of the book, the pace you settle into once a story takes hold.
A page number tells you where you are. A history tells you how you got there.
None of it needs to be exact. A rough start and stop time is enough: the value comes from having many entries, not perfect ones.
Use your pace to estimate what’s left
With pages and minutes for a few sessions, the arithmetic is simple. Divide the pages you read by the hours you spent to get your pace. Divide the pages left by that pace to get the time left.
For the book above: 48 pages in 80 minutes is about 36 pages an hour, and 75 pages left is a little over two hours.
Your pace will drift. Dense chapters, an unfamiliar style or a book in your second language all slow you down, and the second half of a novel often goes faster than the first. Work it out from your last few sessions rather than the whole book, and treat the answer as an estimate, not a deadline.
Free toolReading time calculatorEnter your book and page to see the time left and a likely finish date.Awkward cases
Introductions and endnotes
Set the book’s length to the last page you intend to read, not the last printed page. Otherwise every book with 40 pages of notes will look unfinished.
Rereads
Start a new record rather than resetting the old one. Comparing two reads of the same book is one of the more interesting things a history can show.
Books you put down
Mark them as not finished and keep the page you reached. It’s still reading, and it still counts toward the time you spent.
Several books at once
Keep a separate history for each. A pace from one book says little about another, especially when one is a novel and the other is nonfiction you read slowly, with a pencil.
Questions
How often should I update my reading progress?
Once per reading session, when you stop. More often adds little; less often makes the record unreliable.
Is a spreadsheet good enough?
Yes. Columns for date, book, start page, end page and minutes cover everything in this guide.
What’s a normal reading pace?
It varies widely by reader and book. Measure your own over a few sessions instead of comparing it with an average. To turn a pace into time left, try the reading time calculator.
Should I track pages or time?
Both, if you can. Pages show how far you’ve come; minutes alongside them are what turn the record into a pace.
Does tracking take the fun out of reading?
It can, if the numbers become the point. Keep each entry to a few seconds when you stop, and look back at the history only when you’re curious.