Tracking & Reporting Progress

[Katie]

How do you guys track and report your progress on your plan throughout the year?

Last year I had my plan & then I'd make a new post every time I'd finish an ATY book telling the date read, rating & review of the book. I didn't post anything about the 120 books I read as side reads or for other challenges. I know some of you have other approaches, like monthly summaries. I'm thinking I might change up how I do my reporting this year, so I was curious what you guys do.

[Laura, Celestial Sphere Mod]

I always start the year with the intention of updating more and then I fall away from it. This year I would really like to stick to monthly summaries. I think it's a good snapshot and is a bit less of a commitment than updating after every book.

[Pam]

I update my list as I finish a book but add comments on the thread much less frequently and only when I read something I feel like commenting on. When I read other plans, I am more interested in the highlights rather than every book that was read. I think this year I will just comment on my favorites over a 1-2 month period.

[Zaz]

The before was sharing a monthly post in my plan, with titles, stars, and a short sentence about my side-reads or a short review for my AtY reads. The after is linking my review to my plan and you can look at it if you want.

I'm posting more or less in the A-Z and participate in the group awards, so I think it's enough to share my reads with people who are curious (I write reviews for each book and it's enough for me).

[Jody]

I write a (usually short) review after I finish each book, update my spreadsheet, update my relevant threads (AtY, Book Riot etc), and then I do a monthly summary in my main AtY thread. It feels right for me, so I’m just going to keep doing that - I like looking back each month.

[Anastasia]

Ditto what Jody said.

[Michelle]

For my Little ATY Challenge (Picture Book) -- I've been posting my review or a summary of my review(s) along with my star ratings. They tend to be shorter/less involved than my reviews for the big books. For my regular ATY Challenge I may do a monthly or quarterly (to align with our group awards) summary, link to my reviews, and include my star ratings. I update my thread lists as I read.

[Bryony]

To track my progress, as soon as I finish a book I mark it as read on GR and make sure it’s shelved according to which challenge I’ve read it for. I also update the first post in my thread to mark a category as completed and add the book cover.

Last year I also wrote a monthly update in my thread saying what I’d read and what I was planning for the next month. However, I often found that took a lot of time as I sometimes read a lot of books in a month (I think I read something like 30 books one month!). So this year I’m going to experiment with a weekly update post and see how that works.

[Rachel]

I feel like I fell very behind on posting last year for some reason. It just seemed so time consuming. I usually post each book I read on my personal Facebook page (and I've just started using Instagram to do this instead for 2018).

I have a thread which I update monthly with a monthly wrap-up listing all the books I read that month, and some general comments on my progress/any strategies toward the challenges. I also try to keep up with posting in the A-Z folders as I finish books so join the discussion, or start it sometimes.

I also have a Word document where I would do a short paragraph write-up/review of each book. I've changed it this year to be point-form notes instead since that seems a lot easier to manage. The intent of this was originally to post the document as a note on Facebook for people who are interested in reading what I thought about the books, but 2017's file ended up being over 70 pages so that's definitely unrealistic to expect people to read. I find the notes also help me with my blog and with other posts here, so I can remember what I liked or didn't like about each book. I read well over 100 books a year, so I find it helps me to keep a few notes.

As much as I would like to write reviews (in theory), I find them very time-consuming and I just don't have the time to devote to writing reviews for every book I read. I have a blog where I post 3x per week, and I'm pretty active on the boards here, so I think it covers my reading pretty well. I track my progress on each book on Goodreads and update at the end of every day, and I always give a star rating when I finish each book.

[Pam]

Zaz wrote: "The before was sharing a monthly post in my plan, with titles, stars, and a short sentence about my side-reads or a short review for my AtY reads. The after is linking my review to my plan and you ..."

I like your idea of linking your review. Can you explain how to add links? I’ve read the instructions under (some html is ok) but it doesn’t make sense to me! Thanks.

[Bryony]

Pam, this is how to add a link:

1. Copy the URL you want to link to.

2. Add this text to your post, removing the *s before posting.
<*a href="ADD URL HERE">ADD LINK TEXT HERE<*/a>

Hope that helps. :-)

[Pam]

Bryony wrote: "Pam, this is how to add a link:

Thanks Bryony! I will give it a try!

[Nadine in NY]

I review every book on GR, and I keep a spreadsheet, but so far as tracking my AtY progress here, I just update my list every few weeks. I rarely use the A to Z folders. I've been feeling kind of disconnected with the group, but I'm not sure how to fix that. Maybe a weekly or monthly (or, irregularly when I remember!) update on my list post might help me.

[Jody]

I’ve become more active in both the A-Z and the weekly topics which has really helped reconnect with the group. I think the changes to the topic threads have been fantastic.

[Sophie]

I'm glad you like it! I also go to the weekly topics more often than on last year's progress posts, so it's a good thing!