New Year’s resolutions take many forms. This year, one of mine was to read through all the works of Shakespeare. I decided to undertake this project after reading War and Peace last year at a pace of one chapter per day. Tolstoy’s epic happens to unfurl over 361 short chapters, so one chapter a day was a reasonable pace.

That said, some days felt more reasonable than others. Any 1400-page novel is going to have some slogs. There were ones that hit particularly hard last March, which is the same way I felt wading through some scenes of Henry VI Part III this February.

These slogs remind me of the trouble with the aphorism that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This is true, but the first step is seldom the problem. Everyone’s excited at the start of the journey. The question is whether you’re willing to take the 356,751st step, somewhere around mile 178.

The good news, though, is that if you can figure out a smart system, the rewards of all sorts of long term projects are there for the taking — often with little strenuous work on any given day.

The first step in solving this midway motivation puzzle is asking if you actually want to go on the journey. I had read War and Peace a few years ago, and loved it, and so I knew I would enjoy a more careful study of the text. I’ve never taken a proper Shakespeare class, though I’ve seen a great many of the plays, so the idea of reading all his works intrigued me. I do not feel nearly so excited about studying other long works (say, Ulysses). The world is full of potential projects: Writing a novel, renovating a historic house, saving a substantial amount of money. If you want to commit to actually finishing a long term project, best to choose it well.

The second step is to plot your journey on a map. How far do you have to go, and what is your intended pace? For War and Peace, reading one chapter a day for a year was pretty straightforward. Shakespeare has been more complicated, but I found some calendars online from other people’s Shakespeare reading projects. I’ve been loosely following Ian Doescher’s calendar from 2020. Each play takes about 6 days or so, which comes out to a little less than an act a day. Figure out how long each step will take you.

Then, this is key, make sure the pace is reasonable for your life. The ideal pace for any long project is one that inspires almost no resistance. War and Peace’s chapters are almost all short enough to be read in 10 minutes or less. Shakespeare is taking a little longer, but not much longer. Even in a busy life, it’s not hard to find 15 minutes to read. You want each individual day to feel like no big deal. That way, you don’t mind taking your step on any given day. However, you probably do want to make some forward progress on each day. When we commit to doing something daily, we stop asking whether we feel like doing it. Instead, we just ask “when?” which is a problem-solving question, not a psychological one.

Next, troubleshoot any obstacles. I read War and Peace mostly in a printed book that sat on my desk, but if I was traveling, I’d read that day’s chapter on the Kindle e-reader app on my phone. Same with Shakespeare. I’m reading a few pages each day in The Illustrated Stratford Shakespeare, but if I can’t be around my book, I can read any of Shakespeare’s works online. Think, roughly, when you’ll take your steps each day, and if the initial time doesn’t work, when is a back-up slot? What might prevent you from taking each small step? What can you do to work around those challenges?

You might try building in accountability. I signed up for Jeremy Anderberg’s War and Peace Substack last year in part to know I was reading War and Peace with others. Getting an email once a week about various plot points and questions to ponder helped me stay motivated. See if a friend or online community might join with you on your journey.

And finally, trust the process. This is the magical part of any long project. Time keeps passing, so if you have a map, and a pace, and you stick with the pace, you will in fact finish. I finished War and Peace on December 27, 2021, just as the calendar said I would. Most likely I will have read everything Shakespeare wrote by December 31, 2022.

Since any given day’s demands are so light, and the long term payoff is so cool, even a rough patch becomes not that big a deal. You can decide to quit tomorrow, but all you have to do is your ten minutes today. Then tomorrow you can make the same choice until the project becomes intrinsically enjoyable again. You finish the 178th mile, and the 179th one, and eventually all 1000 are there in the rear view mirror.