A good way to assure you're on the page for the full read is to mute your page and run the robowhine in silence as you read and engage. When it reaches the end of the page, you may be assured you've stayed the full length of time Medium calculates as read time for that post.

I actually do this on shorter posts because I read quite fast — I would say about 1.75x to 2x faster than the calculated read time.

Writers should also be aware that they need to write posts that are long enough to require 30 seconds or more to read. A lot of poets, for example, do include enough content to stretch that read time. If your content you're writing about is too short, pad your post.

For poems, tell readers What the inspiration is for your topic. After your shorter writes, add a section break (the three dots on the formatting pop-up) and include a 300 to 500 word bio, or a self-promotion synopsis of your book if you've published.