Reading efficiently is an important skill in an environment where information is present at all times. Each of us has varying reading skills, and the amount of reading could be endless. The trick to keeping up is not necessarily reading faster but through reading smarter. Here is a short guide for reading with efficiency.
1. Establish Clear Goals
Before reading any material, consider your objectives. Why are you reading? Is it for full comprehension, or is it simply to skim key elements? Owning your purpose will help you focus on the right sections, and ultimately provide you with better comprehension which, at a time cost reduction, will increase the time you have for reading.
2. Skimming and Scanning
Not everything you will read needs to be read at a deep level. For example, when reading articles, blogs, or reports, skim read in order to get an overview of the material's key components in its entirety. You start by reading the headings, the sub-headings, or bullet points, and see what the material is saying before actually reading it. Scanning the material augments your practice of skimming, but assists you with finding detailed answers to specific questions more quickly. Reading - or skimming with scanning - will help you determine if the material merits a deeper read or not.
3. Chunk Reading Times
Reading effectively does not mean you are reading perpetuity. Instead, chunk your reading time, meaning, read smaller sections of content distinctly. Research supports attentiveness drops dramatically within 20 - 30 minutes for most readers. Set a timer or use the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes of reading, 5 min break) so you remain attentive and comprehending at high levels as to avoid boredom and burnout.
4. Active Reading
Be active with your reading approach as opposed to just reading without purpose or sticking to content too close or too far away. Highlight key elements, take notes, and reflect for questions. Active reading, reading with a purpose, ultimately improves comprehension and retention of reading for not just comprehension, but but remembering. Any time your eyes absorb text and you think about it, your brain is processing new information, resulting in retention.
5. Use Systematic Technologies
Companies, researchers, and software engineers have designed speed-reading applications and digital highlighters for readers that operate faster than human brains. Speed-reading applications are efficient because they ingest digital text. Typically, those companies are developing reader aides (i.e., speed-reading) as opposed to designing replacements (i.e., wholistic comprehension). Systems are being built where studies are aggregation reading information together, locating reading for questions raised and to help supportive capacity.
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