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Hey,

The most popular article I’ve ever written was on speed reading.

In this course, I’d estimate that almost a third of people start
their first trial using the tactic.

The reason is obvious: if you can read faster, you can learn faster.
Some subjects require deep understanding, but many can be understood
readily–the time constraint is in actually reading everything.

That’s why today I’m going to share you some new speed-reading
tactics that I haven’t yet added to the course.

—

Much of speed reading covers the techniques of reading, using a
pointer, eye movements, scanning patterns.

But where I feel its biggest strengths lie is not in the manual
skill of moving your finger or flipping a page, but in planning out
*how* you’re going to read something so you can get the maximum
value for the least effort.

—

How to Read

Sounds stupid right? You all know how to read. And if you didn’t,
then you probably wouldn’t be reading this.

But while we’re all taught the basics of reading, we’re rarely
taught the advanced skills: what strategies to use to maximize what
we want from a piece of text and minimize the waste.

If your goal for reading is pleasure, then strategy doesn’t matter.
I’m currently meandering through my copy of Les Trois Mousquetaires
and enjoying every minute of it.

But if your goal for reading is to learn something specific–then
strategy makes all the difference.

—

Creating a Pre-Read Attack Plan

The key to successful reading is to create a pre-reading attack
plan. This will allow you to focus on what you need to once you
start reading, so you don’t get caught up on things that don’t
matter or skim by the things that do.

A pre-reading attack plan seems like overkill, but it needn’t be.
In truth, it should only take about 1-2 minutes as you answer the
following questions:

1. What is the *most* important thing I take away from this reading?

2. Which sections of the text should I highlight?

3. Which sections of the text should I skim?

—

I’ll give examples from two of my current reading assignments:

For my ethics class, my textbook consists of essays presenting
various arguments. With this text, I can answer:

1. Skeletons of the arguments proposed.
2. Statements of fact, premises and conclusions.
3. Long introductions, historical references, thematic quotations

For my information systems class, which relies on meticulous
multiple-choice testing, however, my goal switches:

1. Terminology, facts
2. Bolded terms, definitions, lists and sequences
3. Background information, cases, lengthy explanations

The point isn’t that I skip everything listed in #3 or obsess over
everything in #1 and #2. Rather, it’s to be consciously aware of
what matters for this textual work, so I can deliberately slow
myself on the important parts and use my higher speeds on the
less important.

—

I’ll be continuing this discussion on speed reading tactics next
week, so stay tuned!