Laura Stack - Productive Reading Strategies: Organizing and Tackling Your Reading Pile

As the author of four books (so far!), Im an avid writer,but Im also an avid reader of great books. Reading offers multiple benefits. Among other things, it gives you an escape from your daily routine byoffering:

General relaxation;

Stress relief;

Stimulation for the right side of your brain, the analyticalside;

Entertainment;

Enjoyment; and

Mental and physical rejuvenation.

Reading provides all of these wonderful advantages, whetheryou read as a hobby or as an essential business skill.

One challenge here is that wehave unlimited information available at our fingertips, thanks to theInternet. And if you tried to read every web page, report, magazine, article,business book, or email that came across your desk, you could spend your entirecareer reading. So if youre simply like me, with too much to read and toolittle time, you can benefit from using new reading techniques to boost yourproductivity. Getting through your reading tasks more quickly will free uptime for other priorities.

The firstthing Id like to discuss in terms of productive reading strategies is how toapply a five-step process to help you become a more efficient reader.

I would recommend that you batch your reading and put largerdocuments aside to read during a single sitting. Schedule an appointment withyourself to get through them. I like to use the time on airplanes to getthrough my reading pile.

Or, you could use any time that, for you, lends itself togood concentration. Its hard to focus on reading when you should besleeping. Youll end up rereading the same paragraphs over and over, and itwill take you an excessively long time if you dont give up.

Now, when you reach the appointed time, gather yourdocuments along with a pen, a highlighter, and some sticky notes.

If you can, try to retreat to an empty area or conferenceroom so that youre interrupted as little as possible. I like to put on myBose noise-canceling headset so that I can focus, dont have to talk to theperson next to me, and dont hear the screaming baby.

Make the mental decision that you are going to attentivelyread your materials. Dont anticipate how terrible its going to be, or groaninwardly. Think positively and set goals around what you plan to accomplish orlearn by the end of your reading session.

Sit down with your spine straight and your feet comfortablyon the floor. Dont hunch your shoulders. Take a few deep breaths to getoxygen to your brain. Try to relax your facial muscles, even turning up thecorners of your mouth to match your positive attitude, of course.

Rest your book and your hands on the table, if you have one,or prop the book up somehow so you dont get fatigued from holding the book. Hold your materials square in front of you at a 45-60 degree angle to youreyes.

Scanning is critical when you begin. I like to very quicklypreview the text. I think it helps me get my mind organized, and get a basicunderstanding of how the material is laid out and how the main points areorganized. For magazine articles, I like to read the title, the headings, thesidebars, and the first and last paragraphs. Noticing the sections and thewriting patterns of the author helps you quickly organize the materialmentally.

And then fifth, read the text indetail.

So you need to:

Prepare your materials;

Prepare your mind;

Prepare your body

Prepare your brain

Read.

You will greatly improve yourconcentration and retention if first your materials are prepared and you donthave to get up and go get things. You prepare your mind. You decide thatyoure going to read. It is a choice. Your body is comfortable, and yourbrain has made sense of the layout of the material.

These five simple reading techniques will help you stay ontop of all of the information you have to digest.

After Ive scanned, I like to use a reading technique calledrhythmic perusal. I dont have space here to discuss it in detail, but if youwant to look it up, it was developed by J. Michael Bennett, a ProfessorEmeritus at the University of Minnesota. Hes considered a reading expert.

His work basically teaches you to glide your eyes over theupper halves of the letters. Thats a good way for me to describe it to youhere, since we cant practice together; but youre basically trying to readeach line in a single smooth movement, just that upper half. This techniquereally enhanced my concentration, I found; and with some practice, it allowedme to increase my speed and my focus.

I didnt take a formal speed-reading class. I didnt wantto sacrifice any comprehension, although I know some people are very good atthis; but I do like the rhythmic perusal technique.

The secondtechnique is to recognize signs of brain overload and get your mind focusedagain. Like you, I have some days where I feel I might just lose my mind. Itall starts when the alarm goes off.

I have to help the kids get ready for school. James needshis baseball pants again. Oh yeah, I forgot to put those in the washer. Whoops! The washer has library books all over it. Oh yeah, I forgot to returnthese. Ill do that on the way to Megans doctors appointment thisafternoon. Oh yeah, Megan needed a sack lunch today because she forgot she hada field trip, and oh yeah, I need to book a ticket for my business trip.

And oh yeah, I got distractedbecause I had 56 emails in my inbox.

Oh my goodness! This is just atypical day for me. Does this sound like you?

Faced with so many competing attention-grabbingalternatives, what some people now call multitasking, it often feelsimpossible to focus. So when your brain is so overloaded it becomes verydifficult to read and your overtaxed brain is bombarded by so many demandslike this it can actually begin to shut down.

Have you ever walked into work one morning and looked at allthe piles of paper everywhere, and notes from your colleagues, and emails inyour inbox and just started laughing? That happened to me about a monthago. My office manager thought I was crazy. At some point your brain says, Ihave no idea what to do first or where to begin, so Im just going to stopmaking decisions all together. Not a very good state of mind when youretrying to read.

So what we need to do when we approach the reading activityis to help give our minds a break and increase our focus and our concentration;so here are some ideas on how to do that.

First, create some structure and some deadlines ifnecessary. Your short-term memory is horrible when youre on overload. I askeverybody to put everything in writing. A simple trip to the restroom can bedangerous if people stop you en route and give you an assignment, so simply behonest with them and say, Oh, you know, I dont have anything to write with. And I guarantee you Ill forget what you just told me. Can you just send me anemail?

Seeing it in writing a deadline or a request in black andwhite helps the brain put things into the proper order. If you have amanager, brief weekly meetings to discuss upcoming priorities may be helpful soyou know where to focus your time and attention. Checklists for your regulardaily tasks work well.