Chuck The Geek.com

My speed reading method

September 23rd, 2008 by Chuck Sharp

I’ve been studying reading methods and tips from folks like Tony Buzan and Paul Scheele for quite some time now. Below is a method that combines many parts from several techniques, tips, and methods. When methods like this are used, I’ve come to find that I can achieve my purpose for reading most books within two hours, and my comprehension and memorization are greater than if I were to sit down and read a book from start to finish. Of course, every text I read is for a different purpose, and so I pick and choose the appropriate strategy for my purpose. I may skip steps or take more time on a step, but in general, here’s the program.

The basic steps are:

1. Prepare - Physically prepare yourself, get into an effective mental state, and determine your purpose.
2. Preview - Scan the text, ask questions to guide your reading, and clarify your purpose.
3. In-view - Dig into the text, skim and dip, and take notes.
4. Review - Summarize, and do effectively spaced review sessions.

Details:

1. Prepare (5 min)
   1. Get seated in a good posture at a good reading environment for you.
   2. Scan the front and back cover.
   3. Make a mini-mindmap on the book’s subject matter.
   4. Relax, Close your eyes for a minute.
   5. Focus - use the tangerine technique or something else to get into a good state.
      
   6. Decide on your time commitment for the book.
   7. Determine your general purpose for reading the book (fun? financial gain? health improvement?).
   8. Break-in the book (just like grade school, press the pages flat in towards the middle).
2. Preview (10-15 min)
   1. Read through the table of contents thoroughly.
   2. Scan the book - look at major headings, figures, and summaries.
   3. Flip through the book to pull out key words - 20-30 words, and write them down.
   4. Create a list of questions that you would like to answer from the book. Asking good, meaningful questions that I hope to answer are one of my greatest secrets to getting a lot out of the books I read.
   5. Determine your specific purpose(s). Write out, or state, exactly what you hope to gain from this book.
   6. Decide whether or not to continue reading - you know enough about the book to know if it’s worthwhile for your purposes. DON’T READ IT if you don’t have a reason to. Your time is too valuable.
   7. Take a break for at least 5 minutes.
3. In-view (30-120 min)
   1. Review keywords, questions, and your purpose.
   2. Pick an interesting section, use a pointer (pen or something), and for only six minutes, with a timer:
      1. Scan through the section at 10 seconds per page or less. Be quick!
      2. Go back through and dip in to relevant sections — be selective here.
      3. Read the upper half of every line you dip into and read it fast. You’ll find that comprehension stays strong and speed improves when scanning the top half of the line.
      4. Read topic sentences, and 1st and last paragraphs in sections and chapters.
      5. Pay attention to the ideas being illustrated in drawings, charts, and figures.
      6. Take notes - mindmap, and markup the book. Writing in books is a fine thing to do. There are Post-it yellow tabs that are meant for marking pages in books. These are useful to flag a place that you don’t want to lose.
   3. Repeat these 6 minute chunks for other relevant sections.
   4. Break up studying into 30 minute study sessions (more or less) with this format:
      1. 2 minutes: prepare, re-focus
      2. 20 minutes: studying (about 3 sections)
      3. 5 minutes: break
4. Review (10-30 minutes per review session and depending on detail level)
   1. 1. Summarize the text to yourself and/or others.
      2. Recreate your mindmap as much as possible from memory.
      3. Review notes at the following times after studying for optimal long term memory retention:
         1. After 1 hour - This helps the initial info really sink in.
         2. After 24 hours - This helps to strongly set the info into long term memory.
         3. Once a week - For refreshing. Every time the information is reviewed at this point, it will at least help maintain the memory, if not improve it.

Entry Filed under: Productivity