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How to get the MOST from reading in a SHORT amount of time?
A simple five-step formula to unleash the power of your mind
Good reading technique is crucial to your career development, as well as your
education. This is one of the most sought after techniques in today’s world of rapid
information development and exchange. Unfortunately our traditional education
system does not formally train us in this area. In particular, we are not taught how to
properly manage and digest a large amount of material in a short amount of time.
In our technological era, getting access to enough information is the least of our
worries. By hopping on the Internet, we can locate as much relevant information as
we need in a minute. In fact, if you visit
http://www.google.com
and type in the
phrase “how to study”, in 0.08 seconds, you are provided 317 million possible
information sources to explore this topic.
Instead, what we need now is to know how to effectively and efficiently digest and
comprehend the large amount of information we have access to daily.
What is knowledge?
Before we go further on this topic, let’s take a look at the definition of knowledge.
Plato defined
knowledge
as
justified true belief.
Belief is to be counted as knowledge only if is has been justified. This is sometimes
referred to as the theory of justification.
In other words, information you have acquired and learned only becomes knowledge
after you have analyzed and confidently applied it in your everyday life.
Therefore the process of developing knowledge not only includes the step of
acquiring information, but also those of incorporating and applying the information.
So to improve our learning ability, we have to look at each of the steps that make up
the overall process.
How to get the MOST from reading in a SHORT amount of time?
1
Copyright © 2004 i-TotalSearch Consulting Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.itotalsearch.com
The first step is information acquisition. We gain information by reading, listening
and watching demonstration. Among these, reading is still the most commonly used
and valued channel. Therefore we need to focus on your reading technique as the key
to enhancing your learning ability.
The second step is assimilation. The information we obtain must be analyzed and
incorporated into our existing knowledge base. Studies show that we are not likely to
learn by heart a particular piece of new information if we are unable to correlate it to
our existing knowledge and experience. (We’ll talk more about the reasons behind this
later.)
The third step is application, or recalling and utilizing the information in our lives,
work, or environment. Information, no matter how well you have mastered it, does
not truly become knowledge if you fail to retrieve and use it at appropriate time and
places.
The magic to achieving maximum benefit from reading materials is to incorporate
these three steps AT THE SAME TIME as you are reading. If you consistently
practice the skills I’m going to introduce, you’ll soon find yourself better able to
digest, comprehend and apply the massive amount of information you receive,
thereby building your knowledge base almost exponentially! Is it magic? Actually, it
is not. Is it difficult? Not really – with practice, we all can do it!
Un-do old reading habits
But to do so, we must “un-do” our old reading habits. More than 90% of people read
in a passive, linear manner – whether they’re reading work-related or educational
materials. This approach guides us to simply read materials from the beginning --
word by word, line by line, paragraph by paragraph -- until we reach the end. Indeed,
if I ask you to read a stack of 50 pages, packed full of words from the first page to the
last, even if you’ve found the topic interesting, you probably will need to spend at
least 40 minutes to one hour to plow through the over 17,000 words. Of course, that’s
assuming you don’t retrace and take breaks while reading.
Worst of all, after you have invested all this time reading, you might find it difficult to
recall most of the information you just received.
How to get the MOST from reading in a SHORT amount of time?
2
Copyright © 2004 i-TotalSearch Consulting Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.itotalsearch.com
So the first thing is we have to abandon this old, passive reading habit and adopt a
new, active reading process.
How our brains process knowledge
To do this, it is helpful to understand how the brain processes knowledge. Our brain
consists of on average 10 to 100 billion of neurons (brain cells). Each neuron consists
of 1,000 to 10,000 synapses. Synapses of a neuron are used to connect to synapses of
another neuron to form our internal “knowledge network.” We memorize and
understand new knowledge by building connections to this existing network.
The different combinations of these synapses among this large number of neurons
make our brain the most complex processing machine, rivaling any computer on the
market. We all have enormous power to acquire and process knowledge, but we are
unable to utilize most of the power of our brain because just as we have been taught to
read linearly, we have been taught to learn linearly. But the reality is that our brains
don’t work that way; they work more like tree branches, fanning out in a variety of
directions.
How to break this habit?
So the key is for you to develop a new habit of reading. And over the next several
paragraphs, I’m going to introduce you to a new reading concept called “layered
reading”.
Layered reading is an ACTIVE form of reading that allows you to process a certain
amount of information in layers. It is broken down into five simple steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Initial Material Scanning.
Initial Material Pre-reading
Detailed Material Reading
Post Material Reading
Post Material Scanning
How to get the MOST from reading in a SHORT amount of time?
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Copyright © 2004 i-TotalSearch Consulting Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.itotalsearch.com
Step 1: Initial Material Scanning
This step involves quickly looking over the material on hand, jotting down your
thoughts and questions as you go. The jotting down is important and should not be
brushed aside – it is the active element of the process that enhances your reading. Do
not stop at difficult points or ideas. Just scan the material. For 50 pages of material,
you should spend at most 3 to 5 minutes to do so. This is probably about eight times
your normal reading speed. You can scan forward and backward the material freely.
Focus on grasping just some ideas about the material. Don’t worry about
comprehension. Let your mind flow freely. Look for pictures and graphs. Try to relate
the material with your existing knowledge. What is the general theme of the material?
What interests you? What bores you? Jot these down..
Believe it or not, after this step, you have already obtained 20 to 30% of the material
you are going to comprehend.
Step 2: Initial material pre-reading
With the notes you have jotted down, go back and read the material sequentially from
the beginning to the end at four times your normal reading speed. You probably will
spend about 10 to 15 minutes to read through a 50 page document. Don’t retrace –
continue forward. Look for the places that can answer the questions and comments in
your notes from Step 1. Write down other important ideas, as well as follow-ups to
your previous questions and thoughts.
When you have finished this step, you will have mastered nearly 50% of the material
before you.
Step 3: Detailed Material Reading
In this step, you apply almost the same reading habit you have in the past, but at a
faster speed, while realizing approximately 50% of the material comprehension.
Spend about 20 minutes to finish reading the material at two times your normal
How to get the MOST from reading in a SHORT amount of time?
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Copyright © 2004 i-TotalSearch Consulting Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.itotalsearch.com
reading speed. Again write down any points you have missed in the previous steps.
This step requires you to read slower than you did in the previous ones (although it is
still doubling your normal speed) to get the opportunity to fill in the gaps in your
previous two reading steps.
After this step, you will have almost 80% of the material comprehension. If you don’t
believe that, you can ask someone to read the material and ask you questions about
that. You’ll be amazed by how well you know the material.
How is this possible? Because you have read the material three times at different
speeds of absorption and, most importantly, you have practiced analyzing and
incorporating the information along the way..
Step 4: Post Material Reading
This time, speed up your reading speed a bit (4X reading speed) ,like you did in step 2.
Look for the missing pieces that you were unable to answer in the past three steps. Jot
down your own evolving ideas and criticism to the material. You should spend at most
5 to 10 minutes on this step.
With the completion of this, you will have approached about 95% of the material
comprehension. It is amazing!
Step 5: Post Material Scanning.
Scan your material freely to look for anything you might have overlooked. Focus on
developing counterarguments to the ideas in the material. You should spend at most 5
minutes on this step, reading at about 8 times your normal reading speed.
Completing this step, you will have achieved
110%
of the material you’re going to
learned. Why 110%? Because now you not only have mastered the material but, in the
last two steps, you have also acquired your own viewpoints and criticism about the
material.
How to get the MOST from reading in a SHORT amount of time?
5
Copyright © 2004 i-TotalSearch Consulting Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.itotalsearch.com

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