10 Days to Faster Reading, Day 7

This is part seven of my time with 10 Days to Faster Reading, a book on the Personal MBA Quick Start reading list. To read all posts related to this book, see 10 Days to Faster Reading on JustAJot.

Day 7, Reducing the Pileup

Have a lot to read and feel like you’re never going to be able to get through it all? That’s what Day 7 of 10 Days to Faster Reading is all about. The chapter discusses causes and solutions to your ever-growing stack of material you have yet to read.

Several causes contribute to your reading pileup: procrastination, feeling the need to read and remember everything, and personal/professional development requirements. Procrastination is a tough one, and I’m going to give you a few suggestions from the book that may help. Reading and remembering everything is impractical, and I’ll give you hints as to why. And personal/professional development? That may be the most important material you can read.

Helping to solve procrastination involves cutting out the unimportant. What is your purpose for reading specific pieces of material? If you can’t define a valid purpose, if the material isn’t of much importance to you, then you simply don’t need to read it. Unsubscribe to all publications (both regular and electronic mail) that you don’t have a good reason to read (see: inbox zero). Toss any unnecessary reading clutter.

Another technique for limiting the amount of material you have to read, and thus helping your procrastination toward reading, is to pre-view everything you read. Pre-viewing will not only give you the big picture of the material, but it will also allow you to decide if it’s worth spending more time in a detailed read. If it’s not, toss it aside and move on to something else.

The main point here is to read selectively. Think a bit before you dive into material. Do you really need to read it? Is it going to benefit your life in any way? If you can’t answer yes, don’t read.

When choosing to read selectively, you might feel an increased urge to remember everything you read. After all, if you’re being more choosy about what you put into your mind, you might as well remember it all. But, this simply isn’t practical. You don’t need to remember everything and you shouldn’t waste your time trying. Remember only what you must remember — you must have a purpose for doing so.

There is an interesting exercise in this book that I’ve completed previously — one in which I highly recommend. If you don’t know where your time is going throughout the week, keep a detailed log of your activities. 7 days. 24 hours. 15 minute increments. Analyze the log at the end of the week and find more time to be productive and to read the most important reading material of all: personal and professional development.

The tool of the day is referred to as the “open hand wiggle.” With the material flat on a reading surface, open either hand with your fingers extended outward, palm facing the page. Center your middle finger in the middle of the column and move your hand down the page in an S-shape.

I’m not really digging the open hand wiggle. I still prefer the two finger pull discussed in day 4 and the white card method discussed in day 1. Whatever pacer tool works best for you, the most important thing is that you use it! Using a pacer helps you stay focused while reading, thus increasing speed and comprehension.