There are many people, probably you among them, who think they would like to have more time to read books, magazines, blogs, reports, projects, etc. Unfortunately, time is a limited resource, so the important thing is not only to read as much as we can, but also to do it in such a way that this reading is as productive as possible.
As part of professional development, taking the appropriate readings and really keeping what is important to them is part of our work as well as allowing us to develop our skills and acquire knowledge.
Ask yourself: when do you read a text for the first time do you understand all its content or do you have to read it again to keep the important thing? If your answer is that a first reading is not enough, this article will help you because in it you will find some strategies that will allow you to read more effectively.
What is your purpose in reading?
When you are going to start reading something you should ask yourself if you are doing it with a defined objective such as professional updating, information, evaluation or simply for the mere pleasure of reading.
Once you are clear about what you hope to obtain from that text, you can examine it to have a real perception of whether it will be useful for that purpose. For example, if you want to know how to do a feasibility study, it probably won't do you any good to read an entire report on the country's demographic statistics, although that document can be useful later when you are doing the study.
To know the content without having to read it all, it can be very useful to read the introduction or the summary, if they are present, as well as the titles of the different chapters or sections.
If after this brief exercise you conclude that the document is going to be useful for the purpose you have set, then you should read it. This also works for magazines, blogs and / or newspapers, both in print and digital format.
You must learn to filter because as there are thousands of publications on similar topics both in paper and on the internet and not all of them are equally good, you have to be able to decide which ones to read (which ones will really be useful to you) and which ones won't.
Fast or in-depth reading?
Depending on your goal when reading, sometimes you don't need to read a document in depth. When you just need to have a basic idea / knowledge on the subject it may be enough to read the chapter titles as well as the introduction and conclusion.
If you need more details you can read the introductions of each of the chapters to have a broader notion or quickly read the content paying attention to the highlighted texts, keywords, as well as diagrams and charts.
Now, if you are clear that you need to have more knowledge about the subject matter of the document, then you should study it in detail. Firstly, it is important to quickly leaf through the text to get a general idea of it, including its structure, this will allow you to know which are the most important parts. So when you read in detail you can have a better understanding of reading. You can make use of a reading method like the SQ3R that will allow you to make better use of your time.
It is proven that when you read a document, a book, an article, etc. It is really useful to use techniques such as taking notes, underlining and highlighting those parts of the text that seem relevant to you.
Another very popular technique is the use of mind maps, also known as diagrams. These techniques allow you to point out to your mind that this part of the text is important, and they are excellent for reviewing the concepts once the document has been read or even after a while.
Using this type of technique is called actively reading and it is clear that they also help you stay focused on what you are reading, avoiding distractions.
Not all texts should be read in the same way
Depending on the type of publication you read, you will find different ways of presenting the information, as well as depth of content. To get the most out of reading it is important to know these tips:
- Magazines and newspapers, rather for reasons of space, offer the information, generally partially. This may not be entirely objective because they often offer what potential readers are wanting to read; For this reason, if you want complete information on a topic, magazines and newspapers can be complementary sources, but they should not be used as a base source to draw conclusions.
If you have access to different magazines you can print or cut out those articles that may be of interest to you and file them in thematic folders, since by putting together different texts you may get a more complete view of the subject.
For newspapers, save time by reading only the sections that you know may be of interest to you. Although the time you spend 'flipping' other sections may seem insignificant, if you add it to the end of the month you will easily accumulate a couple of hours, time that you could dedicate to another reading or task.
- Learn to differentiate the different types of articles you can read:
- News articles: the key aspects are explained at the beginning, the rest of the information is for those who want to go into detail.Articles of opinion: as the name implies, they express someone's way of thinking, so you should not tend to generalize them nor to close your mind to other opinions. The most important part of the information in these articles is usually in the introduction and in the summary, the rest of the article serves to “justify” or support what is expressed there. Special reports: these are usually the most prominent articles, since they can be written either to offer a complete vision, including its background, of a certain matter or for the simple fact of entertainment. In these cases, the most important thing is usually in the body of the text.
- If you find a long document online, it is best to print it to read it. Reading very large documents on the screen is more tiring for the eyes, and details can be overlooked; Although nowadays it is possible to find programs that allow you to highlight, underline and annotate online content, although it is more useful to read on paper. On the other hand, you always have the option of copying the content of the article or document in a text program like Word and there you can make the annotations, underlines and highlights that you want.When you are faced with a document, think about the information that you would like to find there: Data ?, definitions ?, proposals ?, practical experience? Doing this a priori will allow you to more easily detect the information as soon as you read it.If you have to read technical documents it is important that you have a dictionary or technical glossary at hand. There is no point in going ahead with reading if you are not understanding even half of what is written. If a concept seems complicated to you as it is written, but important enough to make it stand out, make a note by rewriting the concept in your own words.
Other reading tips
- It is increasingly common to access newspapers and / or magazines in online format, in this case, since to file in folders you should print the articles you can create a kind of electronic file labeling the topics according to certain classifications that you define. For example, you could create an email account where you send the articles or topics that interest you, labeling them as marketing, finance, personal development, etc. If you do not want to print the articles and archive them in folders, nor do you want to archive them virtually, then our recommendation is to use the bookmarks functionality that browsers offer you. Of course, in order not to end with a kilometric list of links that you will never be able to locate, we recommend that you save them with reference and preferably in the folder of the same markers.You can classify them according to topic or publication. If you access information in blogs, forums and other Internet pages, you must be careful not to be distracted by clicking on links on other pages, although they can lead you to sites of interest, in most cases, They are not relevant It is very important to know how to choose the time to read according to the type of reading you are going to do. A dense document regarding its content and / or the vocabulary used or its relevance should be read when you are not tired. Only then will you retain more information. It is important to read comfortably, free of distractions and with adequate lighting. Another technique that can be very useful is to try to summarize in a paragraph or two your idea about what you have finished reading.This will also allow you to conclude if you need more information or if what you have read is sufficient for your purpose.Critical reading is also important, not all texts are equally reliable, so it is essential to learn to discern when the information we are reading is objective and when not, when it is based on reliable sources and research and when it is simply a subjective inspiration. someone's.
Conclusions
Reading is undoubtedly a privilege, but our time is so valuable that we have to choose not only what we are going to read, but also how we are going to do it. It all depends on the time we have and the objective we have for each of the readings we do.
Learning to filter and pay attention to what is most important is a matter of experience. On some occasions it will seem to you that everything is important, but on many others you will go through the entire text without finding anything that seems to you.
The reading process to be effective must be based on your information needs that will determine your purposes when reading, if this is clear then it will be easier and faster for you to locate the information that is relevant to you.
The use of techniques such as printing documents, underlining, highlighting or taking notes, can help us a lot to fix in our minds those concepts that are worth remembering.
Developing your reading skills will take time and will require practice, especially to do it quickly and at the same time make the content useful to you. Using all the tips in this article will help you read intelligently and functionally.
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