Details vs. essence

What is more important to read carefully or to grab the main ideas without hesitation? If you are picky or very clever this article might bring value to you.

Everyone remembers how we learn at school. After you read few new topics you have a test and questions to answer. We did not know the questions beforehand so as not to cheat.We were required to know “everything”. Every detail from the topic might have been asked. There were no criteria which determined the relevance or the importance of the question. I can remember moments before exams, when students were revising everything, even the smallest facts not really related to the subject. That was the outcome of inability to sort the information based on its importance. The habit to learn everything in case we need it remains for all our life. Firstly, we try to swallow and remember all the information that is available and only then we think how to use it. The major part of learning is based on obtaining as much information as possible, but not about the systematic analysis and generalization. We are taught to know, not to think.

Speed reading offers changing this habit and viewing the process from the other side. Firstly we formulate the questions and only then we start learning and reading. And we are looking for the main ideas ONLY. After we If we  had known questions before each test, we would have received the maximum score. We would have been more successful than others and we would have had a lot of free time and stress free life.

But what prevents you from being more successful while learning, working and having more free time now? Now we study a lot of things on our own more than ever before, and we can choose the questions.

Always formulate questions before reading. Then you will have the destination. The questions can be quite simple, such as the main idea of the book, how I will use the knowledge in practical way and why I am reading this book.

 Rational Reading is questioning, setting goals and carefully analyzing all available information before reading..

 Above all, at school no one told us how to save our time. While in the process of personality development the pace of reading is not the main indicator, we have no incentives to optimize it, improve skills of reading or change the attitude towards reading. We develop those elements, which we consider important. While the importance of quantity and attention to details is overlooked, we will measure the quality of reading according these parameters. It requires a lot of time and public education to prove that time is very important as well. Now no one is interested in the time needed, teachers and lecturers overestimate the amount of literature they assign; time management is not the priority for them. All they care about is a lot of content and long list of references. They assess the knowledge comparing everyone with a few most talented students. If Lady X can read such amount of books in two weeks, why everyone else cannot? But no one takes into account, that Lady X reads 450 words per minute (wpm) with excellent comprehension. While all the other students read 170-220 wpm with average comprehension.

Assess your pace of reading and productivity. When you get an assignment to read n books, you can tell exactly, how much time this will take. Only when the speed of reading and the time required is taken into consideration, the old perception about reading can be changed. When we understand the importance of reading effectiveness, we start looking for the new ways of improving it. When we find – we start adopting them.