Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - How do you READ more consciously and efficently?

Power · 02-08-2008, 07:17 AM

To be more consciously and efficiently.... the term you need to be aware of is called "Active Reading".

Speed Reading teaches this concept of "Active Reading" because it helps you retain more information and your learning process is actually increased 3-5 folds than normal reading. I will Illustrate this concpet in a minute.

Now, don't confuse yourself that efficient reading is about finishing a book in 2 days and not remembering 50-75% of what's written in the book. In my opinion, it is a lot more better/efficient to recall 75% of the information even if you finished the book in 1 week. But dont worry,... I will explain to you how to recall 75% or more of its information in the shortest amount of time possible.

Normal reading is like driving a car. Can you recall what colour the car infront of you at the red lights? Clearly, you saw the car right infront of you becuase you had to step on the brakes.
How many white cars did you see on the road while driving?.... You are right! you don't know because your attention was not on how many white cars on the road while you were driving.

Normal reading is the same. You can't recall the information because your attention was not on the information, but rather, your attention was simply reading the words on the page. Hence, the term "Active reading" because you simply do not just read the words in a page.

First thing you must know and understand is that all books (apart from technical/manual books) whether how many pages it has, 50-75% of its content is fluff or useless words and information. In a paragraph or sentences, 50-75% of it are words: is, at, the, that,these, how, why, and, or, was, when, were,in, on, to, it, can, etc... So a 100 page will only have 25% useful information written on it. First, just keep this in mind.

Secondly, before you read a book you should have an objective on what you want to learn or your goal of learning in reading the book. Let me ilustrate how powerful this is; Imagine I hand you a book on Budgies. I want you to find out "what do budgies eat?". You got 2 options on how to go about this. You can either read the whole entire book or you simply go to the chapter on "budgies food". Clearly 1 objective, yet one will achieve their goal faster than the other, more consciously and more efficiently.

Active reading is about having a goal or objective before reading a book... what do you want to learn from the book? what are you expecting from the book?
Active reading is also questioning what you read... Is it true? are there any other supporting materials i've read in the past? Does it contradict what I know?

There are more ways on how to read more consciously and more effieciently (and that doesn't necessarily mean you read an entire book in an hour). Fundamentals of reading more consciously and efficiently are covered in most speed reading courses.

02-08-2008, 07:17 AM	#4 (permalink)
Power Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 180	To be more consciously and efficiently.... the term you need to be aware of is called "Active Reading". Speed Reading teaches this concept of "Active Reading" because it helps you retain more information and your learning process is actually increased 3-5 folds than normal reading. I will Illustrate this concpet in a minute. Now, don't confuse yourself that efficient reading is about finishing a book in 2 days and not remembering 50-75% of what's written in the book. In my opinion, it is a lot more better/efficient to recall 75% of the information even if you finished the book in 1 week. But dont worry,... I will explain to you how to recall 75% or more of its information in the shortest amount of time possible. Normal reading is like driving a car. Can you recall what colour the car infront of you at the red lights? Clearly, you saw the car right infront of you becuase you had to step on the brakes. How many white cars did you see on the road while driving?.... You are right! you don't know because your attention was not on how many white cars on the road while you were driving. Normal reading is the same. You can't recall the information because your attention was not on the information, but rather, your attention was simply reading the words on the page. Hence, the term "Active reading" because you simply do not just read the words in a page. First thing you must know and understand is that all books (apart from technical/manual books) whether how many pages it has, 50-75% of its content is fluff or useless words and information. In a paragraph or sentences, 50-75% of it are words: is, at, the, that,these, how, why, and, or, was, when, were,in, on, to, it, can, etc... So a 100 page will only have 25% useful information written on it. First, just keep this in mind. Secondly, before you read a book you should have an objective on what you want to learn or your goal of learning in reading the book. Let me ilustrate how powerful this is; Imagine I hand you a book on Budgies. I want you to find out "what do budgies eat?". You got 2 options on how to go about this. You can either read the whole entire book or you simply go to the chapter on "budgies food". Clearly 1 objective, yet one will achieve their goal faster than the other, more consciously and more efficiently. Active reading is about having a goal or objective before reading a book... what do you want to learn from the book? what are you expecting from the book? Active reading is also questioning what you read... Is it true? are there any other supporting materials i've read in the past? Does it contradict what I know? There are more ways on how to read more consciously and more effieciently (and that doesn't necessarily mean you read an entire book in an hour). Fundamentals of reading more consciously and efficiently are covered in most speed reading courses.