One thing that made all the difference for me was getting clear about my purpose before PhotoReading a book. I find it essential to phrase my purpose out loud or even to write it down before PhotoReading. If I don't set a clear purpose, I don't retain well. If I have a clear purpose, I tend to absorb and retain what's relevant to the purpose. This also means that I won't normally retain what's irrelevant to my purpose.
In order for this to work, I need to care about the purpose for PhotoReading a book -- I have to have a good reason. If I don't truly care about a book's content and then PhotoRead it, I don't retain because my mind knows it's irrelevant.
Although some may consider this a drawback, I've found that PhotoReading has made me more selective about what I read. Learning PhotoReading helped me realize that even when I slow-read books, if I don't have a truly compelling purpose for absorbing the material, I'm not going to remember the book in a year even if I read every word. But if the information is important and my purpose solid, I'll retain and apply it. PhotoReading makes this even more obvious, forcing me to ask, "Do I really, really care about the information in this book, or is reading it just a waste of time?"
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