26Aug/111
How Can I Maximize My Reading Time?
marshalwillenholly asked:
I am a fairly voracious reader, but there are several problems:
1. I have a slight case of add, so I read more slowly than I should otherwise because I am easily distracted by other thoughts.
2. I have a wide variety of interests, so I am generally reading several books on different subjects at the same time. My primary interests are in politics, history, science, sociology, Buddhism, music, and baseball.
3. My book reading time is fairly limited, say 8-10 hours a week, which tends to be about the time it takes me to read a scholarly 350-400 page work.
Looking over my "to-read" shelves, I currently have, by my estimates, 400 hours of reading material.
I have 180 books on my Amazon wishlist vying for my attention.
How do I decide what's worth my time, particularly when it comes to books with a political agenda? Amazon reviews are not very helpful here, because they seem to always be ridiculously laudatory. Does anyone know of any resources for helping someone in my situation read faster
Create a video blog
I am a fairly voracious reader, but there are several problems:
1. I have a slight case of add, so I read more slowly than I should otherwise because I am easily distracted by other thoughts.
2. I have a wide variety of interests, so I am generally reading several books on different subjects at the same time. My primary interests are in politics, history, science, sociology, Buddhism, music, and baseball.
3. My book reading time is fairly limited, say 8-10 hours a week, which tends to be about the time it takes me to read a scholarly 350-400 page work.
Looking over my "to-read" shelves, I currently have, by my estimates, 400 hours of reading material.
I have 180 books on my Amazon wishlist vying for my attention.
How do I decide what's worth my time, particularly when it comes to books with a political agenda? Amazon reviews are not very helpful here, because they seem to always be ridiculously laudatory. Does anyone know of any resources for helping someone in my situation read faster
Create a video blog
May 11th, 2009 - 08:54
Kansieo.com
I don’t know of any websites off the top of my head, but I might have a few suggestions:
1. Create a controlled enviroment to read in. Sometimes that’s hard to do if you aren’t always reading in the same places. But try just reading in a particular spot if you are out of your house (like a particular spot on a sofa or chair in a lounge at school) or when you are home, read only in your bedroom, or on your couch. By becoming accoustemed to particular enivorments, this may help you to focus your attention.
2. White noise. I’m not ADD, BUT I do find it extremely helpful to have background noise going on around me (aka music or tv). Music is the best because I can “tune in” but also tune out at the same time. Studies in the past have shown thatstudents who study in a multi-enviroment do not perform as welll … but they have been conducting new studies that combat this theory and show that students who use background music actually are able to concentrate BETTER. I tended to always study with music and the reslut was I would start playing the music in my head during tests an that actaully helped my recall abilities by associating the music and the material I studied. I tired it without and couldn’t remember crap, or I got easily distracted by the littlest noises even while studying.
So try putting on your head phones, tune in some music at a low level that isn’t hard rock or metal and see if you helps you to get into the groove faster. Also, try the reading in particular places only and see if that helps lower your distraction rate.
Good luck!