Strategy for reading books quickly and more efficiently.

Effective reading needs preparation and a good setup, whether you are reading a novel or an academic book you need to prepare yourself for the activity. Other people enjoy reading and do not find it hard to concentrate but for other people, it can be quite frustrating, especially if you are trying to read a long text. Reading dense pages can be time-consuming so if you want to read more efficiently while still comprehending the text check out these strategies:

Skim through the text before you start reading

The reason why people watch trailers before watching the movie itself is to allow themselves understand the concept of the movie, it is the same with books if you want to read a book be sure to review the text first. Previewing the text first allows you to have a brief understanding of what you are about to dive into, scan the text and pay attention to subheadings anything written in bold. Check the introduction and pictures if any just to understand the author’s concept.

Plan on your reading style

How you approach the text will determine how efficiently you can comprehend the material, you need to know what you require from the text before you actually start reading it. You can write down your goals, using your preview determine whether the book can satisfy your needs. If your goal is satisfied in a certain section of the book then you identify the section. Reading styles vary, they depend on the kind of material you are reading for example if you are reading a legal or medical text you might need to be more careful than when you are reading a magazine. Sometimes when you use some external sources it is a good idea to use a citation tool like Harvard Reference Generator and indicate used literature in a proper way.

Be focused Reading a dense text might require you to be mindful

Otherwise, you will probably not comprehend a word of what you have read. You need to concentrate and focus on the book, avoid any distractions from external noises to interruptions. Ensure that your mind does not wander off, if that happens you will waste a lot of time going ac and forth on the same sentence or paragraph.

Avoid reading every single word

Take advantage of your peripheral vision and scan through a chunk of words instead of reading each word separately. Scan through the text focus on at least three to four words this will help you learn to speed your reading. This strategy also prevents you from vocalizing each word; this is when someone silently pronounces words while reading.

Make summaries

You should make a summary after reading or when reading, this helps you know whether you understand the text better. Summarizing what you read helps you determine if the book was helpful or not. Being able to read efficiently and quickly takes a lot of practice, you can improve your reading rate by timing yourself so that you can know how much text you can read in a certain amount of time. This will help you determine if you are happy with your speed or not.