Focus Your Eyes On The Text

Viewing a movie’s trailer before watching the movie gives you context and lets you know what to expect. Likewise, previewing a text before reading it prepares you to quickly gain an understanding of what you’re about to read. To preview a text, scan it from the beginning to the end, paying specia...

Strategically approaching a text will make a big difference in how efficiently you can digest the material. First, think about your goals. What do you want to learn by reading the material? Jot down some questions you want to be able to answer by the end. Then, determine the author’s goal in writ...

Approaching a text strategically, reading actively, and summarizing effectively takes practice . If you want to improve your reading speed, use a timer to test how many words (or pages) per minute you c...

Your job shouldn’t end when you read the last word on the page. After you finish reading, write a few sentences to summarize what you read, and answer any questions you had before you started reading. Did you learn what you were hoping to learn? By spending a few minutes after reading to think, s...

According to author Tim Ferriss, this habit, called regression , will significantly slow you down and make it harder to get a big picture view of the text. If you carefully and attentively approach a text , you'll quickly realize if you’re not understanding a section, sav...