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Effective Reading

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Effective reading is yet another skill that will serve you well during your studies and throughout your career. Whether you are a student or already pursuing a career, mastering effective reading techniques is a worthy investment of your time and effort.

There are various effecting reading techniques you can use to improve your “uptake” from reading. Below we present 9 effective reading techniques.

1 – Have a conversation with the author

One of the effective reading techniques is an imaginary conversation with the author. Try to see reading as a conversation between you and the author. Listen, make suggestions, pose questions and ask for clarifications. This will enhance your concentration and improve the retention of new information.

You can even take this step further and not just imagine the conversation, you can also imagine the author. Make him/her funny looking or a very unusual looking character. Our mind remembers such things better than ordinary things.

This will make your learning more active and will keep you alert. Write down your suggestions, questions and clarifications. This will help you to develop your own viewpoint.

2 – Prepare test questions

As you study, write down possible examination or test questions and the page where you can find an answer. This makes you an active learner as well as gives you a list of questions that you can use to test yourself on an ongoing basis and prior to examination. You can use this reading technique for mastering a skill necessary for your career as well.

3 – Read out aloud and walk around the room

When we see and hear information, we understand it easier and retain it better. You can combine reading out loud with walking around while reading. This will help you stay more alert and more involved.

4 – Link information

Another effective reading technique is linking information. Try to link information within a study module (subject or section). Also try to link information with other study modules. Purposeful creation of such links improves retention and enhances understanding.

5 – Find answers

As you study, there may be parts of the material that you will not be able to understand immediately. If you feel you cannot understand it even after studying it few times – get help. Do not wait for the final few days before your exam.

6 – Draw mind maps

Some students find it very helpful to draw mind maps as they read a chapter or section. This allows them to have a “big picture” of the chapter in a way which is easier to remember. You can make each mind map unique so your mind maps are easier to remember. For example, you can use images relevant to the concepts you are studying. Use your imagination.

Drawing mind maps also makes you an active learner because you are doing something with information rather than just reading it. This, as always, enhances concentration and retention. It is important part of mastering reading.

7 – Form mental images

As you are reading, make sure you imagine what the author is trying to communicate. Mental pictures automatically formed in our minds and differ from one person to another. Images that appear are unique to every individual and can resemble a movie or power point slides, as an example. Try to enhance the kind of mental pictures that you experience while reading. This will improve both concentration and retention.

8 – Look for the main ideas

Yet another very effective reading technique is to focus on the main ideas. It involves identifying and absorbing the main ideas before going into details. For example, you can start by reading a summary of the chapter before reading the chapter itself.

In the text itself, the main ideas are usually expressed in the first sentence of the paragraph. The main idea of the paragraph is the main point the author is trying to get across. For example, in this particular paragraph, the main idea is to “look for the main ideas” while reading.

9 – Review, review, review

Finally, you need to retain new information. To ensure prolonged retention of new information, you need to revise information you learned. Otherwise you will have to relearn it.

According to some experts, revision should be done within the first 24 hours, than within 7, 21 and 31 days after the first encounter with the information. Thereafter, revise information every 30 days or, better, every 7-14 days. Every subsequent revision becomes progressively shorter.

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As you can see from the above, the techniques recommended for effective reading are very simple and intuitive. Yet all of them are very effective and will certainly help you, if followed correctly.

In mastering effective reading, remember to be alert, vary your approaches, learn what works and does not work for you and focus on the core before going into details. Don’t settle for ineffective reading. With the amount of information that we need to intake on a daily basis, ineffective reading is a luxury you cannot afford.

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Can you lead yourself? If not, don’t expect others to follow you

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Author, life coach, and motivational speaker T...

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To be a better leader, the first thing you need to do is to learn to lead yourself. Leadership and learning to lead yourself go together. If you cannot learn this important skills, you will not be able to lead others. Below are some ideas on how to develop this skill of internal leadership.

Ask: “what is the right thing to do?”. Then do it!

Learn to guide your choices, big and small, by asking yourself: “What is the right thing to do?”. And then do it.

At first, it may take extra time. Thereafter, as you will continue with this activity, the new healthier habits will form and you will not need to spell this out question to yourself. You will do “the right thing” by default.

Moreover, as the habit develops, it will become easier and easier, and you will begin to feel and see the difference it makes in your life.

Remember that, most of the time, you already know what is the right thing to do. The trick is in actually doing it. This is what separate top performers at work from under-achievers, great life partners from inferior ones and straight-A students from C students. Imagine the difference it will make in your life if you actually do it?

More importantly, you are doing it and not just expecting others to do the right thing. You are behaving as you expect others to behave. You are taking steps to effectively lead yourself.

Determine the “musts” in your life

This advice is intuitive but was clearly verbalized by Tony Robbins. The reason some people do not go above a certain physical weight or the reason some students do not get B’s but only A’s is because a certain weight or certain academic performance is a “must” for them.

Everyone has things they should do. They know they should do it, they know how to do it, but they just cannot find strength in themselves to do it. The reason for this is because it is a “should” for them, not a “must”. When something is a “must” for you – failure is not an option.

Therefore, examine your life and determine which aspects of your life must be classified as “musts”. Then reinforce those “musts” every day as an activity where “failure is not an option”, until it becomes second nature. Once you break the old habit – based on research old habits take 21 days to break – the new approach will feel more natural to you than the old approach. This simple technique can significantly contribute to success in your life.

For example, imagine that instead of “you should study at least 5 hours a day” you determine that “you MUST study at least 5 hours a day”. Then make sure that you follow it vigorously. Do not allow yourself any excuses.

You are developing your discipline now, so you have to be strict with yourself. You will see that in 2 or 3 weeks it will become a habit. You will also notice how your new positive habit brings you to new levels of achievement, which will give you further strength to continue with your new positive habit.

Thereafter, as you develop the new “must” in your life, you will have the first victory to keep on giving you strength in disciplining yourself.

Determining “musts” in your life and vigorously ensuring that you keep up with them is part of an effort to lead yourself. Incidentally, the goal to lead yourself needs to be a “must” for you as well.

Use one small improvement as leverage for change

Part of the “lead yourself” endeavor is understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and determining the causes of your strengths and weaknesses. If leading yourself and leadership are not your strong qualities at the moment, you need to change your beliefs. Your beliefs affect your actions and your actions affect your results, which further reinforce your beliefs.

If you have a belief that you will not succeed in your “lead yourself” goal – you need to change this belief. One way to change this belief is to achieve a result that will strongly contradict this belief. It does not need to be a big change. It can be something very simple. Just do it to prove to yourself that you can change and that your belief is wrong. Your mind needs evidence.

After you succeed with providing contradictory evidence to your belief, you have a leverage point. Every time you feel that you just cannot do something, always think back to this example to remember what is possible.

For example, take an area which is a struggle for the majority of people. A good example can be waking up in the morning. So many people struggle to wake up in the morning. If you will be a person who always wakes up at the very same time (whichever time this may be) every single morning, on weekdays and weekends, you will have at least one result which contradicts your current belief of not being able to lead yourself.

It may sound like a really simple example, yet it means something to you and that is what is important. You need simple examples to build your confidence and this creates a snowballing effect.

Above are just some thoughts on improving leadership and attaining your “lead yourself” goal. This will give you a good start. Remember that it will not be easy. If it were easy – everyone would be successful.

Now that you have read the article, ask yourself these two questions:

  • Can you trust you to lead yourself?
  • If you cannot lead yourself, why are you learning to lead others?

Take some time to think about this and write down the answers. Use the guide provided above and develop an action plan to lead yourself.

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