My job is to read AND understand information such that I can repeat it back clearly and precisely, often succinctly from 7:30-4:30. 99.9% of this information comes off of computer derived sources. When I am home, at lunch and in the evenings (when I am not exercising or eating) I am either on the computer reading more or reading a hard copy book. On an average day I probably, between work and home, read through 250-300 articles or studies. In general I have about 80-90% retention with comprehension nearly complete—some of the more abstract things obviously take longer.
Here are my tips:
If you use the same sources on a daily basis (like LW/OB) then create a hierarchy of visits. I find Firefox really useful for this with the bookmark toolbar and RSS feed—that way I can go left to right sequentially and see what I have read already. That way if I only have a short period of time, I get the most out of it.
Open only the articles which you are very interested in, and open them all at once so that you can see them in your tabs. A word of caution though, don’t necessarily read them in the order that you open them. There is the tendency to read in order, however I have found that if there is an article I am really excited about, then that is the only one I will think about when I am reading through another one. This method allows you to take your work in chunks rather than burning through one particular source all at once.
Continually update your hierarchy of sources, refining which give you the best information
If you use aggregators such as reddit—read the comments. Often they distill or give better context than many articles. Contributing to the comments is also very helpful as you can ask questions and get the most out of the information you just read.
Give yourself a break. After a half dozen or dozen articles, depending on their weight, go look at something completely non-demanding or get away from the computer all together. I have found that over the years, with increasingly complex subjects my “breaks” become less and less complex eg: after reading two PLOS studies I take a 10 minute 4chan break.
Get rid of distractions. That includes Instant Messengers, open programs and other things which draw you away from the text. I have found that if I get pulled out in the middle of a story or article, my comprehension drops dramatically.
If there are parts of whatever you are reading that you don’t understand—look them up immediately. This is a huge part of the comprehension aspect. Yes, it will slow you down considerably. However once having a good understanding, you will have better context for the rest of the article and can better frame whatever fact you just learned.
Lastly. Don’t worry about your eyes going bad. They wont.
My job is to read AND understand information such that I can repeat it back clearly and precisely, often succinctly from 7:30-4:30. 99.9% of this information comes off of computer derived sources. When I am home, at lunch and in the evenings (when I am not exercising or eating) I am either on the computer reading more or reading a hard copy book. On an average day I probably, between work and home, read through 250-300 articles or studies. In general I have about 80-90% retention with comprehension nearly complete—some of the more abstract things obviously take longer.
Here are my tips:
If you use the same sources on a daily basis (like LW/OB) then create a hierarchy of visits. I find Firefox really useful for this with the bookmark toolbar and RSS feed—that way I can go left to right sequentially and see what I have read already. That way if I only have a short period of time, I get the most out of it.
Open only the articles which you are very interested in, and open them all at once so that you can see them in your tabs. A word of caution though, don’t necessarily read them in the order that you open them. There is the tendency to read in order, however I have found that if there is an article I am really excited about, then that is the only one I will think about when I am reading through another one. This method allows you to take your work in chunks rather than burning through one particular source all at once.
Continually update your hierarchy of sources, refining which give you the best information
If you use aggregators such as reddit—read the comments. Often they distill or give better context than many articles. Contributing to the comments is also very helpful as you can ask questions and get the most out of the information you just read.
Give yourself a break. After a half dozen or dozen articles, depending on their weight, go look at something completely non-demanding or get away from the computer all together. I have found that over the years, with increasingly complex subjects my “breaks” become less and less complex eg: after reading two PLOS studies I take a 10 minute 4chan break.
Get rid of distractions. That includes Instant Messengers, open programs and other things which draw you away from the text. I have found that if I get pulled out in the middle of a story or article, my comprehension drops dramatically.
If there are parts of whatever you are reading that you don’t understand—look them up immediately. This is a huge part of the comprehension aspect. Yes, it will slow you down considerably. However once having a good understanding, you will have better context for the rest of the article and can better frame whatever fact you just learned.
Lastly. Don’t worry about your eyes going bad. They wont.