Focus and taking in information when reading

Maybe you absorb better when it is backed up by hearing the same information when reading, and you've never found out?

I'm autistic + ADHD when trying to absorb something that doesn't really interest me I find it easier to watch tutorial with subtitles

You have working method - with markers, stick to it until you come up with another idea to test. Obviously just reading doesn't work for you.

Hmmm....I'm dyslexic as well as autistic. I've struggled with this too. I found it's a question of playing with techniques until you fing what works.

Colour coding of notes helps me as has drawing cartoons in my notes as have making audio notes.

That's something! Sometimes it can take years to start a new task or try out a new discipline. 

I plan an Artist's Date for Friday. But I find myself too disorganised for Morning Pages. 

Buy a blank notebook and a dedicated writing element of choice. Paper, not digital. 

I suggest for full effect and engagement to go to an art shop, try all pens and pencils and find only one of each. And then the blank notebook. MOST likely, what you are wondering about needs to get out of your head and resolved. Follow the thought. Write it down. Close the book. Continue with the document. Catch the next external thoughts, write them down on a new page. and so on.

The catch is this: you're not allowed to erase or delete anything. Be horrified by your own thoughts, but affirm them anyway, they're just thoughts, we all think a strange assortment. Write it all down until you feel you can focus again on the task at hand.

The Artists Way is a book that can help you get this out of your head every morning by filling 3 pages with unrelenting writing. I'd commit to 5 days a week. 2 off. 

My friend uses brown noise to help her concentrate

If I find my mind starting to wander when I'm reading, I start to read out loud - often in one of the many accents that I have mastered.  It seems to help me regain focus.

Hi, I think using different colours to write to bullet points is good method, if you feel this method no longer works for you, try developing a different approach based on it.

I find that I often mark out bullet points that are too long and too much that do very little to help sort out the document, so I try to underline 1-3 key words from the original text that I want to extract each time, with the emphasis on being short enough. it helps to keep reading and extract the information quickly.

Because it's so short, contextual information is likely to be missing, so consider stringing them together in a sentence, which can sometimes help to maintain focus and promote understanding. If the document is complex, then use a powerful mind mapping software to organise those words and sentences.

Sometimes special stationery or reading software can be an unexpected help, so it's good to check these out.

This is the reading method I have used so far, I'm also curious as to how other people do it.

I think the colour thing is the reason why I used to write different lines in different colour ink - it helped me see the start and end point of a paragraph.

I did try changing the page colour at one point and that did seem to help.  It's quite easy to do that in Adobe Acrobat, but dear old microsoft make it virtually impossible to change the page colour from white, unless you go into reading view - in which case you can only change it to sepia.

Interesting.  I have tried white noise, but it has to be really low level or I just find it distracting.

I use background music or a fidget cube when I’m reading scientific papers for work. If only Barrington Stoke could publish those as well. Sometimes I just read shorter documents and emails 3 times and I pick up all the info eventually , a bit each time. It also helps if I read out loud or mouth the words because I think my problem is that I read too fast in my head so my brain tries to make up the parts I haven’t taken in properly

Thanks for that, i will look into it.

Barrington stoke is a publisher of books for dyslexia  and reluctant readers. See your library can order some for you. 

Hi, I have always struggled with this, I’m sad to say that I’ve only read two books in my life. I can read a paragraph about 4 times and still can’t process it. My spelling is really bad. I have researched into it and it seems I’m dyslexic and have adhd traits on top of autism. For writing now my wife bought me a keyboard for dyslexia, it’s interestingly colour coded into different areas and functions. It has helped massively. For reading books now, I use audiobooks as the voice blocks out other thoughts. I know that isn’t much help with documents. Have you thought of highlighting paragraphs with a highlighter pen, colour does seem to trigger how we store information. I have seen new pens that scan a paragraph and then turn it into an audio message, then fed into earphones or a mobile phone.

Focus Plant is a focus timer, a study timer, and also a focus gamified study app. It helps you to beat phone addiction, improve productivity, self-control, and concentration on study and work. Stay focused! There are in app purchases. I use the free version. 

Water, grow plants and focus.

You can get this on Google play store.

I use this at bedtime, want to do something etc.