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Focus and taking in information when reading

Wombles

This is an odd problem but I wanted to post here to see if anyone else experiences this and has any work arounds.  I really struggle to take information from reading documents.  I will start reading it, but mind just wanders, especially if it is something that is not particularly stimulating.

I am adult with A levels and a degree, so I clearly managed to get through the learning process before.  What I used to do was write bullet points from a document as I was going through it (with each bullet point written in a different colour as I found that used to help me when trying to commit the bullet to memory).

I am wondering whether I need to go back to doing that - but that makes life when reading papers or documents at work rather cumbersome.  

Has anyone got any tips to help stay focused when reading documents, and more importantly, any tips to help try and retain the information that I am reading?

Parents

  • 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.

Reply

  • 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.

Children
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