Read the Best and SKIP the Rest!

Using Skipping as a Reading Strategy

Using skipping as a reading strategy means to selectively choose which parts to read and which to leave out, based on your purpose and responsibility.

Your purpose and responsibility should answer these questions: "WHY am I reading this?" and "WHAT do I need it for?" Some possible answers include "Because I have to, want to, or need to for my job, my interests, my curiosity, a test, my personal development and so on." If you cannot effectively answer these questions (the more specifically the better), then you probably shouldn't be reading the material in your hand.

If you can establish your purpose and responsibility but the material you are reading has become redundant or unnecessary based on your needs, then you can confidently skip to a new sentence, article or even chapter.

Try this: Read the first sentences of paragraphs (on non-fiction, factual material only) to quickly find the paragraphs you want to spend your time on. Skip the rest.

The key to effective skipping is in choosing what you read, not what you leave out. Overcome your fear of missing material. There is more than enough reading material to last a lifetime -- your job is to q-u-i-c-k-l-y find what is most valuable to you.

TERMS OF PERMISSION TO REPRINT

This tip may be reprinted when the following byline is included:

Abby Marks Beale is founder of The Corporate Educator, a professional speaking and training company specializing in helping with busy people work smarter, faster and just plain better. Go to www.TheCorporateEducator.com.

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Rev It Up Reading is a subsidiary of The Corporate Educator. Since 1988, we have been teaching faster, more effective reading to busy professionals, educators and students in a wide variety of corporations, associations and schools. We offer speaking services, on-site and online training programs, teleclasses, books and audio recordings about how to manage any reading workload and how to read better and faster. ALL of our training is practical and immediately useful to your life and work.