Reading non-fiction, including textbooks, for "effectiveness"

(Click on the title of this post to see the entire post.)

EFFECTIVE VERSUS INEFFECTIVE READING/LEARNING

Effective people use their time to produce those results that produced the maximum value.  Effective people are constantly creating effects (that are good), of course - thus the label of "effective"..

People who are ineffective forget what the purpose is of reading a non-fiction book, so they get lost in what is "of interest" plus appealing little distractions.  They also mistake "hope" (and the stimulation thereof) induced from reading good materials with actually doing something that will show up in reality, not in a mythical mental world.  But "hope" is not a great product by itself, for what we are hoping for is, indeed, good results that make our life better, of course.

(People aren't, technically speaking, any one way, such as ineffective or effective.  It is their behavior that is such or not.  And their behavior is determined by what they believe will work:  "If I do x, then I'll get y."  But a false belief doesn't end up with the expected product, because a person doesn't employ the practice of thinking things through and questioning beliefs and assumptions.  In this piece, I am suggesting behaviors and ways of thinking that lead to true desired results - I am not suggesting that a label is true of an entity, since that entity can change the content of beliefs that are held!)


PRACTICAL READING

I am reading a voluminous textbook (in relatively small print also) on motivation and emotion.  Although it reads like a textbook (doesn't intend so much to be entertaining), it has great contents and it has finer distinctions that I can use in my knowledge base to draw from when thinking and/or writing.  (Hopefully, those latter two are both included..)

I could take forever if I read the whole book line by line, but I would begin at some point to add no value to my life by reading more.  So I have to use the same criteria as what an effective person uses in his/her life.  I must sort out what is useful and what is not.

Useful for what?  A desired result of course.

I want to have relevant knowledge that I can use to convey to others what I need to convey AND I need relevant information as input with which to think, problem-solve, design, and plan, such that my and/or my readers will be better off in life.  

Anything that doesn't make me or my target audience better off is "irrelevant", it is not relevant to getting a (desired) result.  I must not bother to read what is not sufficiently relevant. As such, I will search for what I need to read in detail that is helpful  (crossing off what isn't or skipping over it) and/or I will "scan" some sections for a general impression, such as one key sentence per paragraph..
I must not let myself be attracted to what is "of interest" but not of actual use, for I do not want to live a life without sufficient relevance that can be used to gain results of value!!!!

In fact, because I am so aware of the trap of "being of interest" and how it can "get me" into wasting a portion of my life, that I try to do my best to scan even more quickly, knowing I might miss a possibly useful detail here and there - but I realize also that I am getting the value that I want overall.

HUGE BENEFITS

This increases my depth of understanding and learning by from 2X to 10X or more.  And I know that "understanding" and "learning", in themselves, add no value, other than entertainment and intellectual masturbation, if I do not actually harvest them into doing the actions that will cause the results I want.

Of course, harvesting increases the time it takes compared to just reading the book (often totally offsetting the time saved by scanning and being selective).  However, the gold standard here for what is the right amount of time is that amount of time it takes to fully harvest the book.  After all, aren't I reading the book for the purpose of deriving value?  

So, I am cautioning you to only read what is relevant (avoid the irrelevant in reading and in life) while at the same time adding total processing time that is often higher than the reading of the book.

Of course, I could save time by just reading the book, but wouldn't that be foolish????

I will spend 2 to 10 times as much time harvesting a book as in just "reading" it, but the value of that is at least 10X to more likely 100X of the benefit I would have derived otherwise!!


GETTING THE VALUE OUT OF IT

Wise men (including women) focus on what is of most relevance and value in anything they do and discard what is irrelevant and not on purpose.  Unwise people let the irrelevant fill up their lives, squeezing out much of the potential they can get from life - and then they wonder why they don't "have enough time"!  

I take notes in the margin, so that I will be able to see what I would not be able to hold in my working memory.  I take them only to the extent that they are useful.

We are taught in some schools to use the SQ3R method for effective reading/learning. The "steps" are Survey the contents, Question what is relevant or not and also question whatever you read, then you Read, Recall (what you want to remember OR you write it down in an accessible place), then Review, especially for key points and perspective.  The final part that should be in all such cases is to decide what you can harvest and then set it up to harvest it (if it is of sufficient value and relevance).  (See The Best Ways To Learn - The Importance Of Learning How To Learn.)

Harvest the most you can, in terms of highest value, from everything you do in life, not letting yourself slip into distractions or lower relevance items, and you will live a 10X (or 100X) life!  ("x" = "times", mathematically speaking)
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If you were reading this blog for intent of implementing what is of value for you, you might not, at the time, have the time to fully digest the subject (and follow the requisite, helpful links).  If you've decided to follow up, then you enter it into your "to do" master inbox.  You alternatively might copy and paste the article into Evernote and then email it, with instructions in the header as to what to do, to your master in box.  Then you would process your inbox to put things into a priority position or into a category that you will visit (because you tickled it up for a visit), such as having a category listing of "Life Improvement Exercises To Follow Through On", with any blog post you wish to go back to kept in order of the priority you will do them.

[The set up of such a master inbox list was discussed in A simplified, effective, easy to do task list that will better your life!]

Yes, I can imagine how a person might read the blog and pass it up because "it takes too much time" to do everything in it.  So you, as in all time management have "queueing" system to place it in the right priority to be done later over time.