Like most people, your inbox is full, you desk is loaded with reports and you have a backlog of reading material that just keeps on growing. The first thing to do is to allow yourself to skim read. Granting yourself this permission helps you cover a wider variety and volume of material.
How to skim read:
- Read the table of contents and look at all the pictures.
- Don't read every word or every sentence. Let your eyes dance from top to bottom, taking in key words.
- Read the titles and subtitles and anything in bold.
- Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph.
- Once you have a pretty strong understanding of the piece, give it one more scan to absorb additional information.