Archive for the 'Professional' Category

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Speed Reading: Science or Science Fiction

Published on February 21, 2008 in Mental, Personal, Professional and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: .

Volumes upon volumes have been written about speed reading. In addition, there’s plenty of software available to help students and professionals maximize their time by cutting down the hours they spend reading. But does speed reading really work or is it an illusion created to rake in the almighty dollar? Let examine some of the facts.

Believe it or not, speed reading has a foundation in psychological research. The concept first developed when scientists in the US Air Force proved that people could recognize a group of four words in one five-hundredth of a second. Unfortunately, the story begins to turn a little bit at this point. Apparently it’s easier to recognize a group of four words quickly than it is to read a page quickly and even when high speeds are achieved, reduced comprehension usually accompanies it. For example, top contenders in the World Championship Speed Reading Competition read between 1,000 and 2,000 words per minute but their comprehension rate is about 50%. For those of us who read for information, 50% retention is utterly worthless.

Don’t despair though! You don’t have to read at 2,000 words per minute to benefit from speed reading. The average adult only reads at about 250 words per minute and with a few simple tips, you could easily read at 600 to 1,000 words per minute. How?

1. Read Chunks of Words- This technique is appropriately called “chunking.” Instead of looking at each word individually, you try to see words as 3 to 5 word phrases. It takes a while to get the hang of it but once you do, your reading rate will shoot upwards.

2. Avoid Subvocalization- Can you hear yourself when you read this sentence even if you’re not talking? If so, you’re subvocalizing. You don’t need to hear the word “car” to picture a car. If you’re used to subvocalization, then this tip may be the hardest for you. Don’t get discouraged! Work at it and soon you’ll be visualizing your books rather than vocalizing them and visualizing is a heck of a lot faster!

3. Use Your Hand as a Pace Car- This technique was named after its founder Evelyn Wood. The Wood Method is accomplished by moving your hand across a sentence at the speed you’d like to read. The method works because as humans, we’re highly attuned to motion and you eye will naturally follow your hand. Try it! It’s an easy way to get started speed reading.

While there are reports of people who can read 25,000 words per minute with perfect recall, those cases are few and far between. You may never finish War and Peace in one sitting, but with a little practice you may be able to finish a Harry Potter book in a couple of hours.

Who is Steve Pavlina?

Published on February 19, 2008 in Blogs, Educational, Health, Mental, NLP, Nutrition, Personal, Professional and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Steve Pavlina, once a felon, is now a personal development blogger who maintains a site at www.stevepavlina.com. His interests vary. While some of his posts are the run-of-the-mill personal development articles that describe how to energize your life and get things done, other articles boarder on the weird. The arena of personal development has no shortage of blogs on the web so the question is, “Is Steve’s blog worth your time?”

First I’ll say this; you will not be bored on this blog! You could spend a day on it reading a wide variety of articles ranging from “How to Give Up Coffee” to “The Meaning of Life.” The articles are generally well written and are frequently backed with Steve’s experience on the subject.

One of the articles I found particularly interesting was “30 Days to Success.” It’s one of those things that you read and think, “It’s so simple! Why didn’t I think of that?” Basically Steve suggests that major changes in your life should have a 30 day trial period. Have you been thinking of starting a new diet? It can be a daunting task to change the way you eat forever, but if you just want to stick with the diet for 30 days, it becomes much less of a mental hurdle. The beauty of this principle is that new habits take about 30 days to form so if you find that you’re reaping health benefits from your new diet after the 30 day mark, you’re much more likely to continue. See what I mean? The principle presented is simple, yet powerful.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some things Steve writes about that I’d recommend a lot more research on before trying. One such idea is polyphasic sleep. Polyphasic sleep is taking many naps throughout the day rather than sleeping in one long span of time. Steve suggests that this is possible because you train yourself to enter REM sleep faster. That statement caused little alarms to go off in the part of my brain that holds a psychology degree. I remember reading that a person will go directly to REM sleep if they’re sleep deprived and exhausted. I don’t think people trying this sleeping method are really training themselves. I just think they reach a point where they’re so exhausted they go right into REM sleep. Polyphasic sleep also seems to ignore thermal fluctuations that your body goes through during wake/sleep cycles. For me, polyphasic sleep left too many questions.

The truth is you don’t have to agree with everything Steve Pavlina writes in order to benefit from his site. There are plenty of good ideas there and it’s definitely worth your time to check it out and play around for a couple of hours. Who knows? One of Steve’s ideas may change your life!

Weaponize Your Day

Published on January 31, 2008 in Educational, Mental, Personal, Professional and Self-Improvement. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

We’ve all said it. I’m willing to bet you’ve said it more than once. “All I need is a few more hours in a day.” Or maybe it’s, “If only there were 8 days in a week.” There just never seems to be enough time. But the truth is there’s plenty of time in each and every day to accomplish your most important tasks and it only takes about half an hour a day to set yourself up for success. How can this miracle occur? You just need to weaponize your day.

What do I mean by weaponizing your day exactly? Too many of us go into our days without a plan. We simply take whatever task presents itself, complete it, then move on to the next task. What you need to do is determine ahead of time what tasks are important? What tasks are going to be the most productive for you? Think about that for a minute. What tasks are hanging over your head right now? What tasks would advance you most financially, professionally, or personally if they were completed tomorrow? Now write those tasks down! Take a page from David Letterman’s playbook and make a top ten list. This list will be the backbone of your day. Come rain or shine, if nothing else gets accomplished, these 10 items will be done! Do this each and every day. I find that it works best if I make it part of my nightly routine. Before I brush my teeth for bed, I write my top 10 list down in my trusty notebook.

So what’s making a top ten list going to do for you? Well, first of all it will help you prioritize your day. You’ll no longer be a slave to those little projects that seem to pop up out of nowhere. When you prioritize your most important tasks it makes it infinitely easier to say no to the little things that crawl out of the woodworks to drain suck up your precious time. Every time someone asks you to do something you’ll immediately think, “Is this task really important enough to take time away from my top ten? Should I delegate this task or just say no all together?” By setting a goal for yourself ahead of time you’ve ensured that you don’t wander through your life just trying to keep up. You have a plan, a purpose, a direction; and nothing will derail you from that unless it’s of the utmost importance.