Professors - Overcome Reading Overwhelm - 8 Ideas That Work

There's no question that you have a great deal to read - and it's easy to become overwhelmed with the sheer quantity. Here are some ideas to help you overcome your reading overwhelm - by using your brain and your time prudently.

1. If you start reading a book and it doesn't "grab" you, close it and move on. Regardless of whether you bought it, borrowed it, or checked it out from the library, you don't have to finish a book if it's not interesting, fun, worthwhile, moving, or somehow compelling. There are thousands and thousands of books published every year (and hundreds of thousands available from past years) so you need not spend your time or your guilt on slogging through something that isn't worth it. I promise.
2. "Read & Rip". If you decide to go zooming through a pile of magazines or journals in a given time period, then set it up to be a "read & rip" session. Just go right through the magazine, keeping focused on the articles you want to read and not looking at the advertisements. This takes a fair amount of discipline, but you will make short work of the pile if you do this. As you finish a section of the magazine, just tear if off and put it in the recycling bin. Then, even if you finish your allotted time for reading and ripping, you will know what is completed and what you have left. The pile is much smaller to go back to the next time and you don't trek through what you've already read.
3. For heaven's sake, take a speed reading class! There are many offered throughout the world! Some are offered by specially trained instructors and others are offered through schools, community colleges, universities, or in public seminars. Even if you've taken one before, take another one. All of us can learn new techniques for maximizing our speed and efficiency while reading. Note: This is something I LOVE to teach to teachers and to students and have done so for years. It makes a difference, there's no question.
4. Set aside time each day (or week) to read. Many people carry loads of reading materials home at night to work on--and it's reading that is related to or is an integral part of their professional responsibilities. It's as if people feel guilty about reading at work. If you're reading the latest "bodice ripper" at work, then you probably aren't doing your job, but if you are reading professional materials, reports, articles, research updates, or whatever else that you are expected to read to be able to do your job, then read it AT WORK whenever possible. It IS your work. Block in an appropriate amount of time each day or week to do this work, just like you block in time to meet, write, observe, etc. You know your rhythms and what your days and weeks are like. Determine the optimum time for you and one that you know you can protect and then use it for reading, just reading.
5. Gently but firmly refuse what others are offering you to read. Our friends, colleagues, and acquaintances are often giving us books, magazines, newsletters, etc. to read--and we take them. Consider telling them the truth(!) that right now, you have so much to read that you can't take one more word into your home or office. Let them know that if and when you are ready for new items, you'll get back to them. This relieves the potential piles of items and relieves the guilt you might feel when you aren't getting your friend's items read and returned. It's a double win!
6. Start a "Read" folder and only allow it to become a certain size. Get a 3 ½ or 5 inch expandable file folder that you put in a drawer near where you sort your mail and do your work. Whenever you come to something that you want to read but it's not urgent and important that you read it now, put it in the folder. If (and when!) the folder is full, then you've reached your limit. Remove some of the items from the front (if you've been dropping new items into the back) and just immediately deposit them in the recycle bin. Having a folder of a designated size keeps you from have mountains of "to read" piles all over your office.
7. Take your "Read" folder with you. Get in the habit of grabbing either the whole folder or a few items out of the folder any time you are heading out the door to a meeting, an appointment, or on a trip. Use the minutes (or hours) waiting for colleagues, standing in line, sitting at a child's soccer practice, or traveling on an airplane to read through what you've collected in your folder. You'll travel back to your home or office much lighter than when you left! And it's not just a physical lightness!
8. Read a sample chapter of a professional book either on line, while standing at the bookstore, or at the library. Professional speaker Larry Winget jokes that authors could save themselves a lot of time by writing only first chapters of books because that is essentially all that ever gets read. So, "test" a book for whether it is worth your time and energy to read in its entirety. If it isn't, then don't purchase it so that it sits around adding to your feeling of overwhelm about what you need to read.

So what will you do first, this week? I mean it. Get started.

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(c) 2008 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., "The Productivity Professor"(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!