If a piece of reading material is not of value to
you, why waste your time? Become a frequent
"skipper"!
Using skipping as a reading strategy means to
selectively choose which parts to read and which to
leave out. Making your choice is easy if you base it
on why you are reading what you are reading and what
you personally need to get out of it.
Your purpose, or the "WHY am I reading
this?" question, can be answered mentally in
many ways such as "because I am interested, my boss
asked me to read it, or it was assigned for
homework." Your responsibility, or the
"WHAT do I need it for?" question, can be
justified "because you need it for an upcoming
meeting, to communicate changes to your clients or
for a test."
If your can't come up with specific answers to
these questions, then you have good reason to skip
reading the material in your hand.
If you DO establish your purpose and
responsibility but the reading material is 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.
