Notes on Power Reading and Writing

Personal Notes on Brian Tracy’s Power Reading and Writing. There is an over abundance of information in our age currently… It’s more a matter about filtering and selecting relevant information… to keep up with current Entering the communications age. Top of people in any given field can read / write / and speak effectively. Power READING: Combinations of speed-reading and retention of the main ideas. Your eye takes in information faster than your ear. You don’t have to see every word on the page. If you only see the key words you would improve your Way the eye works. It is a series of skips. Often tempted to back skip, which cuts your reading down to a third. Choose a book you want to read. 1. Read two or three words in from the beginning of the line 2. Finish reading two or three words 3. Put your hand the page and sweep down the page as if you were brushing breadcrumbs from under the printed material 4. Discipline yourself to do this for 20 minutes at a time. Why it works: Prevents back skipping. Prevents talking in your head. Alters your perception of how fast that you can read. Highway driving vs driving at 30kph POWER READING TECHNIQUE: 1. Over view, skim and scan the entire book. 5-10 minutes. Ask questions, who was author, note credits, predominance in the field, publication date. Look at table of contents. Glance at reference in the index. Get a feel for the structure of the book. Fastest way to deal with reading is to not read a book that isn’t worth your time. 2. Preview: glance quickly through each chapter. 3 minutes per chapter. (30 minutes for the book) Scan read at 7 sec per page. Look to see if it will add to your knowledge.

3. Sketch out what you already know about this topic. Alerts your mind to what is coming. 3 min / chapter. (30 minutes) 4. Create questions so that you read with purpose when you begin. Be clear about what you want to get out of the book What are the main ideas in this book? What supporting evidence is there? Are the facts up to date? What’s in it for me in learning this material? What’s new about this material? What can I use from this material? 3 minutes / chapter. (30 minutes) 5. Read for key ideas… read the text one chapter at a time. 15-20 seconds per page. Underline new ideas, put ticks or question marks or explanation marks in the margin 8 minutes per chapter (80 minutes for the book) 6. After view, for the pattern of the material and the difficult ideas. Re read the chapters stop at difficult sections Look for the pattern for the argument Figure out how all the information related to each other. Read allow sections that you didn’t 10 minutes per chapter (100 minutes) 7. Make Notes and learning maps on the book. In learning map 10 minutes / chapter (100 minutes) 8. Review your Notes, next day, next week and next month. 5-10 minutes reviewing the notes a day later. A week later. A month later. (30 minutes total) Total time 6.5 hours for a serious 250 page text book. This technique is done 2 times faster than regular reading and you will have over 10 times the comprehension. Power reading is not about reading every word it’s about getting the idea from the book. Variable speed reading HOW TO CHOOSE READING MATERIAL.

1. Read only material that is interesting and important to you. Refuse to read things that aren’t valuable to you at the moment. Use skim and scan to read magazines and News Papers. Go straight to the article and rip it out. Throw the rest of the magazines away. Always read with a colour pen or highlighter. 2. Reflection and Clarifying of the material after you read it. stop and re-read the key points and see if you understand them for yourself. POWER WRITING. (20 minutes into cassette) The better you can write: The better you can think The more you can accomplish The better decisions you can make The more respect you get from others. The more control Concentrate more on “the what” than “the How”. Free your creative powers. Cannot write and edit at the same time. Write freely first… then go back and edit it. Consider it as two separate functions. Writing and editing. Use Learning maps. Sequence of preparation 1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7.   8. 9.

look up all learning maps that you currently have on the topic make more notes off of any reference material that you require for the project. put the subject in the middle of the blank page. make a branching mind map of all your thoughts on the  do a free flow mind map  put down all idea’s even silly ones. look at the mind map create a new mind map of themes… and learning clusters. Now write in a fluid form… don’t judge or critizise or edit… just write it all out very quickly move from one cluster to the next very quickly. Do Nothing. Let it sit in your subconscious for a time. Incubate on the topic for a while. Next day or longer go back to it and edit it. Now be critical on style. Early in the morning is a good place to start. Is the meaning clear, is there a flow to the writing. Did you set up your basic argument, then prove it then conclude with a short summary. Look for aquard area’s. Conversational tone to most writing. And Personal from on friend to another.

Revision Stage: GETTING YOUR POINT ACROSS. (33minutes into tape) Opening line and paragraph is the most important. It grabs them very quickly. 1. There is perpetual clutter with information in our culture today. 11 to 15 words which shape a persons attitude for all that follows. 2. Give them a reason to be interested in all that follows. What’s in it for them??? 3. Write from the reader’s point of view. 4. Keep it short punchy sentences. 5. Always chose the simplest word to convey your point… use concrete words rather than abstractions. 6. Make it look inviting in formatting. Make it fun and easy to read 7. Close with a bang.