I find my mind tends to wander when I read dead-tree books. This makes me a rather slow reader. Oddly enough, it doesn’t happen when I’m reading stuff on the internet. Suggestions?
I am easily distracted while reading long works. That doesn’t stop me from reading long comment threads, forum topics, or blog post after blog post, though. As best I can tell, the relevant difference is that the latter are broken up into small, easily processed chunks. Because I know I’ll be done with the chunk I’m reading soon, my mind doesn’t have reason to wander off. The commitment doesn’t feel as large, so I have less reason to subconsciously question it. Just like with food, just one more small chunk won’t matter....
My book-reading strategy lately is to discretize the material and be actively involved in the text. I scan each page, and if it looks interesting, I read it. I then try to write a couple lines of notes on the page or section I am considering. Focusing on what is worth writing down also keeps me from wandering off.
This strategy probably wouldn’t work as well for fiction, but that usually requires less motivation. I hope my personal observations are of some help.
I have the same problem with finding it much harder to concentrate while reading an actual book as opposed to forum posts etc. I used to have a huge attention span for books of any sort when I was younger, so I wonder if being used to the short content you tend to find on the internet is the issue.
My trick is to go somewhere away from my house to read. Weather permitting, I walk to a park bench about 10 minutes from where I live. It makes it much easier to focus when I know I can’t check my email or reddit almost instantly. Although it is annoying when I want to, say, look up the definition of a word.
I humbly propose that being a slow reader makes your mind wander (which is mitigated when reading bite size chunks on the Internet). Using your finger as a pacer will probably give you a 10-20% speed improvement. If that helps, consider a speed reading course (I did Evelyn Wood Dynamic Reading and found it excellent).
Do you actually want to read faster in those situations? I find the mind-wondering process essential to deeper understanding of the material, creativity on the issues I’m pondering in the background viewed in a new light, and aesthetic appreciation of the writing.
Consider (for material that justifies it) speed reading, but reading the material twice (with a few days in between). Your total time spent is the same, but your recall will be greater, and your second exposure will often let you see things you didn’t the first time round.
I have the opposite problem, I tend to really zip through stuff on screen, which I have discovered makes it harder to remember details later. So I basically just read fiction and do general “fishing” type reading on screen.
Interesting. I have the reverse effect—it’s much easier to concentrate on the physical books, which don’t need to constantly compete for attention with all the distractions of the web, like the impulse to check your e-mail every five minutes.
That’s mostly just for long books, though—reading comment threads such as on LW isn’t a problem. The hypothesis below, that it’s because of their discretized nature, sounds quite plausible.
I find my mind tends to wander when I read dead-tree books.
Interesting. I have the opposite problem My mind tends to wander when reading stuff on the internet. To truly comprehend what I see on my computer screen, I have to print it and read it from a piece of paper.
Perhaps this is because I need to highlight passages and make notes in the margins. If it was easy to do this with anything I read on the internet, maybe my ability to comprehend from the computer screen would be just as good?
I find my mind tends to wander when I read dead-tree books. This makes me a rather slow reader. Oddly enough, it doesn’t happen when I’m reading stuff on the internet. Suggestions?
I am easily distracted while reading long works. That doesn’t stop me from reading long comment threads, forum topics, or blog post after blog post, though. As best I can tell, the relevant difference is that the latter are broken up into small, easily processed chunks. Because I know I’ll be done with the chunk I’m reading soon, my mind doesn’t have reason to wander off. The commitment doesn’t feel as large, so I have less reason to subconsciously question it. Just like with food, just one more small chunk won’t matter....
My book-reading strategy lately is to discretize the material and be actively involved in the text. I scan each page, and if it looks interesting, I read it. I then try to write a couple lines of notes on the page or section I am considering. Focusing on what is worth writing down also keeps me from wandering off.
This strategy probably wouldn’t work as well for fiction, but that usually requires less motivation. I hope my personal observations are of some help.
I have the same problem with finding it much harder to concentrate while reading an actual book as opposed to forum posts etc. I used to have a huge attention span for books of any sort when I was younger, so I wonder if being used to the short content you tend to find on the internet is the issue.
My trick is to go somewhere away from my house to read. Weather permitting, I walk to a park bench about 10 minutes from where I live. It makes it much easier to focus when I know I can’t check my email or reddit almost instantly. Although it is annoying when I want to, say, look up the definition of a word.
I use Google SMS for that. Just text ’em with “define [word]” and you’ve got a dictionary at your fingertips.
I humbly propose that being a slow reader makes your mind wander (which is mitigated when reading bite size chunks on the Internet). Using your finger as a pacer will probably give you a 10-20% speed improvement. If that helps, consider a speed reading course (I did Evelyn Wood Dynamic Reading and found it excellent).
Do you actually want to read faster in those situations? I find the mind-wondering process essential to deeper understanding of the material, creativity on the issues I’m pondering in the background viewed in a new light, and aesthetic appreciation of the writing.
Consider (for material that justifies it) speed reading, but reading the material twice (with a few days in between). Your total time spent is the same, but your recall will be greater, and your second exposure will often let you see things you didn’t the first time round.
I have the opposite problem, I tend to really zip through stuff on screen, which I have discovered makes it harder to remember details later. So I basically just read fiction and do general “fishing” type reading on screen.
Interesting. I have the reverse effect—it’s much easier to concentrate on the physical books, which don’t need to constantly compete for attention with all the distractions of the web, like the impulse to check your e-mail every five minutes.
That’s mostly just for long books, though—reading comment threads such as on LW isn’t a problem. The hypothesis below, that it’s because of their discretized nature, sounds quite plausible.
Interesting. I have the opposite problem My mind tends to wander when reading stuff on the internet. To truly comprehend what I see on my computer screen, I have to print it and read it from a piece of paper.
Perhaps this is because I need to highlight passages and make notes in the margins. If it was easy to do this with anything I read on the internet, maybe my ability to comprehend from the computer screen would be just as good?