Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer My latest problems with photoreading

well im finding lately that i have problems limiting myself to the 30 min sessions. I can sort of skim throgh a say 3 or 4 hour book normal reading(about 400 pgs) in about 2 hours by cutting through the fat. But would i find greater benefit in superreading the book in 30 min sessions? rapid reading is reading the book from begining to end but it seems to hard to keep to a half hour.
any advice?

good question...im only responding cause i wanna keep this question fresh since im having the same opinions.

Boylan,

I think the 30 min. thing stems from Buzan's idea of 20 min. being optimal study time. His studies showed that our attention span while we study is high in the first 10 min. (we're charged into it) and then drops off until the last 10 min. of studying (we're excited because we're almost done). The rest of time in between our attention span is incredibly low, as well as our retention.

This applies to normal reading as well as PRing. (Actually, someone used the initials PRSys, and I think it's more accurate and helps differentiate, so I'll start using that instead).

I personally don't follow that rule, and rapid read 'till I'm done, or SR&D until I'm done, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

-Ramon http://razor.ramon.com

The key is to give yourself a definite time constraint on your activation session. If you want to go longer than 30 minutes, then set the time constraint at 45 minutes or however long you are comfortable with. But give yourself an ending point to stop and add a layer of branches to your mind map.

In most cases, I've had enough after about 25 minutes, but sometimes I like to go up to an hour.

so is it essential to developing pr skills to set a time limit? i guess this increases your ability to grab important information.
to start out i guess you should do 3 or so 30 min activations to get some comprrehension of the book. IS that the key or am i just shooting blanks here?
thanks you guys

Yes, you're right on track.

Each 30-minute activation session builds conscious comprehension from whole-to-parts, structure first and increasingly more detail as you go. Add a layer of key word/phrase branches to your mind map at the end of each pass.