You seem to be taking the all or nothing approach to activation.
The fear associated with activation failure is not uncommon yet totally unnecessary. Beginners will spend perhaps 20 minutes on one activation pass and say I didn't get anything out of that. All I can say is you ain't seen nothing yet, that's why.
As a traditional passive reader in 20 minutes you haven't got anything, if you an average reader you've covered the first ten pages of the book which is perhaps one chapter. Consider this, 'what do you really know about the book at this point when you apply your passive reading style?' Well you ain't seen nothng yet if you're lucky you've covered the author preamble.
As a PhotoReader one of the things that you are asked to do is become an active reader. State your purpose have mind probing questions. For the majority we were never taught how to get curious about a book, to ask inquiring questions what kind of questions you should ask and what to look for. Most people discover this skill after having read X number of books lets say 100. Like the 100th Monkey effect the neural pathways suddenly click and all the synapses know what to do once you hit the magic number.
Well the good news is that with PhotoReading if you activate say one book per week per month or two you are going to get that 100th book effect a whole lot sooner in between 5 to 8 books you'll notice that you're getting what you want from a book within the first 2 or 3 activation passes. However to get there, to get to that point, you need to apply as many activation passes as it takes. If you are an Okay passive reader then that's no less than 5 activation passes at 20 minutes each. If your reading skills are less than you desire then that might be 8 passes. The next book might take 5 and the one after might take 9 after 5 books of actively activating you'll see progress when you give them their full measure.
Notice that even from 6 to 8 20 minute activation passes you are spending about 1/3 the time of traditional passive reading. You're already ahead of the game when you start.
What it takes when it comes to activation is there is no failure only results. First 3 4 or 5 passes will feel like your not getting anything out of the book it's the pass (the last pass) that helps it all come together.
Activation is like looking for ones glasses. You're turning the pages over looking here, looking there sure that you left the answer(glasses) here somewhere. Finally the dust settles and someone says, 'Oh, I see you've found your glasses. Where were they?" Reply, "In the last place I looked and I'm sure I had looked there 3 times before I found them."
So set the timer for 20 minutes, you're just going to see how many answers to you mind probing questions you can find and if it feels like you're not done yet great, you want to know more, go for it.
Alex
