Comments on: Freeing up Mental RAM with Segmented Reading

By: Nuclear Rainbow

Nuclear Rainbow — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:29:49 +0000

A very late reply, but I want to give it nonetheless: how does speed off reading interfere with this? I know I read twice as quick as a average person (no special technique, just been reading a lot since I learned how to read), so would then 10 minutes of information not be too much? Of course, I’ll know if I try (which I’ll do, when there is scientific stuff to read), but maybe you have some thoughts on the matter?

/NR

By: Leaving Space for Thinking | Tools for Thought

Leaving Space for Thinking | Tools for Thought — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:19:26 +0000

[...] blocks — ideally a couple of hours at a time. Since I’ve been experimenting with segmented reading, I’m starting to doubt that longer is better — not the amount of overall time per se, [...]

By: Ulla Hennig

Ulla Hennig — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:57:10 +0000

Interesting approach, Andre! I will sure give it a try!

By: Andre

Andre — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:57:55 +0000

@Duff: You have your homework assignment. Be sure to report back.

@Jarrod: Hmm . . . applying it to language learning. Sounds like a great idea.

By: Andre

Andre — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:53:43 +0000

@deryk: I don’t understand why you say that it will take 4 – 5 times as long to get through a book. 10 minutes reading/2 minute rests seems like it should add 20% at most, plus I would assume a more rested mind will actually cover more ground in those 10 minutes.

Your math is right, but my exposition was wrong. I should have been clearer. First, when I said it takes longer, I was referring to my own reading, counted in days rather than cumulative hours. Normally I would’ve read a book like Brain Rules in a two or three days, whereas I’ll probably finish this book on the tenth day.

Second, the “two-minute” breaks were untimed. I didn’t feel the need to be so rigid about the break sessions, but there are some variables I want to test in the near future, and that’s one of them. So some of those breaks were off by 2-3x.

Third, I’ve done of couple of longer sessions comprised of 10-minute segments, but for the most part it’s been 20 minutes here (2 segments), 50 minutes there (5 segments) slotted in odd windows of time. I think that my previous having of long reading sessions effectively put me in a trance where I lost my awareness of how much time I spent reading. Now that I’m snapping out of that trance at regular intervals, I’m less inclined to spend so much time reading unless it’s necessary. But again, I want to test longer chains of reading sessions versus shorter ones to see if there’s an optimum. I haven’t been very scientific about it so far.

By: Jarrod - Warrior Development

Jarrod - Warrior Development — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:38:42 +0000

Thanks Andre, this is something really interesting. I’ve always found that writing summaries is very useful but I’ve never done them at 10 minute intervals.

Should be great to try, specially seems I’m trying to learn Japanese… ^_^

By: Duff

Duff — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:23:57 +0000

Great suggestion. I’ll try it tonight!

By: deryk

deryk — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:09:52 +0000

I like the concept, and it makes intuitive sense.

I don’t understand why you say that it will take 4 – 5 times as long to get through a book. 10 minutes reading/2 minute rests seems like it should add 20% at most, plus I would assume a more rested mind will actually cover more ground in those 10 minutes. I’ll give it a try & see what my own metrics are.

By: Andre

Andre — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:50:20 +0000

I’ll be writing up a review of it soon (I’m almost finished reading it, but my segmented approach makes it slower). In Amazon terms, I’m inclined to give it five stars.

By: J.J.

J.J. — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:04:37 +0000

Coincidentally, Brain Rules is listed in my book wish list. What’s the rating of this book?