How to Speed Read on the Web

Who should learn speed reading for the Web?

Why should you learn this essential skill? Because you will find it extremely useful if you are:

◎A webmaster. You are sifting through tons of information on a daily basis. You need to be able to scan through all this information rapidly and find things of interest to you. You need the speed to go through dozens of articles that will help you find inspiration and reference for your own articles and your websites’ content.
◎A social media user. You may be spending a lot of time on Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us and other social sharing websites. So you need to go quickly through all the articles that your online friends sent you, understand what they are all about and then decide whether to share them, bookmark them, promote them further or bury them.
◎An information junkie. You are probably interested in a myriad of issues, ranging from technology, politics, to humor and trivia. You are just hooked to the Web. Why not learn a skill that will help you cut down the time it takes you now to read all that information? You will become more selective and aware of what you’re reading.
◎An IT/PR/marketing company employee. Your job consists of searching for information, writing copy and/or promoting a website or product via the Web. Your daily activities revolve around information. You need to be more effective at what you do.

First things first: Organize yourself

Before starting to go through all the information you need to absorb, organize yourself. Manage your time better by following these easy guidelines:

◎Prioritize the information. Decide what articles/blog posts/news bulletins you are going to read first. See which ones are urgent and which ones are worthy of bookmarking. Articles that are important, inspiring and that can be used as a reference many times are worth bookmarking. I bookmark the best ones on del.icio.us. Next, decide which ones are ok, but not that important. And lastly, decide which articles are just worth a single look, a scan.
◎Know what to throw away. The bookmark-worthy articles are the ones that you will come back to and the ones that you will possibly link to in your own writings. The other ones are for reading only. You will pick up any bits of information and data that are relevant for your article. But as soon as you extracted what you need, close the page that contained that article and move on. Don’t dwell on unimportant and trivial articles.
◎Store the information. Either copy and paste what you need in Notepad or directly into your blog article-making interface. What I highly recommend, however, is to write things down on paper. Especially ideas. I have a big organizer/workbook into which I jot down all the important and relevant stuff that I come across when I’m scourging the Web for information and inspiration. Your hand armed with a pen works far better and faster than any keyboard could ever do. You can sketch things, quickly write down ideas, create doodles, etc. Don’t think that technology is the be all and end all. Successful and highly intelligent people always have a pen and a piece of paper at their side!

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