If a blogger can become faster at reading all the information he needs to keep his blogs fresh and updated, he will have more time to concentrate on writing. The best bloggers need to be highly aware of the latest trends, news and events relevant to their niche, and have to read vast quantities of feeds. Bloggers often find it difficult to get through all the reading and still have sufficient time for their own blogs. Becoming faster at reading feeds will help with the time shortage.
Ultimately, the blogger needs to spend the majority of his time creating great content. The blogger may cut down on the amount of feeds he is reading to save time, but in doing this, he may be missing potential sources of innovation and information. The key to becoming faster at reading feeds is to read them in different ways and to add some effective strategies.
Start by creating broad topic folders for your feed subscriptions. Our minds relate to various context in different ways. Jumping from one feed on sports to another on politics becomes too mentally demanding. Don’t make each folder too specific, otherwise you will spend too much time clicking between folders.
Efficiently make use of the readers’ hot keys. Use your one hand to operate the hot keys and the other for controlling the mouse, so that you can move as quickly as possible between the various posts.
To be faster at reading and determining whether the post is useful, glance quickly at the headline and pick out the keywords. Try to read the headline as a whole, instead of from left to right. If the keywords are of no interest to you, then move on the next post. If you think they may be relevant, take a look at the whole post and notice any images featured. An image can instantly convey a lot of information. You should, so far, have taken only a second or two to glance at the headline and notice images.
Focus on a paragraph or two and check for relevant keywords. Don’t read in the usual way, try to be faster at reading by focusing your attention in the centre of each line and expanding your field of vision to include all the words. This may require some practice, but you will soon get the hang of it.
Quickly scan some more paragraphs (try no more than three). Don’t fully read them, just quickly determine if the post is worth a more in-depth reading.
This entire process should have taken less than 10 seconds! A second for the headline, half a second for the images, and 3 – 5 seconds for keywords and scanning. Those few that really leave an impression can be read more deeply, exploring links along the way. It is best to finish scanning all the posts first before switching mental processes, to deep-read the chosen few.
In essence, to become faster at reading feeds or posts, stick to one mental process at a time. First all the scanning, then the deep-reading. Task complete, and you can now focus your time on creating you own fabulous blog.
