As manager you will need to read a great deal of written material, and your effectiveness as a reader will depend on your ability to digest this material efficiently and quickly.

It is probably true to say that many readers waste time and effort by reading inefficiently; however, there are ways of overcoming those mechanical problems of absorbing information, so that reading can be better and faster.

It is easy to test your speed in reading. A rough measure is to read for five minutes, count the words and divide by five. The average national reading speed in 200 words per minute, but with systematic effort, this can be doubled. The other important measure is that of comprehension in relation to speed. This can be tested with a series of structured questions about the passage which has been read.

In order to use your reading time more efficiently, it is worth developing a systematic approach, if you yourself not absorbing what you are reading stop for a few minutes and do something different, stretch your legs, start again mentally refreshed. It is often worthwhile breaking up your reading time into 30-minutes stints, with two-or-three minute gaps between.

Efficiently can be improved by practice and the careful observation of some Do’s and Don’ts.

Do’s: • Make sure you have a clear purpose in reading; this will affect your reading approach. Complete concentration in essential. • Read actively, responding to the content. Assimilate by understanding, not by memorizing. • Try to anticipate what the writer is going to say; this will increase tour understanding of the next. • Learn to recognize the typical forms of organization in a piece of writing. • Vary your reading speed according to the degree of difficulty • Aim to widen your visual span.

Don’ts: • Allow your own bias or prejudice to interfere with the message • ‘Vocalise’ or mouth the words when reading; this may help you memorize. But it hinders your comprehension. • ‘Regress’ by glancing back at the text you have already read.