3 ms·

| Any tips? Here's a trick that helped me after a ten+ year hiatus and having my attention fried by social media: A lot of people who have lost their attentio

| Any tips? Here's a trick that helped me after a ten+ year hiatus and having my attention fried by social media: A lot of people who have lost their attention span to technology will find themselves reading but not absorbing, their mind wandering, until they realize they'd "read" 3 pages and don't remember what happened. So read slow and with purpose, but most importantly at the end of each page, ask yourself what you just read and have a conversation with yourself about it. This helped rebuild my comprehension and focus. This is similar to how English classes will read a book as a class: Reading then discussion, reading then discussion. But instead of as a group, do it as an internal dialogue.

em-bee 2y ago
i got the same problem with audiobooks. if my mind is occupied i have to relisten, sometimes multiple times, until i can focus enough. it does depend on the writing style though. it happens more when the story is difficult to understand.
- emseetech 2y ago
  I could never do audiobooks for that reason. It was simply too easy to get distracted.
  - em-bee 2y ago
    it takes some practice. and i find it's more difficult with short stories because there every detail counts. if you miss a few details from a longer book, it tends to matter less. and then while listening i need to do an activity that doesn't require mental focus. so i can't sit in front of the computer, unless it is mundane photo editing or some other repetitive task that doesn't make me think. going for a walk and housework work for me. especially housework. there is nothing else i can do while washing dishes, cooking, doing laundry or cleaning. the work doesn't require much focus, and is quite repetitive. that makes listening easy.
phone8675309 2y ago
One of the things that helped me was to have an actual dialog with the book. For non-fiction books, this means pushing back against claims that appear to be unsupported. When I read in a paper book I do so with a pen to make notes in it (I don't sell my books, and I obviously don't do this with library books), but ebooks just get marked up in my ebook reader and it's very nice. It's also good when reviewing a book because I can see all of my thoughts and questions and often can answer them by the end of the chapter/section/unit. For fiction books, this ends up being a "what would I do there/what would an ordinary person do?" It's very helpful to try and place yourself in the character's shoes and see how you may have reacted differently or if you agree with the character understanding _why_ you agree with them.

em-bee 2y ago

i got the same problem with audiobooks. if my mind is occupied i have to relisten, sometimes multiple times, until i can focus enough. it does depend on the writing style though. it happens more when the story is difficult to understand.

emseetech 2y ago
I could never do audiobooks for that reason. It was simply too easy to get distracted.
- em-bee 2y ago
  it takes some practice. and i find it's more difficult with short stories because there every detail counts. if you miss a few details from a longer book, it tends to matter less. and then while listening i need to do an activity that doesn't require mental focus. so i can't sit in front of the computer, unless it is mundane photo editing or some other repetitive task that doesn't make me think. going for a walk and housework work for me. especially housework. there is nothing else i can do while washing dishes, cooking, doing laundry or cleaning. the work doesn't require much focus, and is quite repetitive. that makes listening easy.

phone8675309 2y ago

One of the things that helped me was to have an actual dialog with the book. For non-fiction books, this means pushing back against claims that appear to be unsupported. When I read in a paper book I do so with a pen to make notes in it (I don't sell my books, and I obviously don't do this with library books), but ebooks just get marked up in my ebook reader and it's very nice. It's also good when reviewing a book because I can see all of my thoughts and questions and often can answer them by the end of the chapter/section/unit. For fiction books, this ends up being a "what would I do there/what would an ordinary person do?" It's very helpful to try and place yourself in the character's shoes and see how you may have reacted differently or if you agree with the character understanding _why_ you agree with them.