Career Marketing

Reading

Good reading is necessary to become an authority in your field, to provide data to back up your ideas, to get effectively through all the bumf that lands on your desk.

Start somewhere

Professional reading is an important part of your job, but how much time do you feel you can allot to it? Define the type of information to which you want to be exposed, and what can be ignored. Read directly relevant publications and news clips rather than general interest magazines. Relegate cover-to-cover newspaper reading to leisure, rather than business reading. Listen to radio and TV reports instead, whilst you are doing something else.

Skimming and scanning

Read the first 1 or 2 sentences in a paragraph within an article to see if the paragraph's information is relevant to you (skimming). Scanning is a technique used with large volume materials. Review the table of contents, index, list of charts and figures, etc. to see what, if anything, is of interest (scanning). Photocopy only what you need. Move a pencil under the text as quickly as your eye can follow whilst still reading the words (speed-reading), to double your rate. Do not feel guilty about skipping boring or useless information.

Where to read

At a desk is better than in a chair, couch or table - you have stationery, pens, paper clips, your clip file etc. to hand. But check that your boss doesn't think that reading at your desk is non-productive. Have trays for 'urgent', 'soon', 'can wait', 'pass on', and 'throw away'. Try and do it very early or very late, when it is quieter.

Delegate

Delegate where possible, but provide clear instructions as to what it is you are looking for and how you want it presented, whether as underling of a few paragraphs, or as a one-page list of pro's and con's.

Make your reading more productive

Drop your subscriptions to any non-urgent periodical you can read in the library., and then skim several issues every few months. Delegate the copying. Subscribe to a book review service, or a database of periodicals , which may also include bibliographies for topics and abstracts of articles. There are also newsletters, and cassettes