Productivity Tips: 5 Tips to Enrich Your Reading

Whether you're reading for enjoyment or learning, whether in electronic or paper format, following are 5 tips to help you get more benefit out of your reading time. Also check out our previous tips about reading efficiency and reading concentration.

Vary Your Type of Reading Material

Mix up your reading. Don't just read easy stuff. Entertainment is important, but so is growth. Mix fiction and non-fiction. Mix simple with complex. Mix online with offline. Read about different topics.

Varying your reading also helps you keep from burning out with dry technical or research-related reading.

Vary the Subject Matter

Read material in multiple subject areas at the same time. Sometimes reading variable material will spark new ideas. You'll notice patterns, similarities, and contradictions that you wouldn't otherwise notice.

“There's a kind of interesting effect in reading in lots of different areas at the same time. There's a kind of cross-fertilization sometimes of ideas.” ~ Roger Zelazny

Write Book Reviews

Consider writing book reviews. They don't need to be anything formal. They can just be notes for yourself, though you can post them online if you want. Writing about what you read focuses you on the content, style, and effect that the material had on you and how it made you feel. Also, you can check the review later if you forget what you thought of the book, for example, if you're considering reading another book by that author.

A personal journal is a great place to keep book reviews.

Build Your Vocabulary

As you read, look up words you don't know. Keep a dictionary app on your phone for quick access. Building your vocabulary can speed up your reading as well as your comprehension. Read more variable and extensive material to recognize words in context.

Read Something New

Read something completely different than what you usually read. Pick up a book in a new genre. Browse a blog on a topic you've never read about. Learn something new. Try on a new idea or perspective. Challenge yourself.

The more extensively you read, the more you'll get out of it.