One of the hardest parts about being an entrepreneur and owning your own business is setting aside a significant amount of time for personal development especially when it comes toRead More
The post 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Master The Art Of Speed Reading appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>One of the hardest parts about being an entrepreneur and owning your own business is setting aside a significant amount of time for personal development especially when it comes to reading educational material. When your business’ welfare and growth potential lies in your ability to learn new business practices quickly and keep as much time free as possible, it can be challenging to make sure that you are not reading too rapidly.
Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. – Frederick Douglas (highlight to share)
When an entrepreneur can perfect the art of speed reading, they are able to use their time for more efficiently and focus more on their business. By following these five helpful tips I’ve gathered from very busy entrepreneurial authors, you can master the art of speed reading your business books and other educational material.
There is an erroneous belief that circulates among those who read over important business books and documents, a belief that reading should be done at night, when there are fewer distractions. But did you know that a person actually reads best during the early hours of the day? There are far fewer distractions that present themselves during the morning, and this is when important reading should be completed.
Your brain functions best early in the morning, whereas your nighttime brain functionality is compromised by all of the events that have already taken place that day. Reading in the morning gives your brain a clean slate to work with and is proven to increase your concentration skills. By reading earlier in the day, your speed is doubled and you are able to deal with your most important tasks first, clearing the remainder of your schedule for other crucial entrepreneurial duties.
A great way to read business books faster is to skim the text first, before you do a full-fledged read. This allows you to isolate the key points and phrases and figure out the main ideas. Once this has been accomplished, you can then take a deeper plunge into the material, knowing that you have a greater understanding. This technique is especially beneficial to those with a job that requires them to read a great deal of non-fiction material.
By taking the time to understand the structure of the book you are trying to read, you decrease the total amount of time you will need to spend reading it. Not only does this technique exponentially increase your overall reading speed, but it also does wonders for reading comprehension. Being able to speed read is great, but it is all for naught if you do not fully grasp the material you’ve consumed.
What many entrepreneurs do not know is that the environment that they choose to read in makes a huge difference in their ability to read quickly. Even something as simple as the way you hold the book can make a world of difference. Rather than holding the book up on your own, use a reading stand, one that allows the book to rest at a 45 degree angle. This reduces the strain on a person’s eyes, while also enabling a much faster reading speed.
Some enjoy reading in bed, but this is not a good place to absorb crucial materials. The body’s natural instinct is to relax once you have laid down in bed, which decreases reading comprehension, increasing the chances that you will need to go over it a second time. More difficult materials should be read during the daytime hours, in a place where your mind will remain focused. Relaxing and reading comprehension do not go hand in hand.
Of course, highlighting may have worked for you back in your college days and there are a variety of people who swear by this tactic when it comes to speed reading. Yes, highlighting in bright, pretty colors may give you the illusion that you are reading faster, that you can skim the material and come back to the important stuff later on. When you highlight, you’re essentially delaying your actual learning of the material.
When you highlight, all you are doing is giving yourself more work to do. Instead of taking an extra second to ensure that you understand the material during the first read, you will know have to go backwards and read it again. The more times you read a certain piece of material, the less of a chance you are able to retain over the long haul. So put the highlighter away and make sure you read properly the first time.
There are bound to be moments in any business text that are less important than others. Learning what is truly important and training your focus on these specific parts will help you to cut down your overall reading time. Don’t be afraid to preview the book before you read it, so that you get a true sense of the book’s structure and the lessons it is trying to teach.
This will allow to speed up your reading and slow down as necessary. Speed reading is not about attempting to fly through a book as rapidly as you can, it is about absorbing the material quickly and efficiently, without sacrificing your comprehension. Certain materials can be read at different speeds than others and an experienced entrepreneur knows how to speed up and more importantly, when to slow down.
As a business mentor for MentorMojo, speed reading expert Emerson Spartz has more speed reading tips in detail here:
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]]>Who is Peter Voogd and what you can learn from him: Peter Voogd has received a great deal of attention from a variety of outlets, due to his inspiring trueRead More
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]]>Peter Voogd has received a great deal of attention from a variety of outlets, due to his inspiring true story. Voogd was completely and totally broke, but did not allow his circumstances to define him. He set out on the path to riches and was able to go from being dead broke to having six figures within a mere six months. Peter Voogd was not content to sit back and rest on his laurels, so he wrote a book. The book, entitled 6 Months To 6 Figures became a bestseller.
The following are some of the most important lessons that every entrepreneur can learn from Peter Voogd and his book:
While most people would be inclined to give up when they are completely broke, Voogd did not let his situation bring him down. As a result, he was able to triumph under difficult circumstances. If nothing else, Voogd’s story should serve as inspiration to every would be entrepreneur out there. No matter what your current situation is or how many obstacles stand in your path, there is way to make all of your wildest dreams come true.
“Never let someone who gave up on their dreams talk you out of yours.” – Peter Voogd (highlight to share)
So many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of allowing themselves to be defeated before they have even had a chance to begin. Voogd did not. Since his story is no fairy tale and he provides realistic ways for his readers to achieve the same goals as he did, there is no reason why an entrepreneur should not be able to take some level of inspiration from it.
A regular complaint from the majority of entrepreneurs who are starting out is that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Voogd knows this and his work is dedicated to showing entrepreneurs more efficient ways of doing things. He shows his readers how to get their bigger tasks accomplished in much less time, without taking any shortcuts that could potentially damage the quality of the work being produced.
His strategies are not sugarcoated for mass consumption and he did not rely on any sort of gimmicks to achieve his fortune. Voogd was able to make himself a millionaire several times over by the young age of 27, so his tactics are proven to work. His success is what gives him an immense amount of credibility in the entrepreneurial community.
A lesson that Voogd constantly preaches to his acolytes is the importance of selecting your inner circle wisely and knowing about the dangers of associating with the wrong kinds of people. There are certain people in your life who are just not as vital to your day to day survival as you may believe they are. There are some people in your life who do not matter and never will.
If you hang around with people who do not have goals and plans for their life, then you will end up in the same boat as them. On the other hand, if you spend your time around those who are driven and goal oriented, then you are able to soak up the lessons that their presence teaches you.
The term that Voogd uses to describe this phenomenon is “circle of influence”. In an ideal scenario, a person’s circle of influence would include several people that they can look up to, some true role models. While the term is bandied about too much in modern times, it is crucial for an entrepreneur to spend time around like minded people that they can gain valuable perspective from.
Voogd preaches the importance of being able to do more with less time and not being afraid to tell people no if what they are asking for will interfere with your ability to accomplish all of the necessary tasks for the day. Organizing your schedule is key and Voogd shows entrepreneurs how to organize their schedule in a manner that leads to maximum productivity.
Whereas some entrepreneurs believe that spending 80 hours a week working is the path to success, Voogd shows them how to work smarter and not harder. He realized that he was using 80 percent of his effort to accomplish 20 percent of his goals and made the needed changes so that he could flip those numbers to his benefit. He began to focus on the most important 20 percent of his daily activities, the ones that created 80 percent of his overall results.
Voogd speaks about confidence and why an entrepreneur needs to destroy their insecurity to move forward. In order to have the utmost confidence, an entrepreneur must have clarity. Clarity only comes to those who have done the proper amount of thinking and know what their goals are and what it will take for them to reach these goals.
An entrepreneur does not get anywhere unless they have a take charge attitude and believe in their own ability to make things happen. No one is going to come along and make things happen for you and this is a lesson that Voogd spends his time teaching to younger entrepreneurs who are struggling with uncertainty.
Talking about success is one thing, but having the guts that it takes to go out and actually pursue it in earnest is quite another. Obstacles are always going to be in your way, but a confident person knows that they have what it takes to overcome them.
Preview 6 Months to 6 Figures with Peter Voogd himself
Buy 6 Months To 6 Figures by Peter Voogd on Amazon today
Visit 6FiguresBook.com to learn more about Peter’s book
Visit GameChangersMovement.com to learn more about his academy
Join the 6 Months to 6 Figures accountability group on Facebook
Follow Peter Voogd on Twitter and Facebook
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