Are we reading or scanning?

I spend about 8 hours a day using computer on average, and I read all the time.

Well, do I really?

I was in library last week. First time in about a year. 'Not good' you think, but then you have to realise that I can get any article I need online much faster than the hard copy, plus it will be saved with notes and searchable via my Mendeley database on any device. If I look for particular chapters of a book, I can usually get an e-book or just online excerpt from Google Scholar. Physical library became a dinosaur for me.

But it doesn't just stop here. I noticed I am reading less books every year, but much more journal articles, scientific and technological magazines, and whats most important - internet based publications. I have a RSS Reeder on iPad loaded with over 100 different feeds from areas ranging between physics, genetics and robotics to cooking, neuroscience and role-playing games, constantly updating it's content narrowed to selected keywords I am digging.

I snap, I scan, I copy and paste, I browse, I glance, I google, I wiki, and I usually get the point.

When I don't use a computer and read, I have usually a graphic novel for subway/train traveling or Instapaper on iPhone/iPad to read internet article snapshots that I didn't have time to read in the lab or at home. I capture bits and pieces of information, quick photos, memos, scans and bookmarks with Evernote for keyword-based digi-notebook.

So both the format and the style of my reading changed. Time is precious, so reading entire 40 pages journal article would take me a while. So when new article hits my Mendeley database, I open it on iPad, skip the intro and go straight into discussion, just glance on method and results. Read only first paragraphs, look for contextual info, extracting and coping into digitally-atattched notebook ONLY what is relevant to me. Ten minutes later I know more or less where I am and what it is about, but I don't necessary know details. I rank the article and move on. Later I take the articles with highest rank, and go through them in detail. Or not.

Still I have a tendency to get more distracted when it comes to reading a book, or long journal article. I procrastinate, delay, check some keywords online, make notes on my ideas, procrastinate.

I wonder whats your thoughts on that, did your reading habits changed over the past years?


[photo: Geek On Acid ©]

Become Lifehacker

My recent discovery is Lifehacking. When you work with the computer for 10 hours a day on average (not mentioning iPhone time) you get easily distracted. Although internet can stimulate your brain function, your attention is under constant electronic attack and you might find yourself in a situation when you won't get things done. Study from University of California at Irvine shows that "you are interrupted once every 11 minutes; after any interruption, you take 25 minutes to return to your task".

So the question is how to improve my daily interaction with computer, mobile phone and media? How to 'firewall my attention'? How to increase a control over time I spend at work?

The answer is: Lifehacking. A series of tricks, hints and hacks that you apply in your daily existence to make things better between you, your devices and your time.

Gina Trapani wrote an ultimate geek guide with 116 small hacks described, on different levels of difficulty. You don't need to use them all, the point is to read this book as a hypertext page, where you jump only to the hacks that are useful for you.

This is definitely my book of the month.

PS: I would say this post is for Dr Dude-Chick who is my pal in the journey for searching new ways to optimize life ;-)