Professional Development: Reading
In an effort to get more value out of the time I spend reading I’ve been working on a new process which I’ll outline here for those that are interested in doing the same.
Problems
Processes are pointless unless you know what you’re trying to achieve and in this case it was to solve the following problems.
Distractibility
One of the best things about the IT industry (and in particular software development) is how quickly new technologies and processes are introduced. The flipside of this is that it is very easy to be distracted and jump from reading material to reading material. Like any context switch this is inefficient, and results in poor comprehension and lots of half read material.
Lack of Application
People typically read fiction for pure enjoyment, and while you may enjoy reading non-fiction (as I do) it is usually done to improve your knowledge and skills. While knowledge and skills will increase to some degree just by reading the material actively keeping the goal in mind will result in an increased ability to apply and take action on the material you’ve read.
Solution
With those problems in mind lets look at the process I’ve put in place to reduce distractibility and improve the application of the material I’m reading.
Reading List
The main purpose of the Reading List is to reduce distractibility. I’ve used the Scrum concept of a backlog to manage the material I’m reading or want to read. The material may be books or could just as easily be web-based articles or even blog posts (although short reading material is usually read on the spot rather than being added to the Reading List).
In OneNote (although you could use anything from Notepad to a database) I have a page called Reading List that is divided into three sections:
- Current Sprint
- Backlog
- Completed
The Current Sprint section contains the list of reading material that I’m actively reading. I aim to only have a single book in the Current Sprint list. The use of the term sprint is a stretch because there is not a defined length of time, the sprint finishes when I finish reading the book. When moved from the Backlog to the Current Sprint the hyperlink is replaced with a link to the OneNote page where I’m taking notes about the reading material (refer to Note Taking below).
The Backlog is the heart of the Reading List and contains the list of reading material I would like to read. Whenever I come across something that I’d be interested in reading I add it to the top of the backlog. The reason I add it to the top is that things at the top of the list are likely to be more relevant to things I’ve been working on recently. The Backlog is a stack ranked and I always read the first item of the list but I do review the rankings periodically and when I’ve finished reading the material in the Current Sprint. Each item in the list is hyperlinked to where it can be obtained from.
The Completed section contains the list of reading material that I’ve finished reading and since the item is moved from the Current Sprint to Completed section the hyperlink will allow me to review the notes I took at anytime in the future.
Note Taking
One of the best ways to increase comprehension is to take notes and paraphrase as you’re reading. To aid this I create a page in OneNote for each piece of reading material and divide the page into a section for each chapter (allowing me to quickly refer back to the original material if I need more detail about a note I took).
Sometimes I may come up with my own ideas while reading something and I include these along with the other notes I’ve taken (but differentiated in someway – I use italics) because it provides context.
Next Actions
The last thing I do after reading something is to read back over my notes and try to identify the next actions I want to take away from what I read. These help me apply what I’ve read to my day to day work. I actually got this idea from J.D. Meier.
