The capacity to read efficiently and effectively and absorb relevant information rapidly from a book, course, webpage or any other sort of text is a critical professional skill. This course outlines a range of techniques for reading and learning more productively to help you get the most out of your time and effort. You'll recognise your primary intention while reading and then use this understanding to apply it in your life or career. You will first explore one of the most basic strategies, finger tracking, which can help you read faster by preventing you from slowing down or pausing all the time. Discover how you can be more focused and constructive by blocking distractions, making reading enjoyable and incentivising yourself. Learn to ask yourself pointed questions like ‘what kind of books do I need to read?’ and ‘what type of content do I need to consume?' to understand your end goal and then reverse-engineer the stepping stones to get there.

The course demonstrates different methods for enhancing your reading comprehension, like highlighting important points as you read, revisiting them every once in a while and perhaps turning them and essential insights from the book into notes, blog posts or video summaries. Re-reading good books can provide a fresh viewpoint and additional knowledge. Following that, you will learn to read effortlessly by replacing negative habits by building a positive reinforcement loop, rewarding yourself for constantly meeting your reading target and using the ‘mix and match’ strategy to boost your retention of many books at once.

Next, the course describes several learning techniques which will help you study efficiently and healthily. You'll discover how the brain works and the benefits of learning, including becoming more in control, better prepared and more confident. We explain the two modes of thinking: focused and diffuse. You will familiarise yourself with the different levels of competence, false senses of competencies and the distinctions between familiar and notorious practices. Finally, you will research the best learning methods, such as explanatory questioning, interleaving, spaced repetition and practice testing, with their benefits and drawbacks. Learning how to retain knowledge is the most effective way to build confidence in attempting new things and considerably expand your worth.