Managing a LOT of Reading + Assignments

[soliloquy]

Good morning,

First, before I ask this question, please know that I AM enjoying my doctoral program. I've posted a few threads sort of venting and asking questions, but I am in no way planning to drop out of this program. 

My question is, how have you managed all of the reading assignments? I am taking eight credit hours per semester. For each class, we have probably 400 pages of reading a week (e.g., books, journal articles) in addition to a Discussion Board or multi-media assignment, 3-4 video lectures, a writing assignment that is usually ten pages or so, and a critical writing assignment at the end of the semester that is 20-30 pages. It's doable but it's a lot. 

Are you really reading everything you are assigned? I'm hearing that many people just skim for the parts germane to the assignments, or maybe they read the abstract, skim the body for main points, and then read the conclusion of a journal article. This is a different way of studying than I have ever done before and my brain is having a difficult time processing that I don't need to read every word. My eyes, on the other hand, are screaming bloody murder. 

I do a few things to help with this:

1. I use blue light glasses if I'm reading on screen.
2. If an audiobook is available, I might listen while going on a walk. 
3. If it's a journal article, I'll load it into Natural reader and have the OCR enabled so it can be downloaded to MP3 or just read allowed. Natural reader also lets me plan ahead because I can load all the material for the week, and it gives me time estimates (upper right-hand corner) of how long it will take to read it so that I can plan my time accordingly. Sometimes reading along plus listening helps me to absorb information better.
4. If it's in print, I just do what I must do. 

Any other tips, tricks, best practices that worked for you?

[rachel83az]

8 credits? That sounds like a lot for a doctoral program!

I notice you only load "journal articles" into Natural Reader. It looks like they'll also do epubs, which is something available for most types of books. If you purchase an ebook, you can use Calibre to convert most of them to DRM-free epubs.

[soliloquy]

8 credits? That sounds like a lot for a doctoral program!

I notice you only load "journal articles" into Natural Reader. It looks like they'll also do epubs, which is something available for most types of books. If you purchase an ebook, you can use Calibre to convert most of them to DRM-free epubs.

I don't only do journal articles, but I didn't want my post to turn into a novel so I was giving examples. Thanks for the extra ideas!

[Alpha]

My experience is that reading everything is unnecessary.  Being able to discern what is necessary from what is not is a part of the weeding process.  Some things are core.  Some are fringe.  Focus on the core.  Be aware of the fringe.

[ashkir]

Good morning,

First, before I ask this question, please know that I AM enjoying my doctoral program. I've posted a few threads sort of venting and asking questions, but I am in no way planning to drop out of this program. 

My question is, how have you managed all of the reading assignments? I am taking eight credit hours per semester. For each class, we have probably 400 pages of reading a week (e.g., books, journal articles) in addition to a Discussion Board or multi-media assignment, 3-4 video lectures, a writing assignment that is usually ten pages or so, and a critical writing assignment at the end of the semester that is 20-30 pages. It's doable but it's a lot. 

Are you really reading everything you are assigned? I'm hearing that many people just skim for the parts germane to the assignments, or maybe they read the abstract, skim the body for main points, and then read the conclusion of a journal article. This is a different way of studying than I have ever done before and my brain is having a difficult time processing that I don't need to read every word. My eyes, on the other hand, are screaming bloody murder. 

I do a few things to help with this:

1. I use blue light glasses if I'm reading on screen.
2. If an audiobook is available, I might listen while going on a walk. 
3. If it's a journal article, I'll load it into Natural reader and have the OCR enabled so it can be downloaded to MP3 or just read allowed. Natural reader also lets me plan ahead because I can load all the material for the week, and it gives me time estimates (upper right-hand corner) of how long it will take to read it so that I can plan my time accordingly. Sometimes reading along plus listening helps me to absorb information better.
4. If it's in print, I just do what I must do. 

Any other tips, tricks, best practices that worked for you?

Natural readers are fantastic. I have Speechify. I got new hearing aids that allow me to hear much better, and these help a lot.

I also am a huge fan of quillbot.com you can copy/paste entire articles and click "summarize" and just get the gist.

Skim, don't read everything. There's a lot of material. Read the sections relevent. A lot of times there are giant books linked, but, only chapter 3 of the entire book is relevant to your class.,

8 credits? That sounds like a lot for a doctoral program!

I notice you only load "journal articles" into Natural Reader. It looks like they'll also do epubs, which is something available for most types of books. If you purchase an ebook, you can use Calibre to convert most of them to DRM-free epubs.

I'm doing 12 per semester right now.

[SweetSecret]

I have struggled with this too and I have gotten to the point where I skipped the hypotheses on peer-reviewed research. I do not really find it useful, and can only serve to confuse me. I'd rather just get the facts right the first time around.

[ss20ts]

I schedule my reading time when I'm most awake and able to focus. Reading pages and pages of journals can be boring and monotonous. 20 pages about statistics and I'm ready for a week long nap. So I have found that I really need to schedule my reading time wisely. I will skip things I find extremely boring unless they are specific topics I need for writing a paper. I honestly don't give a flying fig that someone studied how many hours a day ants walk across a leaf and how many circles they make. Yes, some of the stats are just that boring. If I make it to the third page of a journal article, it must be REALLY interesting. If not, I won't go past the third page.

[soliloquy]

Thanks for your feedback. That is helpful.