Recently, we published testimonies from some students who completed the 1:1 course. Today, I am sharing an actual letter from a real student written between the first and second sessions with Anna. I received his permission to use the full letter and the entire content of the message.
From: Jonathan Stogsdill
Hey Dr. Lev,
1. Good News!
I have found a way to read articles that interest me. The problem has been that I wanted to practice the skills from the books I read for business, personal growth, and leadership development. That hasn’t worked because I couldn’t easily share them as PDFs to show highlighted words. However, I have figured out what to do, and it kills several birds with one stone:
- I read summaries online of the chapters in the books I plan to read the next day. This gives me content to share with you and practice while also helping me generate interest and markers to practice holding onto and using the following day when I read the chapter.
- The articles I am reading are on topics I’m already interested in, which will allow me to read the books faster because I already have some understanding of the topic and have created markers.
NOTE: I will need help honing this skill!
2. More Good News
I read the article attached to this email, created some markers for it, and remembered them, along with the topic. I surprised myself a little when I realized I could remember the markers! They were far from perfect and needed much work, but I was able to list them off!
3. I Need More Training with Markers
I’m sure this will come with time. However, I think the positive experience I had today while reading is more fuel in the tank to:
- Keep me practising, and
- Move me toward my goals!
4. Challenges with Assimilating Practice into Everyday Life
I’m finding it challenging to incorporate practices into my daily life. At this point in my development, using these skills in my job and life feels like a lot of work. I hope that as I consistently put in the work daily, the skills will become easier and naturally integrate into my life.
The First Session
The first session of the 1:1 with Anna is critical for most of our students. Why?
- Diagnostics: Anna can quickly identify what holds most students back and provide simple corrective actions.
- Homework: After the first session, students are asked to highlight important words in the article they read. Then, we gradually increase the complexity of the articles. Submissions are in writing, and I help each student. There are multiple iterations.
- Integration: Many students need help understanding how their learning methods can be applied to their needs. We cannot create 100 courses for every profession we work with, but we can provide immediate guidance in 1:1 sessions.
- Style: What kinds of markers and visualizations work for you? We brainstorm with students and try different approaches. Often, we settle on something very different from the default guidelines—sometimes even surprising.
- Freedom: Students who work alone must adhere to specific guidelines to avoid crucial mistakes. With our guidance, it is easy and safe to express yourself constructively.
- Training Materials: By the end of the training, you should be able to apply the techniques to everything you read. This does not mean you should use the more complex materials for training—they may only become helpful after months of training with more straightforward materials.
- Organization: Many students need help with organizing their thoughts and tracking progress. We provide examples, ideas, and essential tools, often reviewing the results and suggesting improvements.
- Confidence: With so many questions, it’s easy to lose confidence. We compare performance parameters with those of other students to eliminate misplaced doubts.
The Density of Reading Materials
During the initial months of training, we recommend controlling the type of materials you read. Typically, we suggest articles between 500 and 3,000 words with more information density than fiction or motivational text but less than Wikipedia. Usually, this means reading content from this blog, Business Insider, Seeking Alpha, Psychology Today, ExtremeTech, or similar sources.
At the same time, we ask our students not to waste time reading materials they wouldn’t otherwise read. This contradiction requires creative solutions. Jonathan, for example, found his optimal formula by reading summaries.
The Recommended Visualizations
Around the third session, students are asked to generate ~2-3 PAO markers per paragraph of the materials they read. This translates to ~9 words per paragraph. However, after the first session, students usually produce ~0.5 words per paragraph. Why? Visualization is challenging at first but becomes simple with practice.
Why is visualization hard initially? People add too many unnecessary details based on something other than the text. This can be disorienting and slow. While advanced students effortlessly create elaborate stories, new students struggle to generate detailed visualizations, as it doesn’t feel natural.
Prereading
Reading something entirely new is technically complex. It involves multiple iterations:
- Reading the title and names of people involved to guess the content.
- Scanning or skimming the article to pick up parts of ideas and keywords.
- Fixing the structure and central concepts in your head.
- Speedreading, often more than once.
Reading on a familiar subject is more accessible. Preparation is unnecessary, and single-pass reading is often sufficient—a technique we recommend to beginner students.
Motivation
During the first month of practice, it seemed incredible that anyone could visualize and memorize faster and more accurately than through storytelling. Generating stories is easy and memorable, so it’s natural to rely on it. However, visualization-based practice pays off over time.
Many students see the benefits of their efforts after the first month of training. Staying focused for an entire month helps to be interested in the material and to report progress to someone.
Everyday Life
Integrating practice into daily life is crucial but often the hardest part of training. Challenges include:
- Sleep: Productivity-seekers are often overworked and sleep-deprived. This is tough to fix.
- Reading Reliability: Speedread documents are less reliably memorized initially, requiring careful practice.
- Time Management: Breaking practice into 15-minute segments is effective for computerized training but could be better for longer texts.
- Progress Variability: Improvement speed is unpredictable, requiring patience.
Many students take 3-month breaks after a couple of sessions before returning. While this approach slows learning, it may be the best way to balance life and education.
In future articles, I’ll discuss everyday situations after the third session—when students shift focus from memory training to reading speed.
