Something that I ask delegates to do in the study skills course I run is how to do a BOOK BLITZ which is also a great technique for anyone researching or studying.
If you’re working on any piece of work that requires doing some research and reading, for example, preparing for a conference talk, carrying out a literature review, writing a paper or report, then carrying out a book blitz is a great way to start.
Follow the eight steps below. This method is a great way to cover a lot of material in a short time and then determine what to read over in more detail.
The benefits of a book blitz are:
- getting a good overview of a book before you start
- A way of making notes and remembering what you are reading so that you take all the information in and gain a greater benefit from reading. You can add to the mindmap as you read.
- Super way to revise You can carry out a book blitz for specific chapters, as well as, the whole book
- Great way to share books with others
- You’ll be surprised at how much you can learn from a book, just by carrying out a book blitz alone, without reading the book! Try it and see!
- If you have children studying at the moment, have fun and do this together, or if you are a student yourself, grab your friends and do lots of book blitz together and share them
- Carrying out a book blitz before starting to read a book can be beneficial so that you gain an overview and can see the structure of the book. As you flick through to complete the book blitz, you’ll see areas where you would like to focus and which are of most interest. If you are short of time, then you can go straight to those sections.
- Carrying out a book blitz at the end of reading a book is beneficial to summarise all you’ve learned from a book and a great way to revise over the whole book again.
Here’s some instructions on how to carry out a book blitz.
- Take a large piece of paper and your favourite pens. The example shown on this link, which I produced on the book Creating You and Co by William Bridges was done on A4, but the bigger the better. If you have big flipchart paper or big sheets of paper for art, then that is perfect!
- Look at the cover of your book.
- Decide on a central image for your book and draw this in the centre of your paper.
- Find the sections of the book
- Sections become main branches leading off from your central image
- Then find the chapters of the book
- Chapters become second level branches
- In each chapter find any headings in the text
- These become third level branches
- Speed read the rest of the text (if required)
- Add details
- Share your mind map book blitz with friends and explain yours.
- Celebrate!
What are you reading at the moment? Try a book blitz and add a comment to share a link to your book blitz. I’d love to see.