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I had not played much soccer before I was 24 years old. As I am quite tall then I was more into basketball during high school and university days although I was never at the top level. For short time I also practiced rowing during high school. But five years ago on one Friday night when drinking heavily with my friends one of us proposed going to play soccer on the next day.

From that point on we played soccer every Saturday and after that there was usually sauna and beer. If we had done it for some months then we played a friendly match against one amateur soccer team and although we expected the opposition to be much stronger than our team it was not that bad. We lost the game 3:5, but it gave us inspiration to form our football club WC Guwalda and start playing league games.

This year it is already fifth league season for us. I have been the manager of the club and a player for all these years. Probably I am one of the worst soccer players in Estonia and our team has never been too competitive. We have been always playing in the lowest division in Estonia and for all seasons we have been on the first or second place in the league table if we look it from the bottom.

It has consumed lots of time for me. We usually have 22 league games on Sundays and it means that for almost half of the year I have spend much of my Sundays on playing soccer. In addition we have soccer practices for two hours twice a week.

How does it fit do my life style if I am a time management trainer? Could it regarded as too much time consuming and pointless if there are no good results for the team? Well, time management is about spending time on the activities what we want to do. Of course, the point is to perform your tasks efficiently, but what you are going to do with your time depends on what do you want from your life. And you can do practically everything if you are happy with it.

Playing soccer has always been fun to me. Although I really can’t play I like doing it. It is true that it consumes time. But soccer is for leisure for me. I work efficiently to get my other tasks completed fast for having time for soccer.

Besides the fact that I like playing soccer, it gives me physical exercise, which is necessary for me as much of my work takes place behind the computer. Since I started playing soccer my physical condition has improved a lot. I have lost about 15 kilograms (35 pounds) of bodyweight since I started with it. I have much more strength and endurance now. Overall I am in better physical shape.

Physical exercise does not only allow me to be in good physical shape and feel well, but it also provides variety to my life. I really cannot be efficient if I sit the whole day in the office. If I have some physical activities then they will help me to restore my mental energy. I will feel more refreshed and I am able to work faster.

As I have been the manager of the soccer club then it has given my managerial experiences. I have not been employed to a managerial position and 5 years ago I did not have skills to lead people. But when I had to do business for the club, then it meant that I had to find sponsors, search for new players, negotiate deals with different service providers etc. I find it has given my much valuable experience, which I have benefited, when I started my entrepreneurial career.

Playing soccer and managing the club has also extended my social network. During five years about 50 different players have been involved in the team. In addition, I have made contacts with many other partners. I have benefited from those relationships when doing business and I am sure I will do it in the future. For example, last week I found a new sales agent for my investment broker company through the soccer club.

kristjan Business, time management benefits, computer, inspiration, life style, playing soccer, time management

I defended my PhD thesis in economics a little more than a year ago and I was 28 then. It took me four years to complete my doctoral studies. Although four years is nominal duration of studies for PhD, no one had been able to finish it within this period in my faculty (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu) before. It was usual that it took at least one or too extra years and for many students even longer.

I discovered speed reading for myself at the beginning of my final PhD year and by that time I had already completed all the courses, but I had to still write my thesis. Writing the PhD thesis is a complex task and it takes a lot of time for ordinary students. Most of students reduce their workload while writing the thesis. For me there were many offers for new research projects, which offered a possibility of earning good extra income. And you may guess that I could not resist these offers.

After I had participated on a speed reading course, I began to train my reading skills regularly. I must say that after one month I had made huge progress and I was able to apply my new reading methods to my academic reading.

For writing a good PhD thesis you must have a good knowledge of the latest research results in your field. I was writing my thesis on labor economics, so I had to know what was going on there. Actually you do not have to know so much details of other authors work, but instead you have to know what their contribution to that field is and what their main results are. Therefore you have to read a huge load of material, but you do not have to go deep with most of them. I have seen many other students to spend lots of time for reading a single article or chapter, which definitely is a reason why it takes a lot of time for them to write the thesis.

The main benefits from speed reading for my PhD were that I was able to quickly find which texts were worth reading and I was able to read these texts much faster. For many articles I only read the introduction and summary or even only abstract and so I was able to work through more than 10 (sometime even 20) articles in one hour.

My speed reading skills gave me confidence that I was able to get it done and this helped me a lot. 11 years ago when I finished high school then I had excellent results on the final exams and I had strong self-confidence. But as an undergraduate student I was a bit too lazy and my results were not so good. When I started working at the university, then the first years on that job were also not so successful. My salary was relatively low and all these decreased my self confidence. When I started dealing with speed reading then it changed my life as I started to believe in myself again.

Many other students and professors have been astonished how I was able to write academic texts so fast and I still had time for all other projects. But the point was that speed reading made me very productive. What took days for other people, took only some hours for me to do. Some people wanted to stop me for taking so many work commitments as they were worried that I was working too much.

But in fact I was not working that much. I was able to finish writing the thesis quickly so I good devote time to some other projects. At the same time I was able to find time for my hobbies and friends. I did not have to miss a football match or a party due to my studies.

Speed reading has made my life much easier and therefore I have started to share my experiences to other people. I have given my speed reading trainings to different people such as managers, professors, students, doctors, military officers etc. It seems to be that everyone can learn it. And it is so enjoyable to see how these skills make people happy.

kristjan Speed Reading academic reading, benefits, reading skills, research, speed reading course

Speed reading has numerous benefits. If you are able to read faster then you can work faster and be more productive. You can finish your job tasks within a shorter period of time, which means that you can work more to earn more or you may choose to have more free time. In addition speed reading skills will allow you to read more for educating yourself. If you are planning to get MA degree then being able to speed read will make your life much easier.

There are many different speed reading courses and all of them have basically the same benefits. I do not know what is the share of population, who have learned speed reading but it is likely to be a relatively low proportion. It is definitely not 50%, 30% and probably not even 10%. In case of Estonia, where I live, this number is below 1%.It may be higher for some other countries, where there are more speed reading training trainers and where the traditions of speed reading are longer.

But when speed reading has so many benefits, why most people do not learn speed reading.

The first reason, which may not be the most important one, is that not all people are aware of the benefits of speed reading. There are still some people who have hardly heard something about speed reading. Probably this reason has greater importance in my countries as there were no speed reading courses in Estonia during the Soviet period. It became possible to learn speed reading here only in the mid 1990s.

Second, there are people who know what speed reading is and which are its benefits, but who are doubtful about them. Many people think that these benefits are some kind of advertisement trick and actually speed reading is no use. If you look around in internet forums, then you can find a lot discussion on the question: “Does speed reading actually work?”. It is true that not all the participants of speed reading courses could apply what they have learned to their everyday life. As it takes time and effort to develop your reading skills then many people give up in the middle of the learning process and find that speed reading does not work. Many people participate in one- or two-day speed reading classes, which require the trainees to continue practicing individually after completion of the course, but these people will not practice and that is the reason that they will not benefit from these courses.

Third, there are people, who do not think that the ability to read faster will make there life much easier. A popular argument against speed reading is “I do not want to read faster”. Some people find that it is essential to be slow and careful while reading. Or they may have a job, where it is very important not to make any mistakes. But there are not so many benefits of reading slowly and carefully. It is difficult to improve your reading comprehension significantly by reading extra slowly. And even if your work process does not require fast reading, you may still benefit from speed reading for leading for hobbies and leisure. Wouldn’t it be nice f you could finish your newspapers in the morning in half of the usual time.

Fourth, some people think that they are not able to learn to speed read. Many of them are natural slow readers, who think that their reading abilities are so bad that there is no point in even trying out the speed reading. This is absolutely wrong as naturally slow readers, who have usually very inefficient reading techniques are the ones who benefit most from speed reading courses. If you are very slow then there is more room for improvement for a naturally fast reader. Some people think that they are too old for speed reading. Well, some participants of my speed reading classes have been more than 70 years old and they have managed to increase their reading speed.

Fifth, there are people who are satisfied with their reading speed although they can be relatively slow readers. We learn to read at early ages and it may seem strange for a grown up and educated man or woman. For example, when I was visiting IZA (Institute for Labor Market Research) in Bonn, Germany a year ago and I talked about speed reading there, I was asked if I had a problem with reading. It is sad to see that many people will not be able to enjoy the benefits of speed reading because they have that kind of attitude towards speed reading.

kristjan Speed Reading age, benefits, free time, learning, speed reading skills