Find stuff, read stuff, find stuff, read stu...

I've talked to a few of you recently about the importance of having a viable system for conducting research.

One of the things I've come to realise the hard way is that searching for materials without taking the time to read along the way tends to lead to this.


The downside is that the pile of material then looks so intimidating you want to avoid reading anything.

This then leads to the thought, 'I know, I'll do some more searching instead because that's still work.' Sort of.

So my suggestion is simply this; once you've found and saved 5 articles, stop searching and read those 5 pieces. That way, you get the benefits that increased knowledge brings (mostly importantly, increased confidence, a wider vocabulary and general encouragement) and you can prune what you don't want to keep as you're going along.

Go on. Just try it.