How I Read, in 2026

A few years ago I made a post in this blog about how I read at the time. I usually took "piece notes" (in the sense of, a set of notes per each "piece", as in, an article or book chapter) in a mapping style. 

I still like mapping, but I now have a method that is more efficient. It also has the virtue of not being in a piece-notes view, where we only see notes for one piece at a time. Rather, it is a method where you can read "by-piece", but the outcome is a thematic view. 

I was inspired by qualitative coding programs, and have made a spreadsheet that mimics how those qualitative coding programs work. How I got to where I am from where I started is a relatively long journey, and to try not to overwhelm you I'll take you on that journey one step at a time here.

Start with a blank spreadsheet. I prefer Excel to all other spreadsheet software because of its excellent sort function. The sort function is essential to this reading method.

In this example, I will make the topic research methods, which is a graduate class I'm teaching this semester. Each one of these reading matrices can be whatever level of abstraction you want. You could make them for a single publication (I mean, you could have one for all of the reading you do for a particular journal article/book you're working on), or for a topic area (in the sense of an area that you might return to in different journal articles/books). I wouldn't choose a topic area like "sociology" – too broad. I think it works well for specific and middle-range general topics. Research methods is a more middle-range general category. You could also have one for cultural sociology – that is general enough, but not too general. In any case, up to you, but those are my thoughts on level of generality.

Let's add one of the sources from this research methods class, "Salsa dancing into the social sciences". I add sources in rows, and themes in columns. 

So here I have added a column called "Reference" and then the complete reference for this source. 

I'll keep this discussion at an intro level for Excel skills for those of you who don't yet have those skills. 

So the next thing I'm going to do is "Wrap" the entire "Reference" column so that the source wraps to the border of the cell. I'm also going to make the column a bit bigger by dragging the right border of the "E" at the top of the column. 

Now we are here:

I then like to add just the 'citation' to the furthest left, so that I can easily see who the author is. 

As I did that, I realized that this new Excel sheet has an alignment that is 'bottom of the cell'. I like to have everything aligned right and to the top of the cell. So I click the little box in between the "1" of the first row and the "A" of the first column, and then click align right and align top:

Now we have this:

In addition to the authors and the reference, I like to also have the number of Google Scholar citations of the source, so that I know how influential it is. I also create a column called "DateGSC" meaning "Date Google Scholar Citations were added" because citations change over time and if that date is quite far in the past, you can then expect that the citations have likely changed, and you may want to update it, if it has been many years. Or not, up to you, but it just gives you more information about when you added the citation number.

I also like to know the order in which I added sources, in case I want to recreate the research path I've been on. I can then always see the order in which I read, which I've found can be very useful. I also like to be able to quickly see who the publisher is, and to have the abstract for journal articles. Usually for books, in the "abstract" column I just say "book", but if I happen to want something there, I can go to the publisher website and get the blurb they give from the book there. I'll do that for this book for purposes of example. I do it sometimes. For book chapters, I just say "Book chapter" in the "Abstract" column, no use really trying to give a summary of every book chapter you read there, in my view.

To do this, I'm going to insert some columns by click-dragging the top bar.
In this video, you can see me add this information. I quickly went to Google Scholar to get the citation count, and went to the website of Harvard University Press for the blurb. Again, a bit excessive for a book, but it's usually very easy and helpful with a journal article to add the abstract, hence the title of the column.

I also here had to enforce a height on the cells. I usually use about 100. You do that by click-dragging the gray bar with the numbers on it on the left, and then dragging the little separator between two of them. I chose the first 50 rows because hypothetically we could use that many in a spreadsheet about research methods.

Sorry about the headshot all over the place, even filling the screen in the last seconds there. Also the recording for some reason keeps zooming in! Clearly Zoom isn't the best way to record. I'm going to try Screen Capture on Mac next.

In any case, now we have:

The next step is building the thematic columns. The idea with these columns is to make a nested series of themes. I honestly use a spreadsheet with 7, but let's just make 5 to keep things relatively manageable in this example. First I'll make a template column for these 5 nested themes. Also I make a column beside the column called "Template" that I just call "R" meaning "This column refers to the one to the Right". This is used in sorting the sheet. We'll get to that later! There is also a row between the main spreadsheet and the nested columns part of the sheet. That is important, again, for sorting purposes. I've coloured it blue. It is worth saying now, and as many times as I can remember to remind you in this post: in general, you need to make sure the main spreadsheet part (with the "Luker 2008" cell etc.) doesn't have ANY cell without anything in it. Everything always needs something in it. Again, because of sorting. We'll continue to deal with that as we continue on.

Now we have this:

I really should have also resized that "Template" column to about 35 Excel units, I'll do that in the next one. 

An any case, it is useful to have a template column when inserting a new category later. But now I'll add some space to start actually categorizing the information in this book. 

If you start reading this book (which is great, I really appreciate this book!) is that she thinks that making time for fun in your life is actually essential for being a good social scientist. It helps give you time in which to subconsciously process your research, which can lead to insights, and also helps you bring a sense of playfulness to the research itself, enhancing it. So that is a theme. We could add that one, and I'll do that here. 

In the video just following this paragraph, I add the template column to a few columns. Then I use the Command key on a Mac (I think Control does the same thing on a PC) to select non-continuous columns at once and I resize them simultaneously. Then another part of this reading system is a "clipboard manager", such as the app "Paste" on a Mac, which allows you to copy many things at once and then paste them in the order you want. I messed up a bit here in that the comment I wrote in the last paragraph, which I also add here in bold, I first accidentally added to the quote. But I went and copied a few things from the book just before making this video, because I can't switch screens away from the Mac Screen Capture app or else it will just copy that part of the screen I jump to, which is going to be confusing. But I use a clipboard manager all the time when I use this reading method. They are really useful in my view.

You can see in that video that I also like to give multiple rows to the same source, so that I can put more information in while keeping things neat and organized. So I repeat the metadata columns at the front.

In that video I also started to use freeze panes in this sheet. It is helpful so that you know which row you are actually on at any one time. 

​So now we are here:

Clearly the text has started to run off the end of the cells. But this isn't a problem. You can just double click the cell to see all of the text, and go down the cell using the arrow keys.

I also forgot there to change the "-1" to "1" for the cells that I actually filled in. I'll do that in the next video.

So we could keep reading, and adding more themes. I'll do that to keep developing this a bit. Something she then says is about what she means by "methods", which is useful to keep track of across different sources. I'm also going to add the footnote that she adds at the end of the sentences about this (I'm going to have to start using YouTube for these videos, as Weebly is struggling!):

So in that video I also made 'template rows'. I also gave my template column some conditional formatting, to make it easier to see what has been filled in and what has not. If you want to know more about conditional formatting in Excel, there are many guides for it online.

The "-1" and "zzz" are meant to just sort at the very bottom of any sort function. We're getting closer to the "sort" function! It's an important part of this method but much of the spreadsheet needs to be created for it to come into use.

​Now we are at this point:

Now I think we can start a discussion about the "nested" nature of the first 5 columns. So far, I haven't done any nesting. But with the comment from Luker about methods, we could start a sub-column of that, for those sources that think methods have something to do with truth. 

What I like to do with these nested columns is keep a general column ("Methods") and then add more specific columns beside that one, like this:

So the concept map we are developing now looks like this, if we were to actually map it:

That is the map starting to form. 

I do like to map these reading matrices if I have the time, but it isn't necessary. I do NOT add all of the literature and authors: I ONLY map the 5-7 categories that are the top rows. The great virtue of these reading matrices is that they store a great deal of text in a small amount of space and need little reorganizing. The problem for me with doing everything in maps is that the maps need constant reorganizing that ends up taking so much time that it can really slow down my writing. These reading matrices are far more efficient at getting all of the text from different authors in one place. (They also work for qualitative coding!).

Next let's add another author, as we need to if we are going to be able to start having the sort function do anything here, and the sort function is an essential feature of this reading method. That is what the "R" columns of "-1" and "1" are for: sorting.

I'll add the book Problem-solving Sociology by Monica Prasad. I'll copy some of the metadata with my clipboard manager and then insert it:

Now I'll read that book a bit and add a theme. An important theme in the book is how to relate to theory when you are trying to do problem-solving sociology, so I will add a theme about that. In the video following this paragraph, I add 5 quotations from the book. I also like to make sure I add the page number to each of the citations, so I know exactly where it is in a book and can cite it, if I want to, by page number. I also try to add my own comment before the quote, to help myself figure out how to make sense of it in the future. You can see in this video, I also went on a little misadventure, trying to change the color scheme of the spreadsheet to the orange color scheme, which I find has very nice muted 'serious' academic colors. But then it was going to change the entire conditional formatting scheme and so I gave up. This sheet is basically stuck in the default office color scheme, which is doesn't have all the nice demure faded colors! Oh well, if you make a sheet like this, you can choose whatever color scheme you like, just make sure you choose it before you start linking your conditional formatting to the colour scheme. I just didn’t like the vibrant orange that came out in the template columns and the rows that hadn’t been filled in yet. In any case, here's the next step:

Next I'll add a column called "currently reading", and I'm finally ready to show you what the sort function does, if you don't know already. Basically when you are reading something, it is nice to have the rows for that article/book at the top of the lower spreadsheet (not the part with the nested columns, the thing below that), so you aren't scrolling constantly. It's essential, actually, to have this "currently reading" column, if this method is going to be efficient. So when you add a new reading, you need to have it at the very top of the lower spreadsheet (the part that starts with "Authors | GSC" etc). This is about to get confusing, so I'm going to be very clear. I'm going to call this the "nested categories part of the spreadsheet":

I'm going to call this the "main part of the spreadsheet":

Ok so you want to be able to have the thing you're currently reading at the very top of the "main part of the spreadsheet". So to do that, we'll use the sort function.

I like to put the currently reading column at the very right side of the spreadsheet. So what I do in this next video, just below this paragraph, is add that column and then sort the sheet by that column, using the "R" category. 

Also another Excel trick I've been using: you can use Command+ArrowKeys (Mac) or Control+ArrowKeys (PC) to move around a spreadsheet very fast, taking you from one end to the other end immediately.

Also another Excel thing to keep in mind: MAKE SURE every single part of the "main part of the spreadsheet" is filled in before you start sorting it. If you have some bland cells in the "main part of the spreadsheet" and you start sorting it, it will become completely messed up and you'll destroy everything. I don't really want to explain exactly how/why this happens, it would take a while. If you don't believe me, look it up. That is why I have "zzz" and "-1" everywhere. NOTHING in the "main part of the spreadsheet" is blank for me.

You can check if you've missed anything by going to "Go to special blanks". If you can't figure out how to do that, just search in a search engine "Go to special blanks" and there are a lot of tutorials. I'll show you how to do it on Mac but I'm sure the path to get there is a little different on a PC. "Go to special blanks" is going to tell me that I have no blanks. But I'll make some to show you what to do. To fill the blanks that "Go to special blanks" shows you, you just hold Command and then press enter (Mac) or Control and then enter (PC). Also I select the whole sheet here by holding shift+command and then using the right and then down arrow key (control+command should do the same thing on a PC). In any case, this is the "Go to special blanks" procedure:

I wrote "THESE ARE BLANKS" there, and when I did that, they weren't blank for those moments when that text was there, but I deleted the text and then they were "blank". Nothing was in the cells. Anyway, you can see that the "Go to special blanks" operation allowed us to see where all the blanks were. I filled them with an en dash, just as an example of filling them all in at the same time, which I did by typing in an en dash and then holding command+enter (on a Mac). There are MANY tutorials on "Go to special blanks" if this is unclear (sorry, kind of hard to explain!).

Ok so we have now made sure that there are no blanks. So we can sort safely.

Now in the next video I make a "currently reading" column, set the "current reading" to Prasad 2021, then sort the sheet by "currently reading", sorting by "largest to smallest" number. Then the Prasad reading is going to jump to above the Luker reading, and it will make incorporating it into the spreadsheet easier. Not THAT much of a big deal in a sheet with only 2 readings. But if you have 10, or 100, it really matters. I then sort by Authors alphabetical order to show you the sort function working in another way.

So now, as you can imagine, you can sort the sheet by any column that you're interested in. So imagine that you have like 20 sources in this sheet, and 5 of them talk about what "methods" are. Then you can sort by that column, and all of the authors who talk about methods will jump to the top of the sheet. Then it is pretty easy to write a few paragraphs in a 'literature review' style about what different authors think the definition of "methods" is. 

That is basically the method. 

Here is the file I've been developing in this post:

researchmethods-readingmatrix-2026-08-18th.xlsx
File Size:	18 kb
File Type:	xlsx

Download File

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This is the actual template I'm currently using (file just below this paragraph). I also have some columns here for what kind of source it is (data, research, my comments) and where it comes from. I'm trying to make sure my reading isn't too focused on the USA and England – not that I don't want to read anything from there, but it is easy to get ethnocentric. I also want to know if something I'm reading is strictly sociology or not, which is helpful when publishing in sociology journals: keeping the distinction clear can be useful. I also put in some conditional formatting for the Google Scholar citations to help me see the general range of citations for any article. I think, for example, that more than 1000 citations is purple background with white text. In any case, this is the current actual template file I use for these reading matrices:

templatereadingmatrix-2026-08-18th.xlsx
File Size:	61 kb
File Type:	xlsx

Download File

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MAPPING: I think it is also worth mentioning that if I have time, I DO map the first 5-7 columns of the sheet, like I started to do above. I do this mapping in Adobe Illustrator, but you can use any number of apps for that. I can't remember very well those rows at the top of the sheet, in the "nested categories" part of the sheet. I CAN remember maps very well. So it helps with longer-term memory for me, to make maps as well as a complement, when I have time. As I said above, I don't map anything in the "main part of the spreadsheet", none of the quotes from any authors etc. ONLY the categories in the top 5-7 rows, in the "nested categories" part of the sheet. I don't have maps for all of my reading matrices, since it does take time. I can sort of remember the nested categories in the matrices, but if I really want to remember them, the map helps a great deal. I know that the topic has general sub-topics within it, and so I open it and look around and find what I'm looking for. But if I have a map too, then I can much more precisely remember what is where and how the matrix is organized.

ONE FOLDER: Another critical part of this method, for me, is I keep all of these reading matrices in ONE folder. That way, I don't have to spend a lot of time looking around when I want to read. When I used to keep them in a lot of different folders all over the place, I stopped using them because I didn't want to have to put in the effort to find them. Maybe you have another system, but I wanted to say that I found keeping them all in the same place helpful, instead of in various topic- and article- related folders. Since they are all in one folder, I sort of have an "app" of all these reading matrices.

THE GAP BETWEEN THE NESTED CATEGORIES AND MAIN PART OF THE MATRIX: Also, it is critical to keep in mind that there is a gap between the nested categories part of the spreadsheet and the main part of the spreadsheet. I colored it blue in the spreadsheet I’ve been developing in this post. There needs to be a gap between the two. The part you really need to make sure has every cell filled in with something is the main part of the spreadsheet because that is the part you sort. You never sort the nested category part of the spreadsheet. But the reason that the sort function doesn’t end up extending from the main part of the spreadsheet to the nested categories part is that there is that gap in between the two, and this row has nothing in it. You want to make sure that the gap row between the nested categories part of the spreadsheet, and the main part of the spreadsheet remains completely blank. Colouring it doesn't 'fill it', it only gets filled if some kind of text or a number is in it, and you don't want any text or numbers in it. If you have any text or numbers in there it will destroy the spreadsheet when you use the sorting function. So just make sure that in between the nested categories part of the spreadsheet and the main part of the spreadsheet there is that gap row. In the following video here I’ll just emphasize that there is nothing in that row:

FREEZE PANES: Another important part of Excel is the "Freeze Panes" function. I used it to freeze the first column and all of the nested categories, so that as we move around the spreadsheet, those parts are frozen. I also have a large external monitor in my office, so I can freeze a lot of panes and still have it be useful, as you can see in the actual reading matrix I use, the second file I added a few paragraphs ago. But if you have to use a laptop screen only, then you probably want to freeze less panes, such as only freezing the first column, but you'll still want all of the nested categories frozen. If this is all confusing, there are many tutorials about how to use freeze panes online. 

So that's essentially it! That is the starting point for seeing how this method works. 

The great virtue of this method is that you read "by-piece" but the outcome is a THEMATIC structure. It is the most efficient method I have found for making that happen. One typically does read "by-piece", but having an automatic thematic structure develop as you read is extremely valuable. As I said in the introduction, I learned to think like that in qualitative coding software (e.g., Atlas.ti). But I found that software always to be a bit clunky, it is proprietary of course so you need to keep paying them a great deal, they have character limits all over the place (like only a certain number of words for each comment on a code), and they force you to import all of the text documents into a single file, so the files get extremely large, especially if you try to use them for reading. So this Excel-based method was a way to do what qualitative coding software does, but in a way where the files are relatively small (usually <1MB), and where a very large amount of information can be stored in an organized way. As I introduced above, a clipboard manager (such as Paste on Mac) makes this method even more efficient, because you can copy multiple things (such as a quote that spans two pages) in a PDF and then you DONT have to switch back and forth between the spreadsheet and the reading, you can paste the two parts of the quote from the clipboard manager. 

Everyone has their own reading system, but I hope this post helps you develop yours. Happy reading!

(If you have any questions about this, or think there is a discussion missing from this post, please let me know [[email protected]]).