Pre-reading hours are part of the fee — treat them that way
Every confirmation email for the Journal & Strategy Lab states the same uncomfortable truth: four to six hours of pre-reading are included in what you paid for, even though those hours happen at your desk.
Participants who arrive cold force the room into summary mode. Summary mode feels efficient and produces weak strategy briefs. Facilitators then spend scarce clinic time catching people up on methods sections that should already carry margin codes.
Practical habits that work for busy leads in Bangkok and remote cohorts alike:
- Block two 90-minute reading sits on the calendar the week before travel
- Print or tablet-mark only the figures and methods; skim introductions last
- Send one clarifying question to your cohort channel before day one — not twenty
If your calendar truly cannot absorb the packet, choose Private Review Coaching for a single paper instead of joining a multi-day lab. The formats exist so you are not punished for honesty about time. What we cannot do is compress three days of critique into a morning of vibes and still call it technical journal review training.