Reading manuals is often boring — sometimes so boring that it becomes all but impossible to focus on the task. Yet.. so essential. As frustrating as it is to have to reread the same 2-page section four times in order to finally read the whole thing the whole way through without mentally skipping off to Marseilles in mid-paragraph, it's much worse to realize at some later point that you could have saved yourself hours of work by doing so.

What sorts of jedi mind tricks — and not so jedi ones — can be employed to keep the mind focused on absorbing this critical matter?