You shouldn't think of scholarly articles as books that you read from start to finish. You're trying to get information and to quickly determine whether a particular article is going to be helpful to you!

Look at:

1. The title
2. The abstract (summary)
3. Read the introduction
4. Read the section headings used in the article
5. Skip to the discussion/conclusion

Still looks good? Start reading all the through. Read once for an overall impression, then read a second time (or more) to start taking notes and highlighting choice bits.