When solving a word problem, what step should you always do after reading the problem, but prior to writing the equation?

Jessa bought a yoyo from a company that claims that, with each retraction, the string rolls up by 60% of the original length. she sets up a tape measure and throws the yoyo 3 times. her data are charted below. throw length of string (feet) 1 3 2 1.8 3 1.08 jessa wants to find the sum of the length of string after 10 throws. what is the sum of the lengths, rounded to the nearest hundredth?