Benefits of Speed Reading
Have you ever wanted to learn how to read faster and retain more of the information?
And what you found out was that there are plenty of courses on how you can go from reading at at snail’s pace to super human within weeks.
Obviously being sceptical about the results they promised, you decided to skip the lessons and instead continue to read at a snails pace.
If so, I have been there as well. Until a family member got a course and I just decided to tag along.
What I quickly realised is that speed reading isn’t something that will take years to learn but instead just a couple of weeks of intense training.
What I also realised that speed reading isn’t just a way to get through books and information quickly – it can also change your life.
With the ever-increasing speed of the digital age, being able to scan and process information quickly can give you an edge over your peers, in both academic and professional settings.
By learning to speed read, you’ll be able to absorb more information and retain it better, allowing you to make faster decisions, think smarter, and stay up-to-date on the latest news.
Speed reading has many other benefits too; you’ll have more time for the things you enjoy, test scores and grades may improve, and you’ll become more confident in your ability to scan and process texts quickly.
And don’t worry, if speed reading doesn’t come naturally to you – it’s a skill that can be learned with enough practice!
My experience learning how to read faster
Reading can be quite a tedious task for some. After all, if you are reading at a slow pace you can feel a bit disheartened by it and because of it give up reading more in the future.
I know that from my own personal experience, where I choose audio books or video’s any day over reading time.
My reading speed was about 168 words a minute which isn’t very much and I would shy away from reading most of the time.
Until my sister invited me to join a course in learning how to read faster.
I found the course to be really good and even though I won’t share everything from it, I will provide you with some tips that I found were extremely helpful at increasing my reading comprehension and speed.
The best thing that I have found from using the course is that I now carry a book around me more often than not, and when I’m bored I will read instead of scrolling aimlessly on my phone.
This is really good because I find I learn a lot in times where I would literally waste away for hours.
Do you have a goal for reading faster? Why would it be important for you? Let me know in the comments below 🙂
Record your Progress
With any improvement that you decide to take on, it’s always important to record your progress.
This is so that you have a way to determine if you are getting better or not.
It’s quite disheartening when you work on something and can’t see the difference. That is why before we even begin with the tips make sure to sit down with an easy book to read.
Preferably something new and fiction.
Then for 2 minutes read as much you as can. Get a timer on your phone. Now be accurate with this. Don’t try and prove a point. Read as you would normally read.
After the 2 minutes stop.
Now count all the full lines of text that you have read.
Anything that is more than half the page width can be counted as a line. Anything less no.
You can though join multiple short lines to create a full-page width of the text.
For example: this would be considered a line because its more than half the page.
This wouldn’t be.
Once you count the lines divide that number by 2 for each minute that you have been reading.
For example: I read 62 lines in 2 minutes – I divide it by 2 to get 31 lines per minute
Once you figure out the lines per minute go back count the number of words on 3 lines of text.
This will help you determine the average amount of words per line.
For example:
First-line had 12 words
Second-line had 14 words
Third-line had 12 words
Average would be about 13
With this number times your number of lines by the number of words per line to give yourself the number of words per minute that you read.
13 x 31 = 403 words per minute
Record the words per minute that you read somewhere so that you can look back and compare to see if any of the hints work.
Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.
Create a reading habit
Now like with everything, you most likely won’t become a reading guru in a day.
But the good news is that with a bit of practice and a good routine you will see incredible results quickly.
Set aside about 10 minutes each day for silent reading. By doing this you will force yourself to practice and as with everything the more you practice the better you become.
Use your alarm to get yourself into a daily reading routine for at least the next 21 days.
Each day after reading make sure to take 2 minutes to check how quickly you are reading.
Then record it so that you can see if any of the tips you learned helped you become better.
During the period you will have many ups and owns in your reading process.
Don’t worry if your reading pace drops down, after all, each day you will be faced with a different situation which could affect your reading.
The main thing to look out for is an increase in your reading speed from day to day, till day 21.
So for the first exercise, establish a time for you to read for only 10 mins a day.
There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.
Use your Finger
Now, this might seem like simple information but if you think about it when we were young and learning how to read we would run our finger along each line.
Somehow as we got older we stopped using this technique. There are many reasons why you should use your finger or a pointer (pen etc.).
These reasons being that through evolution us as humans have evolved to pick up movement.
If we didn’t we would not see a suspicious movement in the bushes and could either become food for something else or miss out on a possible feast.
We are attracted to movement and because of this, our focus can be kept in place for longer.
Another reason why having our finger or pointer dictate the speed of our reading is that without it we would re-read lines that we misunderstood or just simply lost focus on.
You know that moment when you are reading a line and you zone out. Next minute you have to re-read it so you understand what is going on in the story. That’s what I mean.
By having a visual guide you will prevent yourself from going back and re-reading the page.
Yes, this might mean that you miss something but with time you will start grasping all the information that you possibly missed.
Just by eliminating re-reading things you will find that your reading speed may increase significantly.
As an added note, use your left hand to point. This is because it will use the other side of your brain which has better retention. This, in turn, will help you grasp more of what you are reading.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Train Your Brain
When you go to a gym and work out, you were doing so to strengthen your muscles. The more time you put into your exercises and pushing your limits the faster and the stronger you will become.
This is exactly the same for your brain. By doing exercises that stimulate your brain you are more likely to have it running faster and also take in more information than before.
Luckily when training your brain to read faster and retain more you don’t require any expensive tools or programs.
Instead, you can use your finger or juggling balls or even just a timer to help you speed up your reading and comprehension.
Drawing an Infinity Sign
The first exercise that you can do is simply drawing an infinity sign or an eight that’s laying down in front of your face with your finger and just follow it with your eyes without moving your head.
Do this for a short while before reading and make sure to reverse the direction that you are tracing in midair.
What I had found is that my head began to hurt a little bit but that is because this exercise is using muscles that you most likely haven’t used before.
Juggling
It is scientifically proven that people who juggle have very responsive brains. This is because it is using hand-eye coordination and your peripheral vision to be able to comprehend everything that is going on in front of you.
There are many youtube videos on how to juggle and I would recommend checking them out to get an idea of what you can do to learn the basics of juggling.
If you haven’t done it before and you’re worried that you can’t do it or think it’s impossible than just like any other thing that you have learned in the past it’s just a matter of trying and trying until you get there.
After all, you learned how to walk, drive or ride a bike not by thinking it’s impossible but by giving it a go.
4321 Exercise
The final exercise I really recommend is the 4321 exercise. How it works is that you read your book for four minutes making sure that you comprehend as much as possible.
Afterwards, reduce the time to 3 minutes and read over the same section you just did.
This time it’s not about comprehension but more so training your brain to follow your finger and also take in as much as it possibly can.
It can be a little bit difficult but again this is just training your brain and by doing so in the future you will get better and better. Just make sure that you reach the finish line or the same place that you got to in the four minutes.
Once you do that reduce the time to 2 minutes and read the same section.
This time you have half the time so make sure that you’re looking at the stopwatch to make sure that you are keeping up with it just like before it’s not about comprehending everything but train your brain to follow your finger and take in as much as possible.
Once you do that, now reduce the time to 1 minute and go through it as quickly as possible, again taking as much information as you can but the main thing is to get to the ending point that you first establish with the four minutes.
You might be thinking that this is a pointless exercise but what will happen is that after this exercise you have sped up the way you are reading due to the fact that you have gotten your brain used to scanning the page faster.
Once you complete the 4321 exercise start from a new point and time yourself for 2 mins to get an idea of your new reading speed.
Again it doesn’t always have to be faster, it’s just about reading faster and comprehending more in general.
Conclusion on how to read faster and retain more
So in the end learning how to read faster and comprehend more is a invaluable skill to have. Imagine reading books in half or a quarter of the time you used to.
The amount of information you could gather is astronomical and to add to it the time saving is amazing.
But don’t rest on your laurels once you get good at reading fast, because the more you train the faster you get and also if you don’t you will lose your new found reading speed.
If you are interested in learning more about Speed reading I recommend reading this book.
It’s an Amazon Bestseller with over 2000 reviews, but if you are not interested in forking out money just yet, simply try out the tips on how to read faster and retain more that I shared with you.
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