Speed Reading Tips

Speed Reading

Most people that I know I think it is true to say generally do not read or do not particularly enjoy reading. I would also generalize that this is true for one reason, they are not very good at it. This is a real shame seeing as the better one's reading skills the higher the level of success, the higher the level of income and the higher the overall achievement in life becomes. The good news is that we all have the ability to read at very fast rates with high levels of comprehension, we have just never been taught how to do it. Most of us have been taught to read by somebody who just wasn’t very good at it themselves.

I will share with you a few techniques that can drastically improve your reading speed and comprehension. This is not a conclusive guide to speed reading and I do recommend that you take a little time and research the subject further.

Look at more than one word at a time Part of the problem is eye fatigue. If you have to move your eye to focus on each word you are going to get tired very quickly. If you are currently looking at one word at a time and you can increase that to three, that’s a 300% reduction in eye movement. It’s going to make a big difference. Five or six words at a time should present no problem with a little practice.

Sit upright when reading This makes a big difference, if you are laying down or slouching you are in the sleep position, you are going to fall asleep. Adopt a good posture and your comprehension will improve.

Avoid sub vocalization This is the biggest stumbling block to speed. If you have to say the word to understand it you are going to be limited to about 250 words a minute. If you can avoid this you can easily increase to 1000+ words per minute.

Use a pointer to keep your place If you use a pointing device this will help you keep your focus and avoid the need to continuously re-read pages.

Computer screens are about 30% slower If you have an e-book or a lot of web pages to read, print them out, it will be much faster.

Like anything this is a skill and skills are developed through practice, it takes a little time. The rewards here though far outweigh the effort. I highly recommend taking the time to work on this skill.

I hope you found this useful and good luck with your reading.

Speed Reading