Learning to speed read is an invaluable skill because most information is available as text. Students at college, or stay at home moms, can all benefit from speed-reading. In fact, this is a skill that will provide you with many benefits, most of which you will utilize once you are faced with having to absorb a mountain of content in no time at all. Speed-reading can be learned very easily. Using the techniques presented in this article, you should be reading 2 times as fast very quickly.
You should find out how fast you read right now before experimenting with any speed reading strategies. It’s similar to learning to run faster -first you have to know how fast you run right now. There are websites where you can measure your reading speed for free; you can also measure it on your own. If you have any kind of timer, you can set it for 3 minutes and read a book or article that’s not too difficult. Try to read at a natural but swift pace, with the aim to understand the material and when the time goes off stop immediately. You can then easily figure out your per minute reading speed by counting the number of words you read and dividing the number of minutes that went by accordingly (e.g. 750 words in 3 minutes = 250 words per minute). No matter what your current reading speed (200 words per minute is about average), you can improve it by practicing speed reading techniques.
Next, make sure that the text you are about to read is in a position that is easy to understand. If you have bad vision, it is possible that this technique will not work for you. Good vision is required.
This is particularly true of children. Setting an appointment with an ophthalmologist may be necessary, especially if you suspect that your vision is giving you problems. You might find that you actually need glasses. Your speed reading should dramatically increase after you have your prescription glasses. You will also be able to focus on the material for a longer period of time. We had a lot of fun putting this article together because this subject of speed reading really fascinates us. Once you begin to truly see the breadth of knowledge available plus what it all can mean, then that is a pretty cool thing.
Of course you are here because you have a need to know more, and of course you need some additional support in the way of leveraging the work of others. That particular state will allow you to operate from a greater position in your life. Make no mistake about it – you have the power to exert far more control over your life than you realize.
One reason why most people aren’t speed readers is that they read all of the words on a page, one by one. Many words are not essential, and if you want to read faster, you have to get into the habit of skipping these. A high percentage of words in most sentences can be considered filler rather than essential – for example, “the,” “this,” “to,” “a” and so forth. Your eyes don’t need to linger on such words, as your mind is able to supply them for you when necessary, as they’re so familiar to you. You do something similar when you read words that are spelled incorrectly. If you know the word, you have no trouble recognizing it, even if it’s not spelled right. That’s why speed readers can just skip filler words and have no trouble comprehending the material.
Speed reading is not dexterity, it is a skill therefore you should be able to learn it really quickly. Just like other abilities, though, you should be practicing as often as you can. You should benefit a lot by the recommendations provided in this article, as you will increase your reading speed immensely and before you know it you’ll be flying through books and then speculating as to why you waited to become a quicker reader.