Speed Reading Revisited

So far in October, I’ve been spending time considering my reading habits.

This brought me back to a skill which I learnt when I was at university, but only seem to use sporadically now.

That skill is speed reading, and I have been reintroducing it into my life.

I want to talk about why I feel everyone should learn the skill of speed reading and my five top tips for speed reading.

📚Why You Should Learn to Speed Read

Speed reading is a great skill to have in your arsenal.

Having reduced the amount I used this skill, it has come back to me at a good time. I have been reading some slow, but brilliant books, and speed reading was once my go-to for overcoming those humps.

Here are the key reasons I believe everyone should learn to speed read:

1. Creates Momentum: I have read some challenging, yet slow books, which can reduce my motivation to read. Speed reading enables you to maintain momentum by moving faster through books that may be threatening to slow you down.
2. Reduces “Tiredness”: There is a view that reading makes us tired, but sometimes this can be down to reading too slowly, which can lead to mental fatigue. Speed reading keeps your brain more engaged, so you are more likely to feel alert when reading.
3. Lots of Books Over-Explain: There are plenty of self-help books that give you the key point in the intro, then feel the need to provide several examples and different ways of getting a point across. Speed reading means we can take the main point and move on.
4. Less of an Emotional Investment: Reducing the amount of time it takes to read a book means we don’t have to worry about it taking us 6 months to read. All the time we could have spent reading something else.

It’s a useful skill to have, but it doesn’t mean that you have to do it all of the time.

If you still find you want to take your time with certain books, you can. So why not learn the skills needed to have the option to speed read?

💨Tips to Speed Read

Below are five tips that helped me to learn the art of speed reading:

1. Create a Reading Self-Assessment: The first step is to track your progress, which means timing how long it takes you to read at your current speed. We want this as a figure which we can use for comparison as we utilise the other skills.
2. Count in your Head: We want to stop subvocalization, which is our inner reading voice that limits our reading speed. As you scan your eyes across the lines of text, aim to count between one to five, depending on page and font size.
3. Use a Reading Pacer: As you reduce subvocalization, you may require a pacer that helps your eyes track where you are looking. This can be a pen, bookmark, or even your finger, which moves down the page as you read and count in your head.
4. Get Comfortable: Speed reading will be most efficient when you are comfortably sitting upright and reducing eye strain by positioning the text close enough to see clearly.
5. Make Notes: You should look to test your active recall after using speed reading techniques by noting down thoughts you have taken from what you have just read. 

💭Closing Thoughts

I have re-found speed reading at the perfect time, just as a couple of books I’ve been reading have been threatening to slow my momentum.

I believe that we should all look to adopt this skill and use it in a way that benefits us the most.

Check out my latest YouTube video on this very subject:

If you’re passionate about reading or want to discuss the subject of speed reading, I’d love to hear from you. So please drop me a message.

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