7 Reasons Why Speed Reading Is Good For Your Brain
7 Reasons Why Speed Reading Is Good For Your Brain

7 Reasons Why Speed Reading Is Good For Your Brain


5 Reasons Why Speed Reading Is Good For You

Speed Reading to me is not just about reading faster. I want to be able to comprehend the information better and retain it longer. It’s the complete package.

I mainly got involved with speed reading because of my former career in the IT sector. With technology changing every day, I needed to stay current with all the latest news and trends.

Then came the reading of many technical manuals. Speed reading allowed me to stay knowledgeable in a very competitive industry with plenty of time to spare. But the most amazing part of learning how to Speed Read were the side benefits that I began to notice beyond my newly acquired ability to better comprehend and retain information while reading faster.

Why speed reading is good for your brain?

Here is a detailed breakdown of the side benefits of speed reading:

1. Improved Memory

The brain is like a muscle. If we train our brains, it will grow stronger and it will be able to perform better. Speed reading challenges our brains to perform at a higher level.

When you train your brain to be able to take in information faster, other areas of your brain will also improve such as your memory. Memory, when you read, acts like a stabilizer muscle that gets worked when you Speed Read.

2. Better Focus

Most people have the ability to read at least 200 wpm (words per minute), which is the average reading speed. But some people can also read up to 300 wpm. Why is there such a gap? There are two primary reasons.

  • Number one, the traditional reading style we are taught is not very efficient.
  • The second reason is lack of focus. If we are not focused on what we are reading, our minds will wander and become occupied with other thoughts. Speed reading helps build focus.

3. Higher levels Of Self-Confidence

I believe this is the result of knowing that you can learn just about any aspect of life faster once you can read faster and comprehend more.

When you improve your ability to read and learn faster, you will find that more and more doors open up for you, and you start to get more options in life. This is because every book or article, whether it is fiction or nonfiction, helps us shift our awareness and begin to see more depth in our lives. This newfound depth boosts our self-confidence.

4. Improved Logic

Reading is an exercise for your brain. When you train your brain to read faster, something amazing happens. Your brain becomes more efficient at sorting information and finding correlations to other bits of information previously stored.

The more you improve your reading speed, the faster this process happens, and you will automatically notice improvements with logic as you get used to respond quickly to what before would have taken longer to process.

5. Emotional Well-being

Reading is very relaxing in general. It can help reduce stress because it gets your mind off worries and other thoughts that are not healthy nor beneficial.

When you read faster, you will be even more absorbed in the material. This causes you to focus predominantly on the information you are reading. This is also known as active-meditation. Active-meditation is a meditative state achieved by doing an activity. This state can release tension and increase emotional well-being.

6. Develop Leadership Skills

Speed reading brings you more value in terms of ensuring better management of knowledge. With skills acquired from speed reading, you enhance your professional efficiency. This is because you’ll be taking less time reading and comprehending what other people take longer to study and process. This means you’ll be far ahead in productivity. Being a speed reader allows you to accumulate essential skills and knowledge that are helpful in taking up more responsibilities. More responsibilities mean you’ll be stepping ahead.

7. Enhance Problem-Solving Skills

We all experience challenges. However, with speed reading, you give a chance to your subconscious mind to solve them. Your subconscious mind will receive more information. When this happens, it acquires the ability to solve your challenges or problems. The subconscious is larger and more profound, unlike the conscious. In terms of the rate of processing information, the subconscious is also faster. The conscious is known to solve problems at about 100-150 miles an hour. The subconscious covers around 100,000 miles an hour to do the same.

Other benefits of reading faster

Speed reading to me is not just about reading faster. You can think of it as an exercise. As with your muscles, if you exercise them regularly, you will get stronger. If you exercise your brain, it will get stronger as well.

I’ve included a video with a speed reading drill that will not only help you increase your reading speed, comprehension, and retention but hopefully will also help you enjoy the same benefits I now enjoy.

Besides the beneficial effects on your brain, speed reading has a few other benefits listed below:

  • You Save Time. With speed reading, you can save time. If there’s something new you need to learn, speed reading enables you to do it faster. This can be test preparation, finishing up an online training course, or working on a new job. When you can read faster while at the same time understanding the content you’re reading, you’ll be able to capture a lot of content within the shortest time possible.
  • It Makes Your Resume Look Great. Another benefit of speed reading is how it makes your resume look great. These days, most employees need to do a lot of research and do write-ups or reports on the issue at hand. When this is needed within a short time, having speed reading skills come in handy. Speed reading enhances your resume and makes you more employable since you’ll stand out before potential employers.
  • You Learn to Enjoy Reading. Speed reading also makes you enjoy the whole process of reading. You’ll find the activity challenging but fun. For this to happen, you need to be reading a lot. Ensure you’re exposed to a variety of books and topics regularly. With regular reading, you’ll realize the kind of phenomenal changes coming to your life. Expressing yourself would be better and you acquire a new hobby altogether. More reading means enhanced knowledge, and others will notice you even more. When you’re being noticed more, it becomes easier for you to get your desired position when you apply for it.

Conclusion

There are so many reasons why speed reading is good for your brain. It’s also beneficial to you in several other ways. Becoming competitive professionally requires the ability to read faster. Mastering speed reading helps garner all the advantages provided by today’s information-loaded era. Being competent doesn’t necessarily mean reading everything you set your eyes on. It means you can read faster and wisely. It’s all about reading what’s important and doing it faster!

If you wish to learn how to comprehend more information within a short time and with the least effort, the Iris Reading Courses are there for you. Sign up today and start learning the most important techniques of speed reading. This is the best way to achieve your full potential.

More Resources:


Joseph Rodrigues

Joseph is an Iris instructor based out of Toronto. He loves to share his personal knowledge as an entrepreneur, and credits a lot of his success to speed reading techniques and productivity strategies.


15 Tips for Maintaining A Strong Focus While Reading
How to Speed Read a Magazine

Comments

  • Arabella
    Reply

    I was researching speed reading for an essay I have to do, and I just wanted to say I found this article very helpful and interesting. I also learned quite a lot from it too

  • Matthew
    Reply

    Can I start at a speed of 20% comprehension and build my way up to 100% comprehension?

  • Adam
    Reply

    I am quite shocked that some people can read at 1000 words per minute with 85 percent comprehension. That means they can read a book alot faster than me and retain memory of its vital contents. I only read at about 280 words a minute and comprehend 75 percent, thus I am a slower learner. At 44 of years of age I need to be faster especially since I am working with large volumes of reading material

  • Ed
    Reply

    I can understand the usefulness of speed reading when with material that has no point other than imparting instruction or information in the simplest sense.

    The author is saying “let me tell you how to do such and such a thing”(from algebra to changing your car’s oil) or “here is a list of potentially valuable facts.”

    Speed reading could be total poison to material that is meant to draw the reader into the feelings of the writer. I re-read the Handmaid’s Tale recently and was struck by the scenes where the main character is forced to sit in her room for hours on end and how this is driving her crazy.

    She notices the sunlight through the white curtains and the general hardness and bareness of her (involuntary) new home. She contrasts this with other rooms she’s been in that were bursting with color and possibility and which could be entered or exited at will.

    How could speed reading enhance such writing? It would be like guzzling fine wine as if it was cheap beer. And high brow literature wouldn’t be the only casualty. Humorous writing wouldn’t be very funny.

  • Jennifer
    Reply

    I really enjoyed your video + exercise. Great way to exercise your brain and enjoy reading. Speed reading is wonderful, I taught my 6 year old how to speed read when she was just a baby. Now, she can’t put down a book and reads several books at a time.
    I run an after school/tutoring center and would love any suggestions/recommendations that you may have to introduce speed reading exiting for my elementary students.
    Thank you!

  • Emilyn Kuyan
    Reply

    Hello Sir Joseph! Thank for the info’s it helps a lot in my thesis. Sir can you suggest me a question related to speed reading for SOP in thesis.

    Thank you and God bless!

  • tarun
    Reply

    Hey, are we supposed to read in our minds or out loud. Because reading out loud is pretty hard as you go higher and higher.

  • Michael
    Reply

    I enjoyed every bit of what you wrote about. This is amazingly wonderful and practicable. Speed reading can help your subconscious mind develop momentum and achieve SIGNIFICANT success.

    Is there any need to slow down the brain at all? I don’t think so. The reason is simple, our brain is capable of grasping more than we currently feed her. What do you think?

    • Joseph

      I agree with you, I am into brain exercises at Lumosity.com. I find it helps me get more done and faster. And yes there is far more capability there then I have even began to realize. I take breaks and do meditation to help reset and balance also but the rest of the time, I like to live a life of high brain stimulation. I am a little extreme but I would not change a thing :). Every hear of Lumosity?

  • Gera
    Reply

    You’re right Joseph!

    My English is improving a lot but still I’m far to read texts without finding some word to stop to see the meaning . Then dictionary to the rescue ;)

  • Gera
    Reply

    Hi Joseph,

    No doubt that speed reading is great – I tried when I was a kid, but no, – now normal reading.

    My big culprit on the speed today, isn’t the reading, is to understand most of the words of English, because my natural language is Spanish. Of course in Spanish, I’m very fast compared with English.

    As you said all the body can be trained, brain included :)

    Cheers,

    Gera

    • Joseph

      Yes with time and practice you will improve, I get students who have English as a second language. They usually have a hard time improving their speed with my class initially. But with more time and practice they do improve. Students who read a lot for their jobs and have excellent command of the English language tend to improve their reading speed a lot faster with the stuff I teach. But having gotten into blogging and meeting other bloggers like yourself, I find we do a lot of reading. I personally try to read about 25 new blog posts on various topics a day from different bloggers.

      With all said and done, I am sure your English has gotten a lot better since you began blogging am I right?

  • Cal
    Reply

    I love Spreeder. I’ve been using to a lot lately.

    I found for me, even with Spreeder sometimes, though not as much. Is I don’t have the patience to sit and read a long article, let alone a book. Even if I like it and am really into it.

    You really need some form of patience to read.

    Spreeder does help a lot with that though. The sooner it is over. The sooner I can consume the information and move on.

    • Joseph

      Yes I agree, consume the information and move on :) They have now incorporated the technology that spreeder is based on, which is called RSVP or Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to iPhone apps and it is my prediction that it will become more and more popular so that people can read faster even if they don’t like to read. Also there is less strain on the eyes with RSVP style of reading. Perhaps RSVP will be a new form of reading one day taught to young kids. I teach a weekend Speed Reading class here in Toronto Canada and everyone loves Spreeder. In fact, if you use speeder regularly you will see improvements in your reading speed. I ask all my students to use Spreeder to practice the material I teach :)

      I am not affiliated with Spreeder BTW, I just use it and recommend it a lot

      Thanks for sharing your feedback!

  • Mats
    Reply

    Great post, will try to do it regularly to see if the improvement comes. But I also signed up for your ebook, it didnt deliver, I got to signup at Aweber but after that I got just redirected back to your page, and nothing more in the mail. I hope you can fix that! ;)

    • Joseph

      Hey Mats thanks for pointing that out, I am going to fix it and send you the ebook. Sorry, I just set this site up and there are some bugs I need to work out :(

  • Cristina Ansbjerg
    Reply

    Joe,

    I learned speed and comprenhension reading in school. I don’t think they teach that anymore to kids. I was always very good at that.
    I was 9 or 10 years old and didn’t know much the value of those exercises. But my teacher always said it was very important.
    When I grew up I realized she was true.

    Cristina

    • Joseph

      Cristina,

      It’s too bad if they don’t teach that anymore :( Where are you from where they don’t teach it? Once again, love your blog!

  • Naser @ Best Tips For Blogging
    Reply

    Great tips to improve our brain, thanks for sharing dude.

    • Joseph

      You are welcome, I am going up create some more posts related to the brain soon, hope you stay tuned :)