My Favourite Speed Reading Techniques Broken Down
My Favourite Speed Reading Techniques Broken Down

My Favourite Speed Reading Techniques Broken Down


My Favourite Speed Reading Techniques Broken DownToday I would like to share with you my three favourite Speed reading techniques. One for speed, the second for comprehension and the third for retention. When we set out to read faster, we also want to make sure that we are comprehending the information better and retain it longer. After all, there isn’t any benefit to reading faster unless we are also comprehending and retaining the information better.

 

Speed Technique – Make your eyes move faster

Our eyes have the habit of fixating on moving objects. If you were standing in front of me and talking, and someone were to suddenly throw a baseball at us, your eyes would automatically pick up on the moving baseball and focus on it so you could make a quick reaction to the event. So I recommend that you take advantage of that reflex by using your finger or a pen and run it under each word you are reading, and moving a little faster than you normally would read. By doing so, your eyes will fixate on the moving pen or finger and you can use it as a guide, training them to read faster. Time yourself and see how far you can get in one minute.

Most books have about 10 words per line so if you count the amount of lines you read in one minute and multiply it by 10, you will get your average words per minute reading speed score. Even if your book does not have around 10 words per line, you can still do 1-5 minute reading increments and see how many lines you’ve read. You can then try to beat that score by adding a line or two for the next increment. With time, you will find that you will begin to get faster.

Comprehension technique – Read the first sentence of every paragraph.

If you are reading an article, you can read the first sentence of every paragraph prior to reading the entire article to help you get a good grasp of what the article is about. This also helps your brain pull out valuable bits of information about the article so it knows what to look for when you read the article in it’s entirety. Taking a minute or two to read the first sentence of every paragraph will allow you to read faster when you read the article because you will be more confident that you are comprehending better and your brain will already know what to look for.

Retention technique – Work with both sides of the brain.

Each side of our brain is responsible for different functions. The left is more involved with structure and logic and the right side is more artistic. It is important to know this so we can engage both sides to aid in retention of the information. If you draw a picture, you will engage the right side. If you take linear notes, you will engage the left. It is therefore best to engage both parts of the brain when you aiming to retain the information better.

The easiest way to do this is to draw a Mind Map of the information that you just read. Please see the image below for an example of a Mind Map and the advantages of using one. If you do not wish to Mind Map, you can always draw a quick picture with keywords popping out of it. The most important thing here is to engage both parts of the brain.

Mind Map Creation

These simple Speed Reading techniques are easy to implement and are a quick way for you to train yourself to read faster, comprehend information better, and retain it longer. The key is to practice regularly so you can get the benefits and increase your reading speed steadily.

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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.


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Comments

  • Ian Cleverdon
    Reply

    Hi Joseph – I’ve been listening to your podcasts over the last couple of days and these, combined with your blogs, are really helpful. I’ve started to learn to speed read as I am taking a post-grad diploma in Learning and Development alongside my day job and am in the slow reader category. Practising the techniques is giving me a real enjoyment out of reading which I haven’t previously had…I’ve always preferred to pick up a musical instrument! Thanks for all the tips.
    Just one improvement I would suggest – can you get the volume levels between you and Paul to be more even on the podcasts? Whoever produces them just needs to use some compression and limiting on the final mix to balance better. It’s hard to hear Paul sometimes, then you boom through :)
    Thanks again – you’re really making a difference to my reading
    Ian, Lancashire, England

    • Joseph

      Ian thank you very much for your feedback. We are in the process of revamping the podcast to make it better then ever. I am happy to hear that you have seen improvements. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do. Have a wonderful day!

  • Jesus Antonio Martinez Gzz.
    Reply

    Man this tips are awesome!!!! thank you for all of them and I like to send me more free tips for improve my speed reading on printed notes and also for reading on the computer screen. Thank you very much and congratulations for this blog :)….

    • Joseph

      Jesus,

      Glad you like them and thank you for your feedback :)