How to Read Faster While Reading Well

This weekend I attended The Iris Reading Speed Reading course, which I purchased from Groupon. While reflecting on what I learned at the Iris Reading course and the High Speed Learning course which I attended a few years ago, I have some thoughts about reading faster without sacrificing comprehension.

Three Habits Acquired When We Learned to Read

1. Regression: We learned to read from left to right, one word at a time
2. Fixation: We focus on one word at a time and break down monosyllabic words into syllables
3. Sub-vocalization: We read phonectically, breaking down the words in our minds first before we move on to the next

We learn best when we are in a happy, relaxed environment. The Alpha Brainwave State is best for optimal learning.

To Go into Alpha Brainwave State

• Sit down in a comfortable position
• Close you eyes and let all thoughts drift away
• Take a few deep breaths, breathing deep into your lungs by flexing your diaphragm (you know that you are breathing deeply when your stomach pushes out when you are inhaling)
• With your eyes still closed, look upwards as if you’re focusing on the point between your eyebrows
• When you feel a slight pressure, start counting down slowly from ten to one
• When you reach one, you are now in the alpha state
• Relax for a few more minutes

• You are now ready to focus on the task at hand

Basic Rules of Reading Faster

• Read groups of words at a time
• Never read over what you have already read. Trust that your subconscious will get the gist, and later fill in the blanks
• Move a finger or pen beneath the line you are reading, in a left to right manner, to force you to read faster

Daily Drills to Read Faster

Like any new technique, you become better with practice. There are online tools called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP), which are designed to help you read faster. Using RSVP tools, you can quickly increase your reading speed by practicing a few drills online every day for a few minutes. Some of these RSVPs allow you to use your own reading material, which is simply gold for people who read a lot online. They are also good for people who are dyslexic because the words are flashed on screen in the sequence they should be read.

1. Spreeder.com – very versatile: you can set the number of words you’d like to read at time, the speed at which you’d like to read (number of words per minute), and you can copy and paste your own reading material
2. Readability.com – extension for Firefox and Google Chrome, which clears away the clutter from web pages, and allows you to read faster without unnecessary distractions
3. Reasy – extension for both Firefox and Google Chrome. When you install, highlight the article or page you’d like to read online, the Reasy presentation pops up and you click to start reading)

Process to Read Faster While Reading Well

Before you read, think about why you are reading. Are you reading for entertainment, information or to further knowledge? If you are reading for entertainment, the last thing you want to do is to speed read, and miss out on the wonderful imagery in that romance novel or murder mystery. However, if you are reading for information or to further your knowledge, speed reading is the way to go since at least fifty percent of the information is not important.

• Go into Alpha Brainwave State

• Preview
  • For a magazine article – read the first and last paragraph
  • For a journal article – read the abstract, in addition to the first and last paragraph
  • For a book:
    • Read the description of the book that’s given
    • Flip through the book several times using your index finger to move through the pages. If you miss a few pages, keep going until the end. And while you are flipping through the book a few times, make sure that you also do it with the book upside down a few times. (I learned this process in the High Speed Learning Course I took with Lydia Danner, and it works for some reason)
    • If it’s a textbook or one filled with diagrams, look at the chapter titles, all the headings in the book, the words in bold, all diagrams, then flip through the entire book
  • Create a mind map of what you have learned so far
• Overview
  • For an article – read the first sentence of each paragraph, remembering to read groups of words at a time
  • For a book – read the first sentence of each chapter, then glide your finger down the middle of the page
  • Build on the mind map that you have created
• Read
  • Read group of words at a time and use a pencil on your finger to force you to read faster
  • For a book, spend roughly 30 seconds on each page
  • For a two-page magazine article, spend approximately six and a half minutes, reading 400 words per minute
  • Complete the mind map, which is a good refresher for what you have read

What tips do you use to read faster without sacrificing comprehension? How can you use this information? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Image Credit: Flickr

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