have you ever wished that you could actually read faster maybe you have a
really long list of books that you'd like to get through or have a lot of
material to cover for a research project the average person reads around 250
words per minute but it's possible to cover more than twice that while still
absorbing information effectively being able to read quickly has its perks
and it's worth spending time working on to improve your speed especially if you
read a lot now there's a number of factors that determine how quickly or
slowly you read certain habits can slow you down considerably so it's important
to break these and replace them with new or beneficial habits the first two are
the most important and will likely more than double your current reading speed
tip number one don't read one word at a time so as kids learning to read we were
taught to go one word at a time slowly covering each and every word it's an
important lesson when learning to read but continuing to read this way will
actually hold you back after years of reading we've had enough experience with
written word and it's not just necessary to read one word at a time instead of
scanning the page word by word reading groups of word if you look at one point
in a line of text you'll notice that you can read a few words at a time without
moving your eyes from that exact spot so when you're reading don't move your eyes
for each word but jump about an inch to an inch-and-a-half at each time this
could cover about five words at the same time it might feel really awkward at
first and it probably will but you can start with a smaller range covering just
two words at a time and then gradually getting up to five honestly most experts
make this way harder to do than needed and you're actually already probably
skipping the words like that and and tip number two is did not subvocal eyes many
people have a tendency to say the words that they're reading about in their head
and this is called subvocalization and it's another habit that will hold you
back this is because your brain can understand the meaning of the words
faster than you can actually say them so if you read without subvocalization you
can read twice as fast and usually faster it's unlikely that you'll be able
to completely eliminate subvocalization but you can minimize it in a couple of
ways first practice skipping words as you vocalize consider how you read large
numbers if you see the number 1789 do you say 1789 in your head or do you
interpret it without actually saying it skipping small words works in the same
way and it actually saves time we'll come back to this idea later second
enunciate less think of skimming through text when you read out loud you'll start
to mumble and then work through the words and this you can do this in your
head as well you'll also still get the satisfaction
of subvocalization but you can move through the words much faster practising
these two things will help you work toward self vocalizing less to
number two is don't reread it's normal and useful to skip back and reread
something if you realize that you've missed a detail because something isn't
making sense now in the story but rereading or regressing unnecessarily is
a common habit where we hop back to a sentence or a couple sentences before
and cover the same information a second time it's often done because we don't
trust our brain that we really caught the meaning of what we just read but
most of the time it did and there was no need to skip back rereading slows down
total reading speed not only because you're going over the same information
more than once but it also breaks the flow over your reading stories and
articles progressed in a linear fashion and reading through them smoothly helps
you get into a comfortable groove breathing just coast along following
what's being said really easily every time you stop to reread you break this
flow and it's difficult to re-establish it quickly this habit can be a bit
tricky to break because we often skip back without consciously making the
decision to we just go ahead and do it for a while you may have to consciously
focus on moving forward and resisting the urge to reread remember that this is
just to break the habit of rereading unnecessarily if you think you really
miss something important it's totally okay to go back and figure it out
these three habits are some of the biggest hindrances when it comes to
reading speed working on even one of them will make a huge difference and
working on all three will usually help you become a significantly faster reader
but reading quickly is more than what you shouldn't do there are a few things
that you should adopt that can help you too tip number four is to guide your
eyes when learning to read a lot of kids use their fingers to point at each word
as they move along if you have into this yourself as it turns out using something
to guide your eyes whether that's a finger a pin the end of your bookmark or
some similar object it can actually be helpful for reading faster for a few
reasons having an object marking your place and guiding you through the text
can improve your concentration since I prevent your eyes from drifting and
losing their place and when your eyes are used to focusing in on where the
guide is pointing or your fingers pointing you can start to move your
guide or your finger more quickly and skip along about inch and an inch and a
half each time to get your eyes into the habit of scanning faster also using your
finger prevents rereading your eyes will become accustomed to what you're
pointing at so it's less likely that you'll break eye contact with that space
and skip back to reread tip number five is to get rid of distractions
distractions are obviously going to make it more difficult to concentrate but we
often try to ignore them instead of just getting rid of them before we sit down
to read this means external and internal distractions turn off the TV ask people
not to disturb you make sure you're not hungry or needing to use the bathroom
being in an environment that is conducive to good concentration will
help you when you're practicing speed reading and you'll be better able to
understand the information the first time so you don't have to waste time
rereading tip number six is to skip words we mentioned earlier that it's
helpful to skip words when your sub focal izing but you can also skip them
altogether as you're scanning through text it's important to be selective
about which words you skip though not all words are of equal importance
smaller words are usually less important and we can usually just skip over them
without losing the entire meaning of the sentence words like to the is and a for
example are easy ones that you can skip without consequence the little words you
pass over really add up and it'll save a good chunk of time if you pay attention
to them less tip number seven is to read with a strategy approaching reading
material with a strategy will save you time by helping you focus on the
information that's important for you and leaving what isn't
this tip isn't actually really applicable to fiction since there are a
few parts that don't contribute to the overall story and they can be hard to
identify but if you're reading essays articles studies and other nonfiction
pieces consider approaching them with this method start by looking through the
whole piece to check for things like headings and bullet lists this is
something that I find really helpful you can get a pretty good idea of which
parts will be most relevant to you based on looking at these then you can decide
which sections you'll read carefully which one's your skim and which ones you
might even skip entirely this strategy isn't meant to improve your words per
minute speed but it's helpful in a time crunch so you can focus on the most
important information without wasting time reading parts that won't help you
our last tip is to use an app to practice if you want to get better at
anything you just have to practice of course you can do that on your own but
if you need more structure try downloading a speed reading app or
program they offer exercises designed to help you learn to read faster and many
allow you to import your own reading material to practice with it can be more
effective than trying to go at it alone with all this said one thing to remember
is that the purpose of reading is to take in information being expressed by
someone else if you're not absorbing much information the speed of your
reading doesn't really matter so don't sacrifice comprehension for speed if you
find that you're not able to recall much slow it down a bit don't rush yourself
because this is a learning process also it's very difficult to read more than 3x
what you're reading right now so don't fall into the trap of speed reading
gimmicks not everyone reads at the same speed but anyone can learn to improve
their own pace this process is a combination of breaking bad
it's establishing new ones and using some tips and tricks to help you along
the way it can feel really awkward at first but keep at it you've probably
been reading the same way for many years so it could take a while to change but
do not give up and you'll definitely see the improvement speaking of reading if
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ending soon thank you guys so much for watching and I hope you learned
something