Readers are leaders 

but when was the last time you took a reading class?

3 STEPS TO GET YOU READING FASTER: 👇

 

We learn to read when we are children, but do we learn it in an efficient way?

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could read a 350 pages book in just 60 minutes? I really think so. Books contain amazing lessons, knowledge and information that can save us a lot of time learning through trial and error.

 

By reading books we can download years of experience in a short period of time. 

 

3 STEPS TO GET YOU READING FASTER: 👇

 

1 - USE A PEN OR YOUR FINGER WHEN READING:

I know, right. We think it looks silly, we have been taught to not use a pen or a finger when we read. BUT let’s test it out.

Get someone to stand in front of you. Ask them to make a perfect circle using only their eyes. Watch their eyes as they (try) to do this. You will see that their eyes are not moving in a straight line, but rather zigzagging or jumping from point to point.

NEXT: Ask them to follow your finger while you draw a perfect circle in the air, watch their eyes again. This time you will see that their eyes are making a perfect smooth circular movement.

WHY?

Our eyes are not designed to create movement but to follow the movement. SO! Now, it isn’t silly at all to use your finger when reading. Using your finger will help your eyes to focus on the current words, rather than jumping back and forward. This tip alone can improve your reading speed with 25-100%. 

 

 

2 - READ FASTER

You might think this is a silly thing to say, we are learning to speed read, how can I just read faster?

We are often taught that if we don't understand what we are reading, then read it again, S L O W E R.

 S.    L.   O.   W.   E.   R

I'll tell you right now why this is a big mistake:

Ever tried thinking this by the end of reading a page:

"WHAT DID I JUST READ?"

Sometimes we even try again and we still don't get it. The answer here is not to read S L O W E R but rather to read faster.

When is it we begin to wander off and zone out? Is it when we are over-stimulated our under-stimulated? True, we often feel bored if we are being under-stimulated and we begin to zone out. When we read slow the brain gets bored and have lots of time to think of other things, we zone out and forget to direct our attention to what we are reading. 

 

SO Read faster, then your brain has to stay focused and it will be present with you!

 

3 - BE A CONFIDENT READER, TRUST YOURSELF

Studies show that many of us read a word and then gets worried that we didn't understand it so we read it again, we take two steps forward and one step back. constantly checking that what we thought we read was correct. This slows us down.

Become aware of this tendency and practice to stop it. Just by noticing it, you will quickly eliminate it.

The study also showed that when making the words disappears after reading it, preventing the study participants from going back reading it again, nothing was lost from the comprehension of the text. It is simply because we worry that we didn't get it right. 

 

- BONUS STEP:

I have come to know that this step is a bit controversial among speed readers. Some speed readers bow to this step and think it is very important, others don't practice it. 

Let's look at what this step is all about to understand why some are all for it and some not.

 

We are taught to read while reading out loud. It makes sense, the teacher can hear that we are reading the words correctly. 

Many of us take takes this practice internally. We read out loud inside our head. Out inner voice pronounce all the words. This is referred to as VOCALISATION.

We can comprehend information much faster than we can speak it. This is why we can listen to a podcast or a book on 1.5 speed or even faster.

So, we are slowing ourselves down by pronouncing the words inside our head. 

Therefore, some speed readers recommend stopping vocalisation, meaning, do not say the words you read inside your head. 

 

Other speed readers point to the fact that it is the movement of the mouth and jaw that slows us down when speaking. When we read out loud inside our head, we don't need to move our mouth and jaw, therefore internal vocalisation isn't slowing us down and is perfectly okay to continue. 

 

I find for myself that I can speak much faster in my head that I can out loud, but it slows me down if I try and pronounce all the words fully inside my head. It is super hard to let go of the internal voice for me, Will on the other hand has already mastered this. 

 

HOW TO STOP VOCALISATION:

While reading, count from one to ten again and again. This will help you to stop vocalisation. Whisper the numbers or repeat mentally. It can be tricky to read and count, but after a few rounds, you'll master it. Then stop the counting and see if you still are reading using vocalisation. 

 

What do you think? Do you read out loud in your head? Or are you silent?