Reading speed Read faster and save time

Reading speed
Read faster and save time

Reading speed dictates how fast you are able to get though the vast amount of material that we all have to read every day. If you can improve your reading speed you’ll get through information more quickly.  With so much to read in today’s information world this is an excellent way to improve your time management.

Speed Reading

I first came across speed reading when I was in University.  It seemed pretty attractive.  I had loads of material to read every day.  I thought this would be a great way to get through all the work I had.  Unfortunately the first book I read on it wasn’t very helpful.  I ended up working at it for a while and then I gave up frustrated.  I passed all my exams pretty well so I didn’t think anything more about it.

The next time I looked into improving my reading speed was during my MBA course.  At undergraduate level my course was mostly mathematics so although I’d had a lot to read it was mostly formula and theories not text.  My MBA was very different.  Now I needed the ability to read lots of text.  I needed to be able to understand what the Gurus in various subjects were thinking.  The only way to tackle this was to read essay after essay.

I quickly realised that there was no way that I could get through all the material.  At this point I started to think about speed reading again.  My memories were pretty sharp of my last failed attempt.  So I decided that I really needed to undertake a lot more research before trying again.

Surprisingly I couldn’t find many books on the subject of speed reading.  This was before the advent of Amazon and my local library didn’t carry many.  However I did find a few and gradually managed to understand what I was supposed to do.

Over time I practised and eventually I managed to become faster at reading.  I could scan text quickly and I retained a fair bit of the information.  Now many years later I still retain the skills I developed and actually over time I’ve really speeded up.

Speed reading is not difficult to learn.  The theory is pretty simple.  What my experiences taught me however is that it is difficult to perfect.  So when you start out on this journey set realistic expectations.  Instead of thinking I want to be able to read a book in two hours you should think about doubling your current reading speed.

Once you’ve doubled your speed and you’re sure you can do this consistently then start to focus on doubling your speed again.  Get consistent at each level before moving up to the next level.  After a while you’ll find that you don’t see any point in improving your speed.  At that point you should stop and simply focus on making sure you maintain your speed.

Speed Testing

Before learning how to improve your speed I suggest you take the following short speed reading test.  It’s worth finding out what your speed is before learning speed reading skills.  In this way you can be sure that any speed improvement is due to the techniques and your ability, rather than luck.

The test is pretty easy.  You simply need to time yourself reading the next passage.  The passage is 121 words long.  Read it through timing how long it takes.  Next calculate the number of words per minute you were reading.  This is your current reading speed.

So break out your stop watch and let’s start.

If you’ve timed yourself you’re probably wondering whether the time you achieved is a good time or not.  I’m going to resist the temptation to tell you what I think a good time is.  To improve reading speed you shouldn’t think in terms of what other people can do but instead think of what you can do.  Store away the number you have and work on improving it.

Now it's time to learn the method of speed reading.  Follow this link to part two: reading speed: methods.