This is the full third chapter of my book on Awesomeness: An Amateur Potpourri of a How-To-Guide.
See part 2: Single tasking, here.
Speed Reading
Speed reading may very well be the best thing since sliced bread. Or for paleo enthusiasts such as myself, sliced meat, I guess. In my own experience, I have at least doubled and possibly tripled my reading speed allowing me to plow through books at a rate I could not have imagined before. Indeed, I read more than twice as many books in 2014 than I did in 2013.
The process is rather simple, although it is a bit awkward at first and takes a little time to get used to. Luckily there are only two major points:
Use a pen or similar object to track along each line: This keeps your eyes moving along with the pen and prevents them from backtracking instead of moving in a consistent linear motion. As H. Bernard Wechsler notes in Speed Reading for Professionals, “Studies have demonstrated that college graduates tend to backtrack about twenty times per page.”[1]
Don’t pronounce the words in your mind: We all naturally pronounce the words we read in our heads in what’s called subvocalization. However, we all have the ability to recognize words without subvocalization and can do so much quicker than we can pronounce them. So if you learn to read using simple recognition, you can drastically increase your speed.
Some other tips I’ve heard include using your peripheral vision to read the edges of the page to limit the distance your eyes have to move and even learning to lump certain common phrases together. For example, Tim Ferriss makes the case that,
“You must use conditioning drills to increase horizontal peripheral vision span and the number of words registered per fixation. Untrained subjects use central focus but not horizontal peripheral vision span during reading, foregoing up to 50% of their words per fixation (the number of words that can be perceived and “read” in each fixation).”[2]
I don’t use these methods, and I certainly haven’t found them necessary. Although, I do believe they could aid in helping me read even faster. That being said, I’ve been able to speed read without reducing my comprehension, but when I’ve tried to add this element, it’s been harder to retain what I’ve read. And of course, what’s the point of reading in the first place if you’re not going to remember anything? That would be like high school all over again.
When starting out, I would read two to four pages with speed reading and then take two pages off and just read them normally. This way, I didn’t wear myself out or lose interest in the project entirely as it’s not easy when starting. As time went on it became more and more natural and I had to take fewer and fewer “breaks.”
That being said, I don’t always speed read and you should feel no need to always do it. I don’t hold a pen up to my computer monitor when reading an email. And if I’m just relaxing on the beach with some book, I don’t usually feel the need to speed read. It’s not a “have to” type of thing, but it certainly comes in handy. Remember, reading should be enjoyable.
If you are interesting in learning this technique, I would definitely recommend Tim Ferriss’ article and practice methods in his article “Scientific Speed Reading” on his website FourHourWorkWeek.com.*
[1] H. Bernard Wechsler and Arthur Bell, Speed Reading for Professionals, Barron’s Business Success Series, January 1, 2006, Pg. 29
[2] Tim Ferriss, “Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes”, The Blog of Tim Ferris, http://fourhourworkweek.com/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/, July 30, 2009
*A quick note, Tim Ferris’ The Four Hour Work Week is one of the best and also one of the worst books ever written. It’s ideas on ways to save time and delegate are great (particularly the concept) but a lot of people seemed to have taken it as an excuse to delegate everything and simply try to live off of other’s efforts. I have seen this myself more than once. Please, for the love of God. Don’t be one of those people.
You can find the book here.
And the audiobook here.
And if you like the book, please subscribe to my YouTube channel as well