If you want to have more time for what you really like, improving your reading speed can be an essential part. In particular, a large part of your everyday life or work-life involves a lot of reading. Here I will describe some examples of how a faster reading speed can improve your performance overall and how it can free up more time for what you really want to do. You will also get some tips on how you can dramatically increase your reading speed through exercises.
How a faster reading speed can improve your life
Reading faster without missing information increases your efficiency. It’s easy to understand. But what can it mean in practice? Let’s pretend that you read texts (emails, newspapers, articles online, reports, etc.) for 3 hours. If you increase your reading speed by 10%, you only need 2 hours and 44 minutes to assimilate the same information. Then it’s up to you how you want to use the 16 minutes you “got over.” You can use them to rehearse the information you read, you can take a little extra break, you can plan the rest of the day, or just do something enjoyable. If you instead increase your reading speed by 25%, it means 36 minutes extra time. You get a whole hour extra if you train your reading ability so much that you read 50% faster. Some claim that you can increase your reading speed by over 300% (In the current case, you could thus manage 3 hours of reading in 1 hour! Can you understand how much more you could get out of life? Or how much more could you learn?
Benefits of increasing reading speed
We have already touched on the benefits of reading faster. The most obvious is that you free up time. But it’s not just about time savings.
Increasing the speed of reading without losing quality requires focus and is a tremendous challenge for the brain. When you read at high speed, the brain gets a bigger challenge, and it works harder. You also exercise the brain’s memory capacity.
The more efficient your reading becomes, the more fun the reading becomes. There is a good chance you will learn more. Perhaps you find a new interest? It may also lead you to take on further education or even a new career.
But whatever a higher reading speed may lead you to, a faster reading speed will undoubtedly lead to you becoming more efficient and releasing more free time.
Speed Reading Step-by-Step
In this section, I’ll explain a simple but effective speed reading technique step-by-step. Don’t be surprised if you increase your reading speed by 50%, on the first attempt.
Increasing the reading speed is one of the easiest and best things you can do. As I described earlier, it can mean that you can learn more, get more done, and get more free time. The brain is activated and trained and becomes even brighter is one of several positive side effects. How do you do then? Do you have to pay a lot of money to take an online course? No, certainly not. The method you find below takes a few minutes to complete and is completely free. I will be surprised if you do not increase your reading speed by at least 15%.
When I tested the method, I increased my reading speed by 34% directly, without practice. This means that I can complete four hours of reading in just three hours. Or that I can read 4 books instead of 3!
Do not see reading speed as a competitive discipline. Practicing reading speed is one way to give yourself a more stress-free life, create space and time to do fun things, or improve yourself in new interests and topics. If you do not want to, you do not need to measure your reading speed. You will notice for yourself that it will go faster. But I and most others still see a point in sometimes measuring the speed because you can easily see the improvement in results and efficiency.
Preparation
- Measure your current reading speed: To get extra motivation to work with your reading speed, we start by measuring your current reading speed. Pick out a book that is without pictures and bulleted lists. The pages should preferably be covered with text.
- Count the words in the first four lines.
- Divide the number of words by four.
- Count the number of rows on a page.
- Then multiply the number of lines by the number of words per line. You’ll now get the number of words per page (Words per page).
Bring out a stopwatch (maybe your phone has got one).
Measure your reading speed
Measure how long it takes for you to read three pages. Write down how many minutes and seconds it took. Divide the result by three.
The Speed Reading Method
Most people who have not trained their reading speed (including me) read word for word, from left to right. This is normal. But it is not particularly effective. As you probably know, we do not only see what we look at. We see quite a lot around the focus point. It is this ability that we must use.
Instead of reading from the first to the last word on each line, start a bit in and start on the next line when you have a small bit left on the line. For example, If you have 10 words per line, you can start reading on word number 3 and end the line when you read word number 8. You will notice that you still absorb words 1-2 and 9-10.
Measure your new faster reading speed
Measure your reading speed again. Take out the timer and measure how long it takes to read the text using the new technology you have just learned. Read the same number of pages as you read the first time. You can compare the word per minute rate or the same number of pages (in the same book). When measuring the improvement I prefer comparing the same number of pages in the same book. If you compare WPM (words per minute) when reading a difficult scientific report to the WPM in an engaging novel, the two rates are probably not comparable.
Calculate your reading speed improvement in percentages
With this simple calculator, you can see how many percentages you have improved your reading speed.
Further improvements of the reading speed
Once you get used to and train your reading speed with the help of this technique, you can improve further. The method trains the brain to capture information outside the focus point you are currently looking at. In the next step, you can start reading from word number 4 and go to the next line after getting to word number 7.
There are several other methods to increasing your reading speed. One popular method I use to practice is “skimming.” This isn’t actually speed reading. It is more a way of fast repeating a text you already know. The best combination, in my opinion, is to use speed reading for comprehension and skimming for repeating the information.