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How to Increase Reading Speed

How to increase reading speed? Effective speed reading techniques can increase reading speed. Whether you want to read more or just get through your reading quicker, speed reading can be beneficial.

Reading can be time-consuming. Average reading speed is 200-350 words per minute, depending on the content and experience of the reader.

And this is with a comprehension of about 60%!

Did you know that you could read much quicker and with more higher comprehension?

Top speed readers can read up to a 1,000 words per minute with up to 85% comprehension rates!

how to increase reading speed

Learning how to increase reading speed has become big business with authors writing books, companies selling speed reading courses, and entrepreneurs developing specialized speed reading software.

Before you hand over your hard-earned cash to lean how to increase reading speed, why not check out these effective speed reading techniques?

Benefits of learning to increase the speed of your reading

Do you only glance at documents, knowing that you should be reading with more care?

Do you want to spend more time doing other things?

Do you want to read more in your specialized area?

Whatever your reading goals, speed reading techniques help you to achieve them.

In the last 20 years there has been an explosion in technology with the rise of computers and the Internet. With this technological revolution has come a need to retrieve and take-in much more information than ever before.

Taming the Email

Each day we read thousands of words of email, from our boss and colleagues. While email etiquette helps to tame the Inbox, speed reading techniques are also helpful.

The average manager today needs to read 4 times more material than their equivalent a generation ago!

Learning how to increase reading speed allows you to meet your tight deadlines, stay up-to-date in your area, spend more time with your family and achieve work life balance, and have more freedom to do what you want.

How to Increase Reading Speed

Most speed reading techniques focus on three things. These are:

Increase Reading Speed

Hypnosis appeals to the same part of the brain that is used by top speed readers and therefore is the ideal tool to optimize your speed reading.

Download the Speed Reading hypnotic session and get on the fast track to learning.

  1. increase the amount of words in each block
  2. reduce fixation time on the group of words
  3. reduce skip-backs over material you have already read.

Learning how to increase reading speed involves mastering one or more of these three speed reading techniques.

Speed Reading Technique 1: Increase the amount of words in each block

At school you were often told what to read - but rarely were you told how to read.

I remember my 3rd grade teacher telling me "Kell, you need to read every word" as I stumbled over every word.

As adults, many empathize with learning to read word-by-word or letter-by-letter as a child.

Have a General Overview of Content

You increase reading speed by having a general overview of the content you are reading.

By scanning the table of contents or a document summary and knowing the information you want to glean from the report allows you to extract the essential facts.

As an adult, your reading changed - but retain the habit of reading in blocks of words.

As you are reading these words focus on your eye movements!

Your eyes are probably taking in a couple of words each time and then moving to the next block.

One key point of learning how to increase reading speed involves increasing the number of words you read in each block.

A skilled reader reads many words in each block.

Set a reading goal to expand the words in your reading block. Set reading goals with these tips on how to set goals.

As you increase the number of words in your reading blocks the speed of your reading increases.

Tip 1: Use your hand as a guide. As your hand moves, your eyes will follow.

Tip 2: Hold the book a little further away from your eyes than you normally do.

Speed Reading Technique 2: Reduce fixation time on the group of words

As your eyes move across each block of words you spend probably 1/4 of a second to comprehend the words in the block before moving onto the next block.

Minimize Distractions for Speed Reading

Normal reading is difficult with distractions.

But speed reading is next to impossible with distractions.

Find a quiet place or a regular reading spot to reduce external distractions. Internal distractions may also exist - thinking about the conversation with your friend or the movie you are going to see later today may be an internal distraction that makes speed reading difficult.

Read with purpose and motivation to reduce internal distractions.

One method to learn how to increase reading speed is to reduce your fixation time on the reading block.

You do this by focusing on the key words in the sentence and reducing your time on conjunctions, prepositions, or articles (an, but, and, or, the...).

This separates the wheat from the chaff!

Set reading goals that push you to reduce your fixation time. With practice and increased confidence your reading speed will increase.

Speed reading technique 3: Reduce skip-backs

Do you get to the end of the paragraph and realize that you have to re-read passages?

Perhaps it is just the sentence that you need to re-read.

These skip-backs slow your reading speed!

Whether it is your wandering mind or the eye movements that hover and quickly re-adjust over words - reducing the time you spend re-reading paragraphs and/or sentences increases reading speed.

I find that using a pencil, my hand, or a reading pointer is a helpful way to focus my eyes and concentration on the block of words I am reading.

Reading exercise 1. To avoid re-reading sentences or paragraphs, take a sheet of paper and, as you read, make the sheet of paper trail your reading.

Move the paper down slowly and increase the speed as you gain confidence.

Stop Reading to Yourself

Do you notice your lips moving as you read reports? Perhaps you pronounce the words in your head as you read.

Most of us do in varying degrees!

This subvocalization hampers reading speed.

Speed reading techniques often try to reduce this subvocalization.

Often, just being aware of subvocalization is helpful.

One tip to reduce sub-vocalization is to count to 10 repeatedly as you read - but this can hamper reading comprehension!

These speed reading techniques can be helpful to increase reading speed.

Also speed reading software or speed reading machines complement these reading strategies and develop speed reading confidence.

This is where a good course on speed reading is useful!

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