Let’s face it, in today’s world we’re a slave to a few minutes of videos, and we don’t do much reading if it’s not necessary for work or school. However, the place to get lost in the pages of a book or to learn something from a real article is completely different. Many people read slowly because they have lost the habit of reading and therefore they are sick of reading. This is where speed reading techniques come into play.
Speed reading techniques actually consist of little tips that you can apply and some habits that you should avoid. Unfortunately, there is no answer like a pill to the question of what to do to read fast, but there are still some tactics that will double your reading speed over time. Let’s see what are the speed reading techniques and which habits you should give up.
Habits to avoid for speed reading:
- Do not voice what you have read.
- Do not read word for word.
- Do not read the same place over and over.
- Minimize external factors.
Do not voice what you have read:
Many people do voiceover without realizing it, even if they don’t move their lips or read aloud. In other words, the text read is re-voiced in the brain. This means that the same text is actually being read twice. This habit reduces one’s reading speed by half. You should only do some reading exercises aiming to get rid of this habit and practice not speaking from the inside. It’s a habit that, once noticed, is easily dropped with enough exercise.
Do not read word for word:
Yes, words in a text can have individual meanings, but when we look at the general, we see that the sentence made up of those words is the most meaningful. Despite this, many people read very slowly because they try to combine them in their minds by reading word for word. Instead, try to read two or three words as a block to begin with. In time, you will be able to perceive a whole sentence. Moreover, reading blocks is an effective method to blunt the habit of internal vocalization because it is much more difficult to vocalize more than one word.
Do not read the same place over and over:
Of course, no one wants to miss what the text tells the most when trying to read quickly. The important thing is to read fast and to understand at the same time. Especially when you first start speed reading exercises, sometimes you notice that a word is missing, you go back and read it again. But this spoils the whole flow and sometimes you have to reread the whole page. Although it is a habit that will pass over time, you can take a pen in your hand and use it as a marker for the first time. So you don’t miss a word. But be careful, don’t let the pen slow you down, keep it at your own pace.
Minimize external factors:
Many people turn on music in the background while they are reading, the TV is on, or they are in the middle of the noise in the middle of a cafe. If you want to read quickly and effectively, each of these not only slows down our speed, but also prevents us from understanding what we read. For this reason, it is necessary to read in an environment where external factors are minimal. Especially the habits of “I can’t read anything without music” should be abandoned as soon as possible because music, if not music without words, is one of the biggest distractions.
Speed reading techniques and tips that you can easily apply:
- Use your eye movements efficiently.
- Approach the text as a whole.
- Adjust your speed according to you.
- Read too much.
- Learn new words.
- Do long-term reading exercises.
- Approach the text tactically.
Use your eye movements efficiently:
Most of the time we take our eyes a little lightly and use it to focus on just one word or one line. However, while reading, our eyes can clearly see about 4 cm of space. 4 cm means an average of five words, sometimes a whole sentence. If we read the entire area that our eyes see instead of focusing on a single point, we can read much faster. Moreover, if we use our eye movements efficiently, this area allows us to quickly see all the text, just like the lanes we see when driving on the highway.
Approach the text as a whole:
When we look at a text, we see that it consists of words, sentences and paragraphs. Some texts have bulleted lists, bold words. If we approach word or line-oriented while reading, our reading speed will decrease considerably. Instead, we should approach the text as a whole and first take a look at the whole and grasp the shape. Our reading speed will increase when we realize that we are reading parts of the whole instead of thinking that I am reading a whole page right now.
Adjust your speed according to you:
It is estimated that the average person reads about 250 words per minute. In other words, a page is read in about 2 minutes. Of course, that’s a pretty low speed. You can increase it to 500 words per minute in a jiffy, but you can’t understand anything. That’s why you need to go step by step. You don’t need to measure with a stopwatch, but first try to read that sentence and then that paragraph quickly. Maybe you will increase your speed by only a few words per minute for a long time, but be sure that this increase will turn into a permanent speed reading habit.
Read a lot:
We are sure that many people reading this article are wondering about speed reading techniques because the exam period has started or because they want to do a heavy reading at work. Unfortunately, these techniques won’t get you speed reading in a few days. You need to make reading a habit. Just as the more we use a muscle, the more efficient we get, and the more we do in reading, the faster we read. If we think that you need to practice these exercises that we have already explained on a daily basis, you have no reason not to gain a regular reading habit.
Learn new words:
This situation can be overcome with regular reading habits, but the most important thing is to diversify what you read. If you constantly read texts with a similar theme, you will always encounter the same words, and therefore you may stumble while reading a new type of text because you cannot learn new words. Even if you don’t enjoy it, at least if you read different kinds of texts during the exercises, your vocabulary will expand and you won’t have to slow down your reading speed by seeing a word you don’t know.
Do long-term reading exercises:
If we consider the habit of regular reading as a workout, long readings are like a marathon. Of course, you don’t always need to do long readings, but you may need to read for hours during exam periods and similar situations. To be ready for these situations before the egg hits the door, push your limits from time to time and read for much longer than your normal reading time. Thus, your mind will both get used to long reading processes and after hours of fast reading, short readings will seem like child’s play to you.
Approach the text tactically:
This technique is actually valid for the texts you have prepared yourself. For example, you take notes to read later in a meeting or lecture. If you prepare these notes in the simplest sentences, in easy-to-read groups, in bold and similar ways, you will read and understand much faster. You can also apply this technique if there is a text you want to memorize.
We talked about the most effective speed reading techniques and the habits they should avoid for those who say what to do to read fast. Rome wasn’t built in a day. So be patient and practice these exercises on a daily basis. Rest assured you will see the difference soon.
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