Your Biggest Block to the Achievement of Speed Reading
Speed reading is not some magical skill that only a few elected can use.
Speed reading is actually a very simple set of techniques that everyone can learn in just a few minutes without a lot of effort; learning it requires only to apply it on a daily base.
On average, people learn to read 200-250 wpm (words per minute), a quantity that is extremely limited compared to what the brain can achieve.
This happens because of one simple reason.
We have been taught for all of our life to read out loud our text, thinking that you actually need to read ALL of the words to understand a text.
This is actually a misconception because about 30% of the words are just conjunctions that add no real value to the understanding of the text.
You can actually understand over the 70% of a text reading only the 30% of the words.
By reading out loud our books as children, we learned with time to subvocalize words (that is, reading out loud the words in your mind while reading).
This slows down a lot the comprehension of the text.
Studies have demonstrated that the human brain can think up to 1000 images in one minute without loss of comprehension.
Reading while voicing the words in our mind is like wanting to travel with a car with the brakes all pushed down.
How can you lose the bad habit of subvocalizing what you are reading? It is actually more simple than what you think
Cultivate it and with time you will appreciate the result.
Speed reading is actually a very simple set of techniques that everyone can learn in just a few minutes without a lot of effort; learning it requires only to apply it on a daily base.
On average, people learn to read 200-250 wpm (words per minute), a quantity that is extremely limited compared to what the brain can achieve.
This happens because of one simple reason.
We have been taught for all of our life to read out loud our text, thinking that you actually need to read ALL of the words to understand a text.
This is actually a misconception because about 30% of the words are just conjunctions that add no real value to the understanding of the text.
You can actually understand over the 70% of a text reading only the 30% of the words.
By reading out loud our books as children, we learned with time to subvocalize words (that is, reading out loud the words in your mind while reading).
This slows down a lot the comprehension of the text.
Studies have demonstrated that the human brain can think up to 1000 images in one minute without loss of comprehension.
Reading while voicing the words in our mind is like wanting to travel with a car with the brakes all pushed down.
How can you lose the bad habit of subvocalizing what you are reading? It is actually more simple than what you think
- Start thinking for images - do not try to analyze every word, just let them pass under your eyes and build a mental image.
- Read faster - if you oblige yourself to read faster than you are actually able to, you stop a lot of the subvocalization for the simple reason that your brain cannot do it in the short time you give it
- Relax - do not overdo it.
It is not a skill you learn overnight, it is totally normal to not be able to do it at first. - Practice - with a daily practice, your reading speed will skyrocket in no time.
In less than one month you will be able to read at least 500 words per minute without much conscious effort, and that is about the double of average reading speed!
Cultivate it and with time you will appreciate the result.