What is speed reading and how to master this skill

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Many people think about speed reading, but not everyone dares to use it in their lives. There are many articles on the Web claiming that speed reading does not work, and various success stories. Whom to believe? The CEO has figured out the issue and provides work advice on how to master the useful speed reading skill.

Speed reading and its types

The easiest way to compare speed reading with eating food. Just as we consume proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins, we use written information. By reading quickly, we shorten the "lunch time", but in some cases it doesn't make sense.

Besides calories and nutritional value, there are many other pleasures in food. We are not trying to swallow at speed a restaurant dish prepared by a chef, decorated according to all the rules on a served table. Reading fiction at a high speed looks just as strange, unless you are, of course, a philology student who needs to download a long list of literature in a semester.

Speed reading is needed for business purposes, for educational purposes. When we say "reading" in this article, we mean reading educational or business literature, professional texts and news. The average reading speed of an ordinary person is about 800 characters per minute, taking into account the memorization coefficient. How much can it be increased?

Business speed reading is also different:

• Analytical - the hardest part. It is necessary to master and understand new paradigms, principles, approaches. For this information, the structure of assimilation has not yet been formed, we do not know how to use it and how to classify it. This is the slowest reading because this information needs to be seriously considered. My speed is 3,100 characters per minute.
• Introductory - simple and straightforward reading. We already have a system of knowledge on this subject in our head, we just add new facts, concepts and points of view. This also includes all news and stories. Fast reading. One and a half to two times faster than the analytical one. My speed is 4,800 characters per minute.
• Search engine - the fastest reading. Search for the necessary information in a large array of text. Suitable for restoring knowledge in the head. High-speed reading, 4-5 times faster than analytical. My speed is 14,000 characters per minute.

The advantages seem to be obvious. Reduced speed - taking into account the memorization coefficient. After each test, questions are asked to check what information is left in the head.

Given these objective advantages of speed reading, I come across "evidence" that it does not work. Unfortunately, these statements are promoted by people who either do not know speed reading, or tried to master it, but could not. Classic story: "I have not read Pasternak, but I condemn."

What to do to love speed reading

Imagine a preschooler who intelligently claims that reading by syllables is a much more mindful approach than reading by words. It allows you to thoughtfully perceive each word, listen to its sound. Funny? This is how a person looks who proves that slow reading is better than speed reading.

Of course, speed reading won't work if you learn to simply absorb the text. To read quickly, the ability to quickly load text into the brain is not enough. Speed reading is a set of skills for processing written information. What else do you need to be able to make speed reading become a useful and favorite tool for you?

Ask questions

A basic skill, without which it is generally useless to read. You need to prepare for reading. If we read without question, then the information has nothing to cling to, it passes us by. Questions are hooks that we place in the path of information. Our task is to catch the meanings. Thanks to the questions, we immerse ourselves in reading consciously, focusing not on the process, but on the goal.

Ask yourself, “What do I want to find in this book? What actions am I going to take after reading it? What do I want to learn to do differently? What am I missing?"

Train your memory

The amount of information that remains in the head does not depend on the reading speed. Therefore, the statement sounds strange that after speed reading, little information settles in the head. Let me ask you, how much did we remember from the last business book we read at normal speed? Will we be able to retell its content or main theses? For information to fit in your head, you need to develop memory.

There are hundreds of exercises that help us keep new knowledge in our heads. There are mechanics that fix new words, images, data.

Train, even if you are not going to master speed reading: a strong memory will always help in life. Make the "30 seconds" exercise a habit: learn to formulate the key messages of any communication in 30 seconds.

So your attention will always be focused on remembering important meanings and linking them to the existing system of knowledge.

Concentrate on the text

Our mental capacity at the moment has a limit. We can keep a limited number of thoughts in our head. Usually, reading slows down and memorization decreases, because we are constantly distracted by extraneous thoughts. If we learn to control external stimuli and concentrate on the text, then much more information will remain in our head.

Attention is scattered when we are either bored or anxious. To concentrate attention, you need to get out of this state.

The rest of the concentration exercises can be easily found in the literature and on the Internet.

Think in parallel

We all have rudimentary two-channel thinking. We can talk on the phone and think about where to turn at an intersection. We can make plans for tomorrow and cook dinner. But we do not develop this ability, but we can use it to its fullest: simultaneously read and ponder the text at high speed. If you read quickly, but do not have time to think it over, then, of course, you lose the meaning of what you have written.

Try reading two books in parallel: a paragraph from one, a paragraph from the other. Hold two threads of narration in your head at the same time.

Over time, you will upgrade the second channel of thinking, and when reading one book, you will have the opportunity to read and think at the same time.

Go back to what you read

What if the information is too difficult to comprehend on the go? We usually stop and think about an incomprehensible text. Such stops slow down reading in general, because you need to accelerate from zero every time. At the same time, we are all familiar with the principle of Tetris, when continuous actions become faster and faster. How not to lose speed or information?

Speed reading for me is reading with a pencil. No need to stumble over every interesting thought, and then accelerate again. It is enough to mark interesting places in the fields that require reflection and return to them after the “speed approach”.

Sift the text of the book through your questions. When you come across answers that need to be pondered, just mark them, you do not need to ponder right away. Re-read them later - this way you will spend much less time.

Use the information received

This is a continuation of the previous rule. The overwhelming majority of readers do not return to the material they have read, do not use it in life. They read a lot, but do little. For such people, speed reading will not help until they change their behavior.

Few of us turn information into results. It doesn't matter how fast a book, article or news item was read. We suffer from information obesity: we receive information and do not use it, we do not turn it into knowledge and action. It looks like a person who absorbs sweets and starchy foods, receives huge doses of energy, while he sits on the couch. But there are people with a high metabolism: even if he eats a chocolate bar at night, he will not have anything to deposit anywhere.

How to increase information metabolism? It is necessary to apply in practice the chain of information transformation. The reading should make sense.

• Information that has not become knowledge is meaningless. Questions turn information into knowledge, we started with this rule.
• Knowledge that has not become an action has no meaning. Knowledge turns purpose into action. What do we want to change with the help of information, what to achieve?
• An action that has not become a useful result is meaningless. Will and discipline turn action into results. Create your habits.
• An unsatisfying result is meaningless. Values turn results into satisfaction. Is the result obtained in line with our intrinsic values?

If there is a need for specific information, purpose and value, then speed reading is a necessary and useful skill. If you are ready to process and absorb a large number of meanings, then you will need to be able to read quickly.

To read quickly, you need to be able to:

1. To ask questions.
2. Memorize.
3. Concentrate.
4. Think in parallel.
5. Return to what you read.
6. Use information.