How to Double Your Reading Speed

Many people love to read, but in some cases, it's just a chore. For example, lots of individuals have to read as part of their employment. From reviewing technical manuals to physically editing texts, many people often think that their lives would be easier if they could read faster. It can be easy to read quickly, skipping words and all that, but are you retaining the information that you're reading? You can learn to double your reading speed and still retain the information that you've read. Learning to read faster doesn't have to be a big deal. Sure, you could spend thousands on a speed reading course and a tutor, but you can teach yourself how to do it and learn in only a few minutes. Let's look at the methods.

The first technique is a speed reading technique and it trains your eyes to focus on what you're reading instead of back tracking. When you're reading, take a bookmark, or any folded piece of paper to the width of the page you're reading. Place the bookmark just above the first line of text that you'll be reading. Read that line and move the bookmark down to cover that line and keep reading. As you read lines, lower the bookmark immediately to cover the words you just read. This will have you reading twice as fast immediately. The background of the concept is this - most people back track and re-read the lines they've just read. It's a way of retaining information, and, unfortunately, it is a reading speed killer. It slows everyone down immensely and just by preventing yourself from back tracking while you are reading, you will double your reading speed.

The bookmark focuses your attention on the text you're reading, and not only does this increase your speed, but it ensures that you are reading the right line and getting the information in that line instead of re-reading the line above. You can push yourself to read faster by moving the bookmark quicker, forcing you to make the end of the line before you've completely covered the words.

Once you've broken the habit of back tracking, you can increase your speed further. That leads to the second method. Learning to see words in groups will also increase your speed. You'll notice that you can read magazines and papers much faster than a book - this is due to the fact that newspapers and magazines text is in columns that are shorter, allowing you to see the text all at one glance. You can learn to group words by using a similar technique as the bookmark, with a few changes.

Use a magazine or newspaper that has columns for the text. Cut a hole in the bookmark approximately one line high and about three words long. Use this to read through, moving the bookmark as you've read the words. This helps you to focus on words in groups of three instead of each word individually. As your reading speed increases, you can cut the hole bigger. The process of this is so that your brain doesn't feel the need to read the entire line all at once, thereby forcing you to focus on one word at a time. Eventually, as the hole gets bigger in your bookmark, you'll focus on a group of words that is longer and longer, with the goal being able to read an entire line at one glance. This works best with magazines and newspapers to start and graduating to books as you learn to read an entire newsprint line at once.