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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Train your eyes and brain to read faster by eliminating sub vocalization (silently pronouncing each word), reducing wasted eye movements with a pointer, and using the "midline anchor" peripheral-vision drill to expand your field of view. The speaker says this took his reading speed from the 600s to about 1,000 words per minute with full comprehension, though the video does not show independent verification of the result.
Key Points
- Sub vocalization caps reading speed at roughly speaking speed (about 150 words per minute), so reducing the internal voice is the first step.
- Eye regressions (jumping back to reread) and skipped motion break reading momentum; a pointer keeps eyes locked in and moving forward.
- The midline anchor drill trains peripheral vision to absorb words outside a central focus line rather than following each line left to right.
- The speaker reports a baseline of about 600 words per minute before training, and a final test result he describes as about 1,000 words per minute at full comprehension.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Sub vocalization drills: read while chewing gum to occupy the speech system, or read while humming or counting numbers in your head.
- Pointer method: use a finger or pointer under the text as you read, so your eyes follow a steady path with less wasted movement.
- Midline anchor setup: print pages or mark up a book, then draw two vertical margins one word in from each side of the page.
- Progression: read each line aloud, starting and ending at the margins while looking only at the center, reading the outer words by peripheral vision alone.
- Narrowing: once a full page is comfortable, move the margins in by one more word and repeat, continuing until the margins are very narrow.
- Final stage: run the pointer straight down the center of the page and let eyes absorb each line in chunks around the centerline.
- Comprehension check: read aloud during early practice to confirm you are truly processing the outer words.
- The speaker says the speed reading class he took on Skillshare broke the skill into trainable parts. Skillshare sponsored the video.
- The speaker notes that reading at high speed for pleasure is unrealistic; he frames the skill as useful for fast skimming when needed.
- The speaker states that practice is for building the skill; he does not describe a set number of minutes per day or weeks of practice.
Bottom Line
Reading faster is mostly about removing habits that slow you down, such as inner speech and eye movement, and then training peripheral vision, with the speaker's own claimed results serving as one example rather than proof.
