digest
I'd like to introduce you to the person that changed my life in primary school. I used to have a speech impediment because I couldn't pronounce the words. I couldn't understand them, therefore my reading speeds suffered, and before I knew it, reading was my biggest fear. But this woman right here saw that I had a problem and prioritized taking me to speech therapy every week, even if that meant she could never take me on a holiday. This woman is my mother, and here is why.
I started my 15-year speed-reading journey. Fast-forward to today: I now have an accelerated reading speed of 1,500 words per minute, which is seven times faster than the average untrained reader. I've taught over 2,000 people from over a hundred countries. But speed reading isn't a superpower which only a very few of us could have. Just like any skill, it can be learned, and it's easy when you know how. First, you need an open mindset. There is no such thing as a bad reader, just those with bad reading habits. Once you know what habits are holding your reading speed back, it's a lot easier to read faster.
Now, the problem is information overload. The reason is that many of us in this room haven't had a class called reading since we were 12. Yet every other subject, such as maths and science, has progressively gotten harder, and we're forced to keep up with this information overload with the reading skills of a 12-year-old. By the end of today, everyone in this room will leave with some of the speed-reading techniques that I have learned, which will help you read not only faster but more effectively. But first, let's take a look at those bad habits.
Bad habit number one: subvocalization. Subvocalization is that little voice in your head that you use from time to time when you read. From a young age, many of us are taught to read aloud, and as we progress, we then read inside our heads. At least, I was. Studies have shown the average talking speed is 250 words per minute, so it's no surprise that the average reading speed is between 200 and 250 words per minute. The average untrained reader can only read as fast as they can talk. So if we want to read faster, we must start to see the words as opposed to hear them, and we do this already. Picture this: when you see a stop sign, the word "stop" is clearly printed. We don't read the word "stop" aloud; we understand the meaning of the word, therefore we only see it.
But how do we reduce our subvocalization? We need to distract our brain by using small distractions. Tip number one: press the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. This has two reasons. It will stop you mouthing the words as you're reading, and it will also create a small distraction for your brain, not so large that it will take your mind away from the focus.
Tip number two: your environment is key. Have you ever noticed, when you walk into a coffee shop, that sometimes you see people working, and it's not because of the good coffee? It's because coffee shops have learned to create an environment which is optimum for productivity. The environment is not too loud, where you get distracted by what's going on around you, nor too quiet, where your brain begins to wander. The key is to get the brain into a state of relaxation, whether that's listening to music without lyrics, such as classical music, or studying in a spot which is consistent and personable to you. The key is consistency.
Bad habit number two: regression. By a show of hands, who in here has got to the end of a page and forgotten what they just read, or even worse, the end of a sentence? Myself included. Naturally, we go back to the top of the page, hoping this time somehow the information goes in. But the reason is that the author often has to give context, so by the time our eyes have reached the key points, we're exhausted. Picture this: you're watching a movie, and you're a couple of scenes in and it doesn't quite make sense, almost like you've missed a couple of key scenes. Then suddenly it clicks, it all makes sense, and you understand why the movie was set out the way it was. The reason for this is not a lack of understanding but more so a lapse of concentration. One way we can improve our concentration is by becoming an active reader. When our brain wanders, it's because we've become passive. One of the most common questions children ask is "why?" Why do we have to do this, why do we have to do that? We need to be curious to find a good answer, and we must have good questions. So while reading, have good general questions at the front of your mind, such as: how long will this take me to read, what am I looking for, and what key figures and words do I need to find?
Tip number two: gliding. You will need to use an object, such as a credit card or any piece of object that you can use to cover up the sentence you've just read. The great thing about gliding is that it removes your safety net to reread the sentence you've just read, meaning you've got to pay attention to the sentence you're reading, because you know there's no way you can go back.
Bad habit number three: fixations. Fixations are where your eyes are still on the page. On average, an untrained reader has between 10 and 15 fixations per line. Read this sentence for me. Just take your time, there's no rush, I'm not testing you. To improve the number of fixations that you make, the first tip is to use a pacer. You can either use your hand or your pen to underline the sentence as you're reading. This is set to the average reading speed of 250 words per minute, and the great thing about the pacer is two things: one, it maintains your reading speed, because often when we read we don't realize how fast or slow we're reading until it's too late; and two, it increases and encourages our eyes to read faster, because we're forced to read in an accelerated way.
Tip number two: bouncing. For bouncing, you'll need to segment your page into three columns. A word of caution: please make sure it's your book before you start drawing in it. Don't do what I did with a library book that was fifty years old, because it will cost you 200 pounds, an expensive lesson, and one that ended in landfill. Once you've made the three columns, you want to bounce your eyes from the middle word in the first column over to the second one, and over to the third one, using your peripheral vision to read the words either side.
So there we have it: the three habits holding your reading speed back. But it's important to distinguish between reading for need and reading for enjoyment. Before I show you the strategy to read a book a day, in 2015 I learned something surprising: the average reader can go from reading a book a year to a book a day without the costly tuition, because speed reading is a superpower, one which you can turn on and off. I'll now show you how.
Step one: the front and back cover. This sounds like common sense, but it isn't common practice. It will give you a good context of what the book is about, and also the authority that the author has.
Step two: the table of contents. 80% of a book's value can be found on 20% of the pages. This is the 80/20 principle. Your time is precious, so you want to be looking for the key points. If it is your book, make a note on the table of contents of which chapters stick out to you. Once you've found those chapters, you're going to do the first section of your pre-read, which is skimming. For skimming, you want to take 10 seconds per page, simply looking for key subheadings and diagrams that stick out to you, and I'll explain why.
Step three: the second stage of your pre-read, scanning. For scanning, you want to spend about 30 seconds per page. Go back to those subheadings that caught your eye and look for the keywords and figures. Remember, the time it's taken an average reader to read this once, you would have already gone through this twice, becoming familiar with the content. So when you do come to the final stage, speed reading, using one of the techniques such as bouncing, gliding, or visual aids such as a pacer, you'll be more familiar. Not only will you read faster, but your comprehension will be much greater, because you've reviewed and you know what's coming up.
So there you have it: how to read a book a day. Speed reading is an important skill in today's information-overload society, and I encourage you, if you've learned anything here today about speed reading, to pass it on to someone who you feel could benefit from reading faster and more effectively, because to teach is to learn twice. What teaching speed reading has allowed me to do is give my mother the holiday she was never able to give me. Remember, time is precious, so spend it wisely.