One of the most important human needs is the need for new knowledge and self-improvement. Therefore, people learn foreign languages, go in for sports, master musical instruments. At the heart of the development of each skill is the acquisition of information. How fast a person reads determines how quickly they learn something new.
Speed reading is an incredibly useful skill that does not require special talents to master. If you have the desire, perseverance and a little time, you can easily master speed reading at home.
Why read fast
Who will benefit from the development of speed reading? The answer to this question is extremely simple. Anyone who seeks to learn new things, this skill will be useful. Learning how to speed read and spending a few months practicing it can save you a lot of time later on.
In turn, slow reading is not always justified. Most people do not read books to the end precisely because of the time consuming. Also, by reading slowly, chances are highlose interest in the plot and again abandon the book without finishing it.
For some specialists, reading thematic literature is part of their job responsibilities, giving them the opportunity to grow, develop and become an expert in their field. For these people, mastering the technique of speed reading is a professional necessity.
What is speed reading
Let's define what speed reading is and how fast you need to read.
Standard is the speed of perception of 150-250 words per minute. At the same time, 1-3 minutes are spent per page of printed text. Speed reading means mastering the skill of reading from 500 to 3000 words at the same time. True, in this case, the term "read" is not entirely appropriate. Speed reading in essence is the analysis of the text and the choice of the main thing. That is, some of the information is simply ignored. The goal is to learn to focus on those sentences and phrases that carry the maximum meaning, and skip the "water" that does not affect the understanding of the essence.
The secret of great people
Surprisingly, the technique of speed reading appeared in the Middle Ages and was familiar to many famous people.
For example, Joseph Stalin was the owner of a huge library. Reading was a daily activity for him. He read five hundred pages of text at a time, while he liked to highlight the main ideas with pencils.
American President Theodore Roosevelt was proud of his speed reading skills. It was no problem for him to read an entire book at once.
Honoré deBalzac boasted of his ability to read up to eight sentences simultaneously and choose the main one from them.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin read very quickly. In addition, we know about his phenomenal memory. Biographies he could reproduce almost verbatim by heart with all significant dates.
Karl Marx, Napoleon Bonaparte, John F. Kennedy, Adolf Hitler also owned the speed reading technique. Maybe it was because of this that they achieved success in their business.
When the speed reading method is useful
If we talk about speed reading, we need to take into account one more thing. This method is used mainly for reading scientific and technical literature, reports, Internet articles, news reports in newspapers, that is, the material that brings new knowledge.
Poetry and fiction are meant for very different purposes. In fiction, we are not looking for answers to the questions posed, but simply enjoy the process of reading. The whole value of literary texts lies in their impact on the emotions, feelings of a person and the use of his imagination. Reading such literature quickly is possible, but absolutely pointless.
Is it possible to master speed reading at home
Nowadays, there are many specialized courses that "for little money" promise to teach everyone to read at a speed of up to 3000 words per minute. Training sessions last from a month to three. But is it worth spending time and money on attending such courses if you can develop speed reading at home?without any investment? Such independent study even has its advantages:
- The free choice of time for classes makes it possible to conduct training at those hours when it will be most convenient and fruitful.
- Speed reading techniques and exercise descriptions are public information that can be found in special manuals sold in any bookstore.
- No distractions.
- Possibility, by choosing the duration of classes, to control the time of study.
Someone may be interested in the opinion of people who have taken courses to learn speed reading. Feedback on their effectiveness is not always positive. Often, in order to achieve noticeable results, additional independent practice is required at the end. But the very skill of speed reading speaks only with praise. None of those who have mastered this ability have regretted the time and effort spent.
Learning to read fast. What do you need?
To master speed reading at home, you need to familiarize yourself with the basic principles of this skill.
The first rule is not to "jump" while reading. You need to look through the text from beginning to end, without stopping and not rereading incomprehensible fragments. You will see, when you read to the end of a paragraph or page, everything that was unclear will become clear without rereading.
Second rule - highlight a few key words in each of the sentences. It is not necessary to read the entire sentence or paragraph frombeginning to end, it is important to catch and remember only the key words.
The third rule is not to get distracted. Speed reading will not give any results if you do not concentrate on what you are reading. The reader must be completely immersed in the process, because it is important not only to read, but also to fix useful information in memory.
Why we read slowly
Anyone who wonders how to develop speed reading will benefit from knowing what prevents us from reading fast.
1. Reading indiscriminately. When we read, we pay attention to everything. To get acquainted with the main idea, we spend as much time as reading lyrical digressions that do not carry any semantic load and do not contain useful information. As already mentioned, to save time, the speed reading technique involves identifying the main idea and ignoring the "water" in the text.
2. Repetition of what has been read. Each of us has a bad habit from childhood - to look back at the sentence we have just read. When a child is developing vocabulary, such repetitions are useful. But as adults, we just do it out of habit.
3. Reading to yourself. When reading aloud, we can do it faster or slower, depending on the pace of reading and diction. When we read to ourselves, our brain, as it were, conducts a monologue, "pronouncing" the information that we are getting acquainted with. The speed of perception of the text cannot be higher than the speed of this internal monologue. Therefore, if you decide to master the methodspeed reading, the first step is to "muffle the internal speaker" and learn to perceive information without saying it to yourself.
4. Line of sight. A narrow field of view can significantly slow down the reading process. If a person has a well-developed peripheral vision, he uses it when perceiving the text, which is displayed at the speed of reading. For those who wish to master speed reading on their own, exercises to expand the field of vision are a must.
5. Scattered attention. Inattention can be a problem at any speed. The inability to concentrate on the reading process is the main reason that information is not remembered, no matter how fast you read. The speed reading technique implies the parallel development of the ability to abstract from external stimuli and focus on the text.
Exercises to increase reading speed
How to start learning speed reading? Exercise is the key to success. Regular performance of simple practical tasks contributes to the development of the qualities necessary for the rapid assimilation of information.
Eliminating inner speech
It was previously mentioned that internal articulation is one of the main reasons for slow reading speed. There are methods to deal with it:
- Count to yourself from ten to one. Try to understand any text without losing count.
- Do the same, but instead of counting, hum the song you know by heart.
- Tap out any rhythm while reading.
Principlesuch an exercise is to "occupy your inner speaker" and learn to perceive the text without his participation.
Developing peripheral vision
If peripheral vision is developed at the proper level, a person may not waste time moving his eyes one line from left to right, but cover it with his eyes at once. This way of reading is called vertical. Moreover, by developing peripheral vision, you can read entire paragraphs or blocks of text at a glance.
At this stage, Schulte tables will come to the rescue. A square is depicted on the sheet, the sides of which are 20 cm long. It is divided into five horizontal lines and five vertical lines. Thus, we get 25 cells, each of which contains numbers from 1 to 25 in random order. The finished square is placed at eye level (distance 25–30 cm).
| 3 | 8 | 14 | 18 | 10 |
| 7 | 11 | 21 | 4 | 23 |
| 13 | 16 | 2 | 24 | 15 |
| 25 | 22 | 6 | 17 | 19 |
| 20 | 1 | 12 | 9 | 5 |
The exercise itself is to,concentrating only on the middle square, using peripheral vision, find the location of all the numbers from 1 to 25, and then in reverse order.
Another exercise that helps achieve the same goal is called "Triangle". You need to select the text and type it in such a way that each line is wider than the previous one. For example, the first line has one word, the second has two, the third has three, and so on. As a result, we get a triangle consisting of text. When reading it, move your eyes only from top to bottom. Use your peripheral vision to see the beginning and end of long lines.
Similar exercises can be performed in everyday life, without devoting special time for classes. For example, while sitting at work, concentrate your eyes on some object and try to see what is happening around you. This will be both an exercise to relieve tension from the eyes, and an effective method to effortlessly develop peripheral vision.
Learning to guess
Speed reading means selective perception of the text. In order for you to get holistic useful information in the end, you need to learn logic and conjecture.
You need an assistant to do the exercises in this block. Immediately you need to select unfamiliar text and print it. The assistant darkens some parts of the text with a black marker, and you, while reading it, are trying to catch the meaning. First, you can choose simple texts to read. But over time, in order to train the skill, it is better to opt for unfamiliar topics and completely new terminology. The amount of hidden text should also graduallyincrease.
You can take a book and close a part of the text with a vertical strip 5 cm wide, and then read the rest. Make the strip wider over time.
It is worth devoting one hour to this practice 3-4 times a week, and in a month speed reading will begin to develop. Exercises for everyone, although at the very beginning they may seem difficult.
At what age can children be taught speed reading
A child's vocabulary is much smaller than that of an adult. When reading, he thinks, comprehends the material read and spends much more time for this. Even by ear, fast speech is perceived much worse by children. Therefore, it is possible to teach children speed reading only after they learn to fully comprehend the text they read on their own. This happens around the age of 14 or 15.
As you can see, developing speed reading at home is not such a difficult task. Not only superheroes, but also ordinary people can read at a speed of more than 500 words per minute. Try it and you will learn this and by your own example you will see the value of such a skill.
