I am a slow reader. I don’t have to read fast. But, fast reading techniques can be beneficial when there is too much to read and too little time.

To learn more about reading fast, I recently read a book called "10 Days to Faster Reading". I found this book is useful, personally. So, I want to share the new reading habits I learnt from this book with people who also want to increase their reading speed.

Unhelpful Reading Habits

Before we discuss the fast reading technique, it is useful to highlight a few reading habits that prevent us from reading fast:

  • Passive Daydreaming — thinking about other topics that are unrelated to the content of the book when reading,

  • Regression — rereading the text we just read, and the passive day-dreaming can cause tendencies for more regression,

  • Subvocalisation — mentally whispering the text or mouthing along to the words we read, our brain can process approximately 400 words per minute, but we only read about 150 words per minute at our talking speed.

New Habits

Read Fast by Taking Shortcuts

We don’t have to read everything in the book to understand it.

For non-fiction material, we can preview it first to get an idea of what it is about and which parts will be relevant. First, read the first few introductory paragraphs to get the summary. Next, read the first sentence of each paragraph to understand what each section is about.

Previewing alone will give us approximately 40% of the material’s key information.

Read Keywords

Focus only on the important words and skip over the rest. Important words are typically longer than three letters and carrying meaning.

For example, the task is defined by a few steps and elements. This example depicts that one doesn’t have to read the entire sentence to figure out the meaning.

Stop eyes on thought groups instead of separate worlds.

E.g., the English language | uses thought groups | for clear communication. There are three thought groups. Looking for thought groups forces our eyes to move forward faster while maintaining good comprehension.

Stop Subvocalisation

Focus on the white space above each line of text and only see the top half of the letters. This way allows us to move through the words without getting stuck on any.

Indenting Method

Instead of placing eyes at the beginning of each line, aim them half an inch inside the left margin, and stop reading half an inch before the right margin. See the beginning and the end of the line using the peripheral vision.

By not focusing on all the words, we reduce the number of potential starts and stops while glancing over the line.

Use a Pen to Lead Eyes

Eyes naturally follow the movement. Pointing and moving a finger or a pen along the text can guide eyes to move through texts more quickly.

Closing Note

My summary of the key information of the book is solely for my own reference. If you are interested in knowing more about fast reading, I recommend you to read "10 Days to Faster Reading".