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8 Speedy Tips to Help You Read Faster With Better Recall

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You’ve probably been reading at the same speed for most of your adult life. Even so,
reading speed can be improved with intent and practice. Being able to read faster
provides the key to learning more and experiencing more enjoyment from your reading.

How fast do want to be able to read? The Guinness World Record is 80,000 words
per minute! An average reading speed is approximately 250 words per minute.

Apply these ideas and increase your reading speed and retention:

1 . Find your baseline. You wouldn’t go on a diet without weighing yourself first.
Take a few minutes to measure your current reading speed. After all, how will
you know how much you’ve improved?

Find something online to read that approximates the difficulty of the
material you normally read. Set a timer for 3 minutes and read at your
normal speed. At the end of your time, copy and paste what you actually
read into a word processing program and find the number of words you
read. Divide by 3 to find your rate per minute. How did you do?

2 . Read more than one word at a time. With practice, you’ll find that you can focus
your eyes on just a couple of spots per line and still see all of the words. It’s not
necessary to focus on each individual word.

Some readers find they can read an entire paragraph or more with a single
glance. Your ability to intake larger passages at once will improve with
practice.

3 . Avoid backtracking. Slow readers tend to read a little bit, then jump back and
re-read the same material. Keep moving forward. This is perhaps the most effective tip for beginners.

4 . Avoid using a pointer. Using your finger or a pencil to direct your gaze is a huge
time-waster. You can read much faster than your finger can accurately move.
Drop the pointer and learn to focus your eyes, instead.

5 . Practice. Your speed might be limited by the fact that you don’t read often.
Being good at anything requires practice. Push yourself to read faster. If you
want 800 words per minute to be comfortable, force yourself to read at 1,000
wpm. You won’t be able to read faster than you practice.

6 . Avoid subvocalizing. As a child, you probably learned to read aloud. Over time,
you learned to read silently, but you’re probably still saying the words to yourself
in your mind. This is very slow. It takes a lot of practice to drop this habit, but
your speed will really open up if you don’t subvocalize.

7 . Read actively. Be inquisitive and ask yourself questions as you’re reading. This
forces a greater level of comprehension. Reading fast isn’t helpful if you can’t
remember what you’ve read. Think about what you’re reading and even stop
reading if necessary. Stopping might seem slow, but it pays off.

8 . Practice effectively.

Each week, choose to focus on one aspect of reading faster
and push yourself. Like building a muscle, your reading speed will increase with
applied effort. Each week, re-test your reading speed and be proud of your
improvement.

Give the above methods a try and see what improvements will happen to yourreading.

Thanks for reading.