5 Hacks On How To Read Faster

It’s very difficult for even the most skilled reader to comprehend what they’re reading if they’re also listening to music, watching tv, or having a conversation. Every time you lift your eyes from your book, your eyes must find your place again. This may only take seconds but if you’re trying to get through a piece quickly, you don’t have seconds to spare. And that’s if you can find your place immediately and that you don’t find yourself reading the same passage repeatedly.

It may sound counterproductive to scan over a book before you read it properly but if you’ll find it easier to read if you know what to expect. This tactic works particularly well for non-fiction and is a tried and true method for getting you through a heavy text book.

It’s a trick that worked when you were learning to read and it will work for you now. It will also help you manage interruptions from other people easily. Using an indicator of some sort while you’re reading helps you look at groups of words together as opposed to reading each individual word. When you’ve done a lot of reading, or are familiar with the topic or author, your brain has already worked out what’s coming next before the other part of your brain can form the words in your head.

The trick to remember with this hack is to move your finger, or pointer, at a consistent speed and manner across the page. It may take some practice but after a while it will become second nature to skip over words as you go.

The more you read, the faster you will become at it. Reading is a skill just like any other and we only develop skills when we practice. With non-fiction books you may be happier to read more slowly so you can really enjoy the experience. But if you’re reading to learn something and you want to be able to recall it later, you want to be able to skim through the text. Turn it into a game by timing yourself and then see if you can beat that time with the next piece you read.

Again, this may seem counterproductive but hear me out. Books, whether fiction or non-fiction do not travel along at the same speed from beginning to end. With fiction, a book will often start reasonably slowly as you get introduced to characters and settings. Then the tension builds to a climax with a resolution after that.

Although non-fiction doesn’t usually follow the same formula, there’s probably still parts that interest you more than others or that you know better than others. We’ve all had the experience of having to read a chapter in a text book repeatedly until we’re sure we’ve understood all we need to.

In the same way, if we can successfully scan over parts of the book that we’re more familiar with, we are able to slow down and take more time to learn the new information.

There will always be a special kind of magic in reading an actual book whether for knowledge or entertainment but as a society we are increasingly turning to our mobile devices to keep ourselves informed of what’s going on around us. Because of this, we are becoming more adept at scanning quickly over text and we often read headlines rather than complete articles.

This kind of reading is not ideal though and it’s easy to miss important information. A better strategy would be to learn how to read full articles very quickly. Don’t you think?