Become a Speed Reader in 5 Minutes — 3 Proven Techniques

How many books are you going to read this year?

Is it 1 book per month? Maybe 2?

If you clicked on this article, that means you are facing the same problem as I did. You are a slow reader. It’s not because you are not capable, or you lack some skills.

You are not reading correctly.

Look, there are some books like Harry Potter where I will cherish every word from the page. I am not going to speed read, I will read as slow as possible.

However, most of the time we are trying to consume as much information as we can. That’s because of our dopaminergic society. If it’s not our phones, it’s our computers, TVs and so on. We are social media junkies, scrolling through the feed.

It’s not your fault.

The reality is that these apps are programmed this way. Constantly grabbing our attention and keeping us plugged in the virtual world. That’s why people stopped reading books. It’s a slow process that doesn’t deliver as much satisfaction.

People don’t understand one thing. You can get the same “high” from books. It’s just a different type of high. Books are based on one world or one topic only. That means you become an expert in that field, which is amazing.

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Conclusion: reading is also profitable!

Spoiler alert: With time, everything changes. You start reading more. Don’t believe me? Here is an example:

At first, I was reading 1 book per month. Then 2. Last month I read 3 books. In the month of August, I will read 6 books.

Consistency.

What I’m trying to say is that it takes lots of reading to increase your speed. The techniques that I will provide are definitely working, you will boost your reading instantly, but. The long-term path of regular reading will make the biggest change.

I have told you the honest truth. It’s not a secret, consistency can be applied everywhere.

I don’t want to waste any of your time, so let’s get right into it.

Here are the 3 techniques that helped me increase my reading speed —

1) Use your finger!

Yes, you read that correctly. I know what you thinking, “at school we were taught the complete opposite!”. Same here guys! Not everything we learned at school was correct.

It was embarrassing.

“How old are you?” “Are you a child?” Those were the responses of those who still used their finger for reading. Children use this method to not lose the track of reading.

Guess what?

Adults still do! Everyone does! It’s completely normal.

Of course, you can concentrate so hard on not losing the line, but. The concentration should be on the reading, not on the line tracking.

I use a pencil.

Even though I read on a Kindle, I still use a pencil to sweep along the line as I read. It is so comfortable. I’m more concentrated on the plot, which increases the chance of understanding what I’m reading about.

The biggest advantage of using the pointer method:

I did a small experiment where I read one page without anything and one page where I used my pencil to sweep along the lines.

Results?

First page 72 seconds — Second page 40 seconds.

45% faster!

It’s an instant boost in your reading, try it out.

2) Peripheral vision

Read one line at a time.

Seems impossible?

Start by chunking words together. We were taught, again, to read every word, this way we will understand the context better. However, our brains are more capable than we think. We can read multiple words together.

Divide your lines into 3 sections. Focus on reading the section as one thing, imagine you are driving down a street and see a road sign. Keep doing this and you will see how your speed increases.

Look at the centre of the line.

Now that we have learned to read chunked words, and sections, we can move to read one line at a time. Look in the centre of the page and use your peripheral vision to read the rest of it.

For example:

When you look at your laptop screen, you are concentrated on what’s on it, however, that doesn’t mean you lost sight of your surroundings. While looking at the screen you can see your mouse, keyboard, the window next to you, the cup of tea and so on.

The same applies to reading. Concentrate on the centre of the line and by using the peripheral vision, read the words on the left and right.

I would suggest using a 20:60:20 ratio.

At first, you will find that you lose some words, but. As you train, your brain becomes more comfortable with the technique.

It’s hard to test this technique as it is already programmed in my brain.

However, if I continue reading like this, it means that it works.

3) Fall in love with reading.

Remember your first love?

Of course, you do. Do you remember how alert you were at that time? How living in the moment was actually living in the moment?

At the end of the day, you have to enjoy the activity you are doing. It’s the only way to get better at it. In our case, to read more and faster.

Here are some of my suggestions:

• Read books that you enjoy. If you are reading self-help books because it’s trendy, to look smarter or another normie sh*t, you aren’t getting anywhere. You will not only read slower but, finish the book with nothing learned.

• Read more books at a time. It’s not hard. You won’t forget the plot of the other books. Or, my favourite excuse, you will confuse the stories. As soon as you start reading book nr. 1, you will know it’s book nr. 1 but not nr. 2. Most importantly, it’s more engaging and exciting. This will boost and motivate you to read more and faster!
• Use a Kindle. I have written a separate article on why I’ll never return to physical books. In short, Kindle has lots of functionalities and customizations such as font style/size, different themes and layouts, better light, and an instant dictionary, it is very light. All these features will improve significantly your reading speed.

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Practice, practice, practice.

These 3 techniques are 100% working. They will increase your reading speed by at least 2X. As I have mentioned at the start, the biggest difference will come with time. After 7 months of regular reading, I read 300% faster than I used to.

Consinstancy + Techniques.

Thank you for reading, I really hope I could help!

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