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3 AMAZING TIPS TO BECOME A FASTER AND BETTER READER (INFOGRAPHIC)

Do you have tons of books collecting dust just because you don’t have much time going into them? Become a faster and better reader in just 3 easy steps!

I admit I got shit-load of books still waiting to be read. For the most part, my reading pace is not that excellent, but I am getting by just real fine with my beloved hobby.

You see, I’m juggling a lot of things lately: creating internet content at work; plotting the story of a book I hope to publish someday; working out in the gym; blogging; and, of course, reading. These activities prompted me to seek for new ways on how to become a faster and better reader.

I scoured the internet to find out the best ways to increase my reading rate, which would allow me to consume more words in a minute than what I used to. Speed reading, as I have found out, doesn’t happen overnight, but a skill that anyone can and should learn overtime.

There are countless of resources out there, so I made it a point to compile the top 3 techniques on how to read like Flash would do it.

Here are a few takeaways from the books and blogs that I have stumbled upon:

TELL YOUR INNER VOICE TO SHUT UP

In grade school, we were taught to vocalize what we were reading. Hence, we spoke the words we read aloud, making sure that we pronounced the words in earnest. Later in life, we then stopped doing it since it only slows down our reading speed. However, most of us tend to only vocalize the words in our heads.

Although doing this isn’t actually bad, you can do better by shutting off your inner monologue. This is because our eyes are much faster than our inner monologue in identifying words and sentences. Thus, we should stop vocalizing the words inside our heads if we want to read faster.

It takes time and discipline to master this technique; however, once you get the hang of it, you can easily double or triple your speed in just a few days. If you’re enjoying a good book, you can turn your inner monologue back on to savor the great writing.

ONLY SEARCH FOR IMPORTANT WORDS

I think we really sucked at reading fast as kids. Teachers in grade school would tell us to read slowly so we can pay attention to every word in a sentence. Although it’s great for our reading comprehension, we’ve developed a habit that could actually slow down how we read as adults.

Nevertheless, our minds have the ability to fill gaps with the right information now that we’re grown ups. So taking advantage of it will do us well in our mission to speed up our reading.

After mastering the skill of reading without the inner monologue, you’ll eventually learn the skill to group words together into larger chunks of meanings. Now, instead of reading every word in a sentence separately, your mind will catalog a meaning that can be conveyed in a single piece of information.

For example:

“Actually, the wolf’s biggest problem had not been the lack of food, but rather the obvious lack of cooperation by its fellow hunters.”

As soon as you get the hang of it, these thoughts will register as:

Wolf’s biggest problem- not lack of food- but- lack of cooperation- hunters.”

Here’s another example from Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys:

“Of course, everyone’s parents are embarrassing. It goes with the territory. The nature of parents is to embarrass merely by existing, just as it is the nature of children of a certain age to cringe with embarrassment, shame, and mortification should their parents so much as speak to them on the street. ”

The phrase will likely register as this:

“Of course, everyone’s parents are embarrassing. It goes with the territory. The nature of parents is to embarrass merely by existing, just as it is the nature of children of a certain age to cringe with embarrassment, shame, and mortification should their parents so much as speak to them on the street. ”

You instantly get the most of the meaning with only a few words by focusing on the most important words in the sentence.

SKIP SECTIONS, CHAPTERS, OR EVEN THE ENTIRE BOOK

“Wait, what? Then, that would be cheating!”

Yes, you can cheat your way through if you’re only reading for pleasure. If you’ve got a crappy book in your hands, but somehow believe that you can learn anything from it, you can cheat the hell out of it.

Don’t let the nonsense things slow you down from finishing a book. Skip sections or even an entire chapter if you must. The other day, I was reading Olivia Munn’s autobiography Suck It, Wonder Woman! She had an entire chapter devoted to her 2024 Presidential Campaign Platform and another about how men can help themselves have more sex from women. I’m only interested in knowing how her misadventures brought her to Hollywood, so I skipped the said chapters without remorse.

Ditching an entire book is another story. I usually decide to put down the book and never look back whenever I feel that I’m bored reading its first two chapters. The thought of finishing it just for the sake of writing a book review won’t even convince me if the luxury of time is at stake.

Why should you waste time on books that are not giving you the information or entertainment that you need in the first place?

As what I’ve said, there are about hundreds of information out there on how you can fast track your reading pace. Some are crappy advice while others are scientifically-proven. I found How to Become a Faster Reader by Ryan Battles a great source of information about the subject at hand. So if you have extra time, check it out and learn the practical ways of speed reading.

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