Are you making these speed reading mistakes? Read on and find out how to fix the 5 most common problems that pop up when you start reading in high gear!
Mistake One
Often you’ll see people start a reading session by trying to blast off at full speed. This is a bit like a jogger jumping up from their desk and attempting to sprint down the hall or going for a personal best of the squat rack without a warm up – it’s a recipe for injury! There’s no point speeding ahead if you start to miss so much you have to backtrack.
Solution: Start with a few pages of easy warmup, some eye exercises, get in the zone, then start pushing the envelope.
Mistake Two
Jumping in without a clear intention wastes a lot of time. It’s easy to get caught up in the content and flow of a book without ever getting to the information you actually need.
Solution: Get clear on why you’re reading in the first place. Are you reading just for fun or are you scanning for some useful nugget of information?
Mistake Three
Stress makes you stupid, and reading when stressed out impairs absorption of data, not to mention taking a lot of the fun out of it. If reading feels like a chore and you’re using speed reading to get it done faster, stop!
Solution: relaxing for 60 seconds before doing any reading pays back many times over in smoothness and flow. Close your eyes and focus for a minute on your breath, just take deep, full, relaxing breaths in and smoothly let them out. Imagine you’re pulling air in through your feet and it’s sweeping and tension up through your body and out through your mouth as you exhale.
Mistake Four
Sometimes in the speed reading students enthusiasm to go faster, there’s temptation to skip the easy first steps to get to the advanced stuff more quickly. This is a false economy as it’s a skill you develop not a magic bullet. Some speed reading basics well practiced is worth more than mere knowledge about advanced systems.
Solution: Master the basics. Eliminate back skipping and subvocalisation first, then develop a smooth pace, fixating on a couple of words at a time.
Mistake Five
I’ve seen people jump in at the start of a book and try and power through it in a sitting. Previewing the whole thing in advance will save you potentially hours later on and substantially improve your recall.
Solution: Flick through the whole book in advance first, then work through it in layers building up the data holographically in your mind.
Written by michaelc
Topics: Mind Skills, Speed Learning, Upgrade Your Mind