You and me have come a long way. If you are reading these lines, it means that I coped with my task – I carried my reader on a courageous adventure of reprogramming thinking to improve my skills of concentration, attention and memory. All this brings us to the methodical passage of special exercises, allowing to develop the speed of reading from 10 pages in 1 minute to infinity.
Systematic use of exercises will increase the reading speed by many times. After several years of learning this skill, I can read a rather extensive text stuck in a traffic jam. If earlier I took on the book with a certain degree of doom, because I didn’t know if I would be able to finish it because of employment, now even the weightiest volume does not frighten me with its size.
The most important aspects of speed reading are perception, understanding, memorization and reproduction. It’s not enough to read the page in five seconds, it is important to comprehend and assimilate the information received. This requires performing the exercises in a disciplined manner, but without overwork. I recommend practicing at least 1 hour a day, preferably 2 hours a day, ideally 3 hours a day. Don’t forget, that classes should be regular. If at first you will feel some discomfort associated with reluctance and fatigue, then after a few weeks you will be so involved in the process that it will become an integral part of your daily rhythm. This system will allow you to feel the difference in perception in a month!
The main principle of training is to start here and now. Don’t postpone in the basket of time business, that can turn your life around. I tried to make the exercises not only simple, but also fascinating, so that after the working day they would not turn into a severe test, but would turn into a great pastime. Many of the exercises will help relieve tension, reduce eye pressure, rest the optic nerves.
In addition to practicing, I recommend reinforcing reading skills. Choose a variety of literature to diversify leisure and replenish the stock of knowledge: scientific and specialized journals, art works, educational materials, notes and essays, your diaries, entertainment portals, news, working correspondence and reports. After reading a few pages, stop. Rate the time it took to read. Summarize the content. Remember the names, terms, surnames, or dates that appear in the text. So, you can track the dynamics of learning.
Before you begin to perform the exercises, identify the main problem that prevents you from mastering the speed reading technique. To do this, answer the following questions:
Answers to these questions will help to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. If some exercises are given to you easily, and others – with great difficulty, focus your attention on the latter, fixing the results already available.
Try to record the achieved level to track the dynamics. Don’t limit yourself to speed reading, watch the level of perception in your daily, work environment. Observe how much professional productivity has increased. Involve your environment in training – remember the reported facts, try to understand what is being said, ask as many questions as possible.
Use the experience gained through the second part of the book. If at first some of the practices will be difficult to combine, do not despair – remember the habit, which is formed only with time. Felt that fatigue takes over and motivation disappears? Refer to the first section, re-read those thoughts that inspired you to read speed intellectual mountaineering. A set of techniques collected in one manual will replace high-paying courses and save you a lot of time.
Forward to the unconquered peaks!