Learning to Read More Efficiently

[bbasujon]

Think about how much reading you do every day.

Perhaps you read the newspaper to catch up with what's going on in the world. You browse countless emails from colleagues. And you then read the books, reports, proposals, periodicals, and letters that make up an average day.

When you look at it, reading could be the work-related skill that you use most often! It's also a skill that most of us take for granted by the time we reach the age of 12. After all, it seems that if we can read and comprehend textbooks, then, surely, we must be good readers?

Maybe not. And, given the time that reading consumes in our daily lives, it may be a skill that we can, and should, improve.

But what does becoming a better reader involve? It means getting faster and more efficient at reading, while still understanding what you're reading. In this article, we'll look at how you can do this, and how you can unlearn poor reading habits.

How We Read

Although you spend a good part of your day reading, have you ever thought about how you read? How do your eyes make sense of the shapes of the letters, and then put those letters together to form a sentence that you can understand?

When you actually think about it, reading is quite a complex skill. Previously, scientists believed that when you read, both of your eyes focused on a particular letter in a word. Recent research shows this isn't the case.

Scientists now believe that each of your eyes lock onto a different letter at the same time, usually two characters apart. Your brain then fuses these images together to form a word. This happens almost instantaneously, as we zip through pages and pages of text!

Advantages of Speed Reading

Many people read at an average rate of 250 words per minute. This means that an average page in a book or document would take you 1-2 minutes to read.

However, imagine if you could double your rate to 500 words per minute. You could zip through all of this content in half the time. You could then spend the time saved on other tasks, or take a few extra minutes to relax and de-stress.

Another important advantage of speed reading is that you can better comprehend the overall structure of an argument. This leads to a "bigger picture" understanding, which can greatly benefit your work and career.


https://www.mindtools.com/speedrd.html?