10 Golden Rules For Speed Reading

10 Golden Rules For Speed Reading

Speed reading is a technique that enables you to read and comprehend between 600 and 1000 words per minute. Think about all the books you could read with such a reading speed. You wouldn’t have to worry about the thousands of emails in your inbox or the technical reports at work because you could easily go through them within a few seconds. If you are eager to become a fast reader, here are 10 tips to get you started.

10 Golden Rules For Speed Reading

  1. Know your purpose for reading. Having a good understanding of what you are looking to learn from a particular text enables you to skip the unimportant parts and go straight to the important parts.

  1. Take special notice of the first and last sentences of each paragraph — especially for non-fiction material. These sentences, which are known as “topic sentences,” can give you the gist of the whole paragraph.

  1. Vary your reading speed depending on the reading material. Some reading material, such as legal contracts and technical reports, should be read slowly. Newspapers, novels, and magazines, on the other hand, can be read quite quickly because attention to detail isn’t really necessary.




  1. Preview the reading material before you begin reading it. This can be done by reading the table of contents, preface, and back cover, as well as scanning the headings and subheadings.

  1. Turn headings and subheadings into questions and then scan through the text fast in order to find the answers to your questions.

  1. Read when your mind is fresh. You can greatly improve your reading speed, comprehension and concentration by simply reading early in the day when your mind is alert. If this means waking up earlier, do it; you won’t regret it.

  1. Choose a proper reading environment. Reading in a comfortable, well-lit, well-ventilated, distraction-free environment increases your concentration and by extension your reading speed.

  1. When reading emails, faxes or any other material that requires you to take action, make a decision as soon as you are done reading it. This way, you will avoid having to re-read the same material later on in order to make a decision.

  1. Practice reading faster with familiar material. When you first learn how to speed read, practice your skills on texts that discuss topics that you are already familiar with. Later on when your reading speed has improved, you can challenge yourself with unfamiliar reading material.

  1. Get speed reading software. Learning how to speed read on your own can be quite a challenge. However, using software like 7 Speed Reading makes learning how to read faster a lot more fun.


Speed Reading

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