Over the years I have experienced great benefits from what is commonly known as Speed Reading and to a lesser extent what I have dubbed Speed Listening. I use both techniques frequently to boost my productivity and ever since I started doing GTD, I have incorporated these techniques into my GTD system to Get More Things Done.
This is not an in-depth article about Speed Reading and Speed Listening, but I will try to provide some practical information to get you started with these techniques. Remember, practice and discipline are required to make the most of them (just like GTD!).
Really applying the techniques described below, you will easily double your reading speed. For example, I can easily read David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” in only a couple of hours. I was able to read the Da Vinci Code in less than 8 hours. And yes, I could even tell afterwards what is was about! 
Read on for an introduction to Speed Reading and Speed Listening!
Speed Reading
I have always been a great fan of books, covering a wide area of interest, ranging from fantasy to science fiction, from psychology to philosophy, from computer science to… well, you get the picture!
The dilemma has always been: how to read as many books as possible in the finite amount of time given?
I read and heard about speed reading before but it wasn’t until a specific course I attended a couple of years ago that I really had a chance to learn from an experienced speed reader. I learned and practiced many things during that course, but a few practical points really stuck in my mind:
- Take a few minutes to “get to know” the book
Basically what this means is that you should already really know what the book is about before you even read the first sentence! Take a good look at the front and back cover, read the summary and table of contents, flip through the pages scanning for pictures, sections, chapters and so on. - Decide which parts of the book you are going to read
Depending on the topic and structure of the book, it is rarely necessary to use classic reading, i.e. linear reading from start to end, every sentence in every chapter. You know why you want to read a specific book (you do, don’t you!?) and after the first step you can make the match with what the book actually offers. Decide for yourself which parts of which chapters are going to give you, say, 80% of the information you need. Start with the most important part of the book (which is seldom the first sentence of the first chapter). Skip fillers and unwanted information. Determine your own reading order. - Sit up straight in a suitable environment
I hope you realize that you get the best results from speed reading if you choose a suitable environment. This usually means a well lit and quiet place. Don’t lie down on the couch in front of the television, expecting to do much speed reading. It should even be easy to turn the page quickly enough! - Keep moving your eyes no matter what!
There are various techniques for actually reading the information contained in a book. Experts talk about skimming, chunking and so on. Some recommend using your hand, finger or pen to trace the “line of reading”. I have tried most of them. However, in my opinion and experience you need to remember one simple thing to at the least double your reading speed. You need to keep moving your eyes no matter what! Usually while reading you tend to jump from word to word. Sometimes your eyes trace back (part of) a sentence because you missed something. Try it now. This takes up a fair amount of unnecessary time. Now try this. Read some text forcing yourself to keep your eyes moving over the sentence from left to right, smoothly and without stopping at every single word and without ever tracing back. Take no more than one second (or less) for each line on the page. Your visual system is powerful enough to absorb the information. If you miss a word your brain will “fill in the blanks”. This is the part that really takes practice and discpline! - Don’t mutter under your breath or in your mind
Experts call this subvocalization. Some people have more problems with this than others. If you silently pronounce every word you read or even subvocalize each word in your mind, your reading speed will definitely decrease. Force yourself to stay “silent” while speed reading. You will soon discover that you understand sentences without “dwelling” on each word. - Stay focused and monitor your comprehension
How many times did your mind wander while reading this article? My guess would be several times. This is a major pitfall while (speed) reading. You cannot expect to really understand what you are reading when you let your mind wander. Especially while speed reading, you need to monitor your level of comprehension. Otherwise, you may finish a book very quickly but you cannot really recall what is was about. Talk about wasting your time! Again, force yourself to stay focused on the text you are reading. Take a small break if you feel the need to think about something else.
It goes without saying that these points apply to all the reading you do: articles, books, reports, websites, et cetera. One final point I would like to make. Don’t speed read that classic novel you have been wanting to read for years. You don’t need to speed read everything; just knowing that you can whenever appropriate or necessary is good enough!
Speed Listening
This is a minor technique I use frequently to get through more audiobooks in less time. Sometimes I even apply it to certain movies or documentaries I want to quickly watch. All you need is a good audio/video player on your computer. For instance, I use CorePlayer on my Windows Mobile PDA.
Speed listening is nothing more than adjusting the playback speed of your audiobook or video to a maximum of 150%. I have worked through many audiobooks this way in only 66% of the time usually required to listen to the entire audiobook. Of course, it helps if you can tolerate the funny voices that are a consequence of rapid playback!
By the way, audiobooks are great if you spend a lot of time on the road. This effectively turns the usually inproductive time in your car into highly productive time, especially when applying speed listening. Good luck!
What is your opinion about Speed Reading and Speed Listening? Do you have additional hints and tips that we could all benefit from?
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This is something that’s been nagging at me for years. I read a lot and have a natural tendency to proof-read everything I encounter (my colleagues and managers find it very useful), and it either takes me ages to read anything of substance or depth, or adds to my metre-high pile of unread books.
Thanks for the tips - I’ll put them to use!
I’d be curious if this also applies to reading on a computer screen and not just books. Computer screens are much more tiresome and the ergonomics are a bit different. Were computer screen reading mentioned at all in the class?
I had taken a speed reading course a long time ago (before computers!!) and have forgotten most of the techniques. If you don’t mind, what class did you take? I think I’d like to take one as I do a lot of reading — and not just books.
Thanks…
@Scot
I can’t remember if computer screens were mentioned at all in the course I took several years ago. I must admit that I rarely apply speed reading to my computer screen, though I think it is definitely possible. I usually print any material that really needs some “serious” reading.
The course I took was a combined masterclass which lasted 2 consecutive days, dealing with subjects like memory enhancement, speed reading, mind mapping and so on. However, since I’m located in The Netherlands, I highly doubt it would be of interest to you… sorry!
For speed reading a-la computer style, you can get a program such as Rabid Reader (http://warren.igsig.org/?page_id=9) which allows you to focus on one part of the screen and let the words flash up one at a time. You can read at a surprisingly fast rate this way.
@Joshua B
Thank you for this useful addition. I remember trying something similar a couple of years ago. Maybe I should look into something like that again!
i wish u would say something more about that subvocalization. i have heard about it in past. but seems quite impossible. can u say how u implemented it
@madhusmita
I hope I understand your comment correctly. I am not implementing subvocalization, in fact, I am saying that you should try to suppress the natural urge to form the words with your mouth or even in your mind while you are reading. Some people are doing this more than others. Look at people around you while they are reading
In other words, don’t dwell on individual words in a sentence, but keep your eyes moving to improve your reading speed. I hope this answers your question
Wow, the first tip about keep moving your eyes is great! I just tried it when reading the article and it seems to improve my comprehension and speed as well!
I guess that while doing it you are not only disciplining your eyes to keep moving, but also your mind: you have only 1 change to comprehend the sentence, so you better understand it.
I will keep trying this technique, btw i’am also very interested in tools that improve reading from computers.
Bedankt!
@Jesse:
Thanks for your feedback. There are several tools for speed reading on your computer. I cannot recommend any single one of them because I have little or no experience with them. A quick Google session should help you find these tools… good luck!
A great Free and Open Source program for speed-reading text on your computer is Dictator: http://dictator.kieranholland.com/dictator.html
I use it all the time. I have a hotkey/script programmed to copy selected text from any application, launch Dictator in full-screen mode, paste the text and start scrolling it. I used it to read this blog post!
[...] down - I’m a speed reader. Reading fast means you ignore the text and just digest the story, which is bad if you are learning [...]
[...] down - I’m a speed reader. Reading fast means you ignore the text and just digest the story, which is bad if you are learning [...]
[...] escribió un artículo en Getting Things Done dando consejos acerca de la lectura rápida, algo que venía experimentando y había encontrado [...]
The elimination of subvocalization doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve been trying it, and it kills my comprehension without a great benefit to speed.
I’m with the wikipedia article on this one, and don’t really see the benefit to it:
Subvocalization
Obviously do whatever works for you, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it.
Also, I just read your post on learning, and advocating multisensory learning seems contradictory with eliminating a sensory element (you still “hear” it in your head) by fighting to stop your mind’s natural tendency to subvocalize. This seems like a recommendation that can only apply to skimming a book, not really reading it.
@Michael:
About subvocalization: I agree, do whatever works for you. In my personal case, I can read perhaps up to 5-10 times faster *without* subvocalization, while retaining an acceptable level of comprehension. My simple observation is that my mouth and my mind can’t keep up with my eyes when I’m really, really speedreading. There is simply no time to subvocalize.
About multisensory learning: in the post you refer to I write about really learning and being able to memorize something. That is best done by using multisensory learning, that includes visual, auditory, kinesthetic and even emotional senses. I don’t speedread everything, especially not if I’m really trying to learn and memorize something.
Dear sir!
I would like to know how many word can be listened by someone effectively in one minute.
please help
thank
I was a slow reader for a long time, and after going through several disappointing “Speed Reading” programs, I decided to research the topic more academically.
Here is some clips from Alice Krumian’s 2000 dissertation and related research books:
“Professor Javal, a French physician and psychologist at the University of Paris, was one of the first researchers to note the actual character of the eyes’ movement in reading. In 1878 he published the first account of systematic observations of eye movements during reading. His work stimulated other researchers to work on similar problems, and by 1908, when Huey published the first important book on the psychology of reading, a considerable amount of information had already been gathered. Huey acknowledged that Javal deserves more than anyone else the credit for making the initial discoveries in the field and for initiating the considerable number of later studies.”
-Alice Krumian “Speed Reading”
“Some readers could read visually while whistling or doing other motor tasks that would hinder inner speech … But although there is an occasional reader in whom the inner speech is not very noticeable, and although it is a foreshortened and incomplete speech in most of us, yet it is perfectly certain that the inner hearing or pronouncing, or both, of what is read, is a constituent part of the reading by far the most of people, as they ordinarily and actually read.”
-W.B. Secor (pp. 117-118)
“The eye readily falls into a brief motor habit of a certain fixed number o f pauses per line, for a given passage, independently of the nature of the subject matter. And the ease of the formation of motor habits seems to be one of the characteristics o f rapid readers as contrasted with slower ones”
“The fact of innerspeech forming a part of silent reading has not been disputed, so far as I am aware, by anyone who has experimentally investigated the process of reading. Its presence has been established7 for most readers, when adequate tests have been made” (p. 117)
- E.B. Huey The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading (1908)
“O’Brien (1926) discovered a high correlation between the ocular motor control and the comprehension of a passage.’The immaturity of the reader manifests itself in the large number of fixations per line and the narrowness of the visual span’·(p. 94). He went on explaining that just as pulse rate serves as a reliable measure of the heart bea4 so does eye movement serve as the external counterpart of the internal conscious process, i.e. reading efficiency. ‘The widening of the visual span and the lessening of the duration of the fixation pause are the factors which serve as reliable indices of the growth in rate of reading” (p. 94).”
-Alice Krumian - Speed Reading
There’s a lot more, but the research shows that accelerated reading speeds of around 2,500 words per minute are possible with substantial comprehension, through the elimination of subvocalization, the lessening of eye fixations and the increasing of one’s eye span.
Taking the information from the research I conducted, I put it together into a six-week coursebook called, “learn to speed read”. It’s free to read and download on Google Books, Scribd, and my website: krismadden.com
The bibliography’s about 20 pages long, at the back of the book, so if you’re interested in reading more research on the topic that would be a good starting place.
Enjoy.
-Kris Madden
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