Speed Reading Equals Success
Many things can influence how well you do in life, whether you’re a student at college, or an employee at a multinational corporation. Surprisingly, one of the things that can help lead you to greater success, is something that you’re already quite familiar with — reading. Comprehend and Communicate As mentioned earlier, speed reading isn’t just about knowing how to read but it’s also about developing an increased understanding of what has been read. This increased understanding of school or work material, for example, helps you develop a more in-depth insight on a subject matter or project. This, in turn, helps you communicate more effectively and become an essential participant in class or the office. Do Better on Tests The better your understanding of the material, the better you’ll do on tests at school–it’s a no brainer. However, tests aren’t just for students, in fact, those in the working world are put to the test almost each and every day. With speed reading, you can quickly enhance your knowledge on the job, the industry you’re engaged in, as well as how to become a better worker. When you ace these points, you’ll do way better when your performance is evaluated by your superiors. Keep up With Your Workload Students and executives have one thing in common–if they’re ill-prepared, they can get easily overwhelmed by what they have on their plates. If you’d like to be able to hand in good assignments, projects, and reports in a timely manner, you can keep yourself on top of things with speed reading. Don’t just work hard, work smart! So, if you’re keen on developing your reading skills, as well as getting ahead of the competition at work or at school, it’s time to give yourself the edge by learning speed reading. You’ll be able to read more and with better understanding—you can’t lose!
The Science Behind Speed Reading
Speed reading is a relatively new subject in science, with the first ideas emerging in the 1950s. However, the idea of speed reading has quickly become a popular one due to the time saved from being able to read large quantities of information quickly. Used by many US presidents and other successful businesspersons, speed reading has made a name for itself. But, many ask, what is the science behind speed reading? How does it work? Use Your Eyes’ Abilities to the Max Surprisingly, when reading, it’s your brain that does all of the work. Your eyes act as cameras to capture information and send it to the brain, where decoding occurs. When you read, your eyes make movements across the page, pausing at intervals to capture the information. These series of movements are known as saccades. Our eyes capture pictures of the text we are reading in short fixations following each saccadic sequence.You can train your eyes to move more smoothly across the page and capture a larger area of text in each fixation by using your peripheral vision. How? Learn Skimming Techniques Reading a text to search for main ideas is a skill that helps improve comprehension and speed when reading through the text again, completely. One can read through the first and last lines of each paragraph or the headings to get familiar with the text. This increases speed and comprehension during reading. This skill is widely taught and accepted in speed reading courses. Quiet or Speed Up Your Inner Voice When reading, we speak the words out loud, in our heads. This is called subvocalization. The process actually sends messages to our vocal chords, engaging them to recognize the words. Because language is learned before reading, we automatically associate written words with spoken language. However, subvocalization takes additional time. Learning to use your inner reading voice more quickly or eliminating it completely can help increase your reading speed. While reading more complex and unfamiliar texts, subvocalization has been found to be helpful in increasing comprehension.However, with practice, you may learn to recognize when you need the help of subvocalization and when you can cruise through, reading at faster rates. If you’re reading for a reason, it’s good to know exactly what you’re looking for. Consider what information you’re looking for ahead of time so that you can zero in on it more easily. Your brain will notice key words related to the information you’re seeking within the passage. You’ll find that this will help you get through your stack of reading more quickly and give you greater satisfaction. Just thinking about what you’d like to gain from reading a text first will set you off in the right direction. Know What You Want Speed reading can be a great way to help increase your productivity. As you can see from the information explored, there’s plenty of science to prove that you can increase your reading speed and achieve great comprehension. Start practicing today!
The Benefits of Speed Reading for Senior Citizens
Young people seem to live for speed, but fast-paced pursuits shouldn’t just be for youngsters. Don’t worry, we’re not proposing that senior citizens should start racing (unless it’s right up your alley). Actually, we’re thinking more along the lines of speed reading. While it’s not quite an adrenaline rush, it does come with a host of great plus points for senior citizens! Here’s the list of benefits: Brain Jog Thanks to its squishy appearance, few people think of the brain as a “muscle.” While there’s definitely no sinew in synapses, the brain is a lot like a muscle in that it needs to be constantly trained in order to perform at a higher level. If you think about it, speed reading is a lot like mental exercise. Learning how to speed read effectively will go a long way toward training your brain not only to take in more information but to do it faster too.Speed reading is a mental exercise, helping to train your brain to take in more information.Click To Tweet Time Saver Time is more precious than gold, and retirement is often called the golden years, so why waste something so precious? As the name suggests, speed reading helps you to read things faster, which means you’ll also understand things at a quicker pace. Of course, you wouldn’t want to rush through that wonderful novel, but when it comes to newspapers, magazines, websites, pamphlets, and manuals, wouldn’t it be great to cut through the fluff and get right to the good stuff? In the Know As the saying goes, the more you learn, the less you know. While this wise adage bears some truth, it can also be said that nothing beats learning and discovering new things. Speed reading will allow you to get through a range of materials, keeping you well-informed of current happenings and information. On top of giving you an edge, when conversing with your children or grandkids, being in-the-know also helps to boost your self-confidence. Focus Sometimes, it’s hard to focus on a task, simply because we’re too distracted by busy schedules, noise, stress, and what have you. Even if you’re retired, and life may not be as hectic as it once was, the mind can still wander and occupy itself with negative thoughts and memories during occasions when it needs to be focused. Speed reading can help you there, because it trains your brain to be sharp, and with practice, it will keep it that way. Motivation The lack of motivation plagues even the best of us, so how can speed reading help you to shake it off? Well, as mentioned earlier, speed reading improves memory, confidence, and focus, which in turn will go a long way in boosting emotional well-being and problem-solving skills. Armed with these positive attributes, you need not feel like your best years are behind you. The motivation to try, question, seek, and enjoy will come naturally.Speed reading improves memory, confidence, and focus, which can boost emotional well-being.Click To Tweet As you’re well aware, there’s no age limit to learning. Plus, if you’re ever in doubt, always remember that old idiom “It’s never too late to learn”!