Speed Reading In Only One Hour

Presidents Nixon and Carter, under mountains of briefings, followed suit. Recently, the attractions of speed reading have been revived and promoted, for a couple of reasons. The first is the persuasive perception that we are living in times of information overload, that we are daily presented with more words than we can possibly cope with, and that new tactics are called for to enable us to make sense of it all. The apps generally use a technology called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation RSVP , in which individual words, or blocks of two or three words, appear one after the other in the centre of your screen.

Two of the more popular platforms offer a slightly different approach. The Spreeder app allows you to choose the number of words you see at each moment, and to vary the rate at which these words come at you. I found that I could just about take in three-word chunks of Animal Farm for sense at wpm, but that in doing so I not only had a slight feeling of panic in trying to keep up, I lost any sense of the rhythm of language, and with it any of the tone of what was being said.

Spritz — which drives the app ReadMe! With this technology I found I could just about read simple passages for sense at wpm, an ability I imagine would become more natural, if not necessarily more comfortable, the longer you practised it. In most cases you start, as Evelyn Wood used to, with an assessment of your current bad reading habits. An app called Acceleread was mildly impressed with my ability to read a passage about deep sea creatures and then answer a series of questions about it.

The assessment began positively enough: You already demonstrate some advanced techniques such as reading words in groups rather than individually.

Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read % Faster in 20 Minutes | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

Before embarking on this body-building course for my eyes and brain, I read through some of the quite complex science of reading generally at no more than wpm, and with plenty of distractions. There have been many studies of the claims made by speed reading courses, going back to the early promises of Evelyn Wood. As well as arguing that it was possible to utilise peripheral vision, she claimed that our eyes were lazy, unless yoked into rigorous training.

The mechanics of reading have only recently been fully understood. The transition of that focus to the next word is allowed by saccades — fine, ballistic eye movements, which last for about 0. The eye then either keeps moving forward or momentarily and subconsciously flicks back to confirm the sense of what has been read so far. All the experiments suggested that short-circuiting any part of this process led to a loss of comprehension and retention.

The genius of normal reading is that it can minutely vary those fractions of seconds depending on how much of the sense of what is being read has been grasped. In a dense sentence, with sub-clauses and unfamiliar language, fixations and saccades are adjusted accordingly, so there is no break in reading flow. In easier passages the eye dances along swiftly. How does this understanding bear on the apps such as Spreeder and Spritz? The acceleration they promise tends to depend on three issues: When scientists tried to get people to eliminate sounding words subliminally in their heads — by having them constantly hum while reading, for example — comprehension dropped precipitously.

The evidence suggested that when people saw words, they instantaneously accessed the sounds of those words to help understand them. The two processes worked seamlessly; speed dislocated them. Wow I felt like such a slow reader wpm. However this helped me reach wpm in just 20 minutes! Sounds too good to be true! Interesting tactics here, Tim. I have already added them to the ones I actually learned from a library book: Hopping, Skimming and Pacing.

I find myself reading faster after i have read any article about speed reading or scanning. You cannot base anything on 2 people, especially when one of the test subjects is the researcher. One thing I disliked about this paper was that they chose short material to test, and pointed out it took longer using this method, which it obviously would, especially if you use all the steps. But they also say read books in about a third of the time, which I believe, but Ferriss just gave a method for that in the above video article.

A bit of acclamation must be factored. The line could be up to 80 characters in length. Working pages upon pages of dotmatrix columnar greenbar perf became second nature. I have heard of photoreading, and although, the concept seems to be fine, I never liked it. I also want to enjoy books consciously, which photoreading does not allow in the same sense. Photoreading is a multi step process for information extraction. If your purpose is to enjoy a book, you use different techniques. They recommend the subconscious process, and then just reading the book.

Who forbids you to go slow in a super fast car? I have heard of what you are talking about. And I am on a journey of learning how to speed Read. Do you know where I can get more info on The topic you were talking about? You are a great inspiration. Looking forward to your next book! Page not found from the link. I used the method sometime ago with great success but would be interested in the PDF.

Check it at http: I have been waiting for this post for a long time.

Speed reading claims discredited by new report

Since I read about your seminar in the book. I was looking for something to help my wife increase her reading speed for an upcoming English exam. I tried the site you linked, and in the process of testing it for her, my reading speed went from wpm to ! I also remember having purchased a speed reading book back in high school. It does take time to practice but the rewards are great I suppose. This one is even better: This for me is the efficiency equivalent of the invention of OCR in scanning — especially when it is so easy to have wish lists on services like shelfari, but so little time to actually read them.

Very simply just using a pointing device to help the eye track increases reading speeds. My personal preference to training increased reading is to go far faster than possible, not just 3x. In the beginning they eyes might get only one or two words. Yet after seconds, the brain starts to learn and expand that.

Other tools for training the peripheral vision are some of the games on lumosity and other similar web sites. Then we go the other side and train how to read the page in one second, although that takes a bit more effort, training and experience. I will put this technique to practice and keep reading your posts, it took a while for me to post a comment but I think you are the real thing. People are asking whether given target speed of wpm, one must practice for 2, wpm i. Or else, you should say 2x. Or correct the article. Do you retain things and are the skills lost if you stop practicing?

The potential for increased productivity and effectiveness is enormous. Keep leading us to the promised land, Tim. This is pretty old information. What I mean by that is it has had time for debunking. There is no magic here, and there is no requirement to read beyond comprehension rate when actually reading for recall.

The conditioning and drilling is a different matter with a different purpose. If you just make better use of peripheral vision, reduce fixation time and duration, you are not missing ANY content whatsoever. The speed then, is up to you. Yep the peripheral vision is key to the boost in reading speed while retaining same comprehension. Speed reading helps me find those key points more quickly, and if I want, I can slow down for comprehension at such key parts of the text.

It should make my work much more efficient, and I plan to teach my children this in homeschooling. It impedes their performance significantly, in spite of their being highly intelligent. Four to six months of training fixes it. Would mind sharing with us what is the precticing routine you have used with them in these 6 months? Btw, have u ever tried or heard any feedback on other famous speedreading techniques? Using this approach on the Made to Stick book, my wpm went from to Those techniques leading up to the second testing, definitely train the eyes to move more efficiently.

About two years ago, I did a similar but much less documented program, which drastically helped. Thanks for posting this Tim. Many people have started suggesting speed reading to me since I am starting grad school in the fall. God I wish I learned some of these techniques in time for University. Way too much time wasted on reading crap I needed just for an exam. I unconsciously do some of these techniques, however, I need to take the time and learn the proper ones and really start cooking.

Its like you read my mind! Have you gone beyond these steps mentioned and focused on other resources for further mastery? And as the poster Tyler asked what are your thoughts on photo reading? I tested PhotoReading when it first appeared on the scene and was being advertised heavily on TV. I have yet to meet anyone who can demonstrate it live and then undergo any type of comprehension or recall testing.

Here are my experiences: At the moment, I am testing myself. One night I dreamed of the pages. In my dream I was able to see the pages but the Text was not sharp, so I was not able to read conscious within my dream. Sometimes I imagine without timestopping , that speedreading goes faster when photoreading ahead. Sometimes when speedreading I rerecognize pages and know that I have seen them before. For the time being, I will continue to be very selective about what I read low-information diet to minimize the time spent with reading.

Reading a book by A. Huxley about the art of seeing, in which he describes how he manged to heal strong his seeing problems, I figured out that while trying to photoread I had the wrong focus with my eyes. While learning the photofocus I tryed to reach a visonable expression like described by Scheele in his book. Actually I figured out that I did not focus on a thing which is farer away than the book. Instead my visual focus was set up for seeing things very close.

To test if you do the same mistake you can use a pen and move it infront of your eyes while beeing in the wrong photo focus.

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If you see the pen shark, I think, than you do it wrong. I will give it an other try after having learned to focus in the distance. What might improve my eyes too as Scheele describes too. Next to the exercices of the bates method. The experiences I made with sunlight concerning the Bates method, are positive. At least in the moment just after the exercise.

It really depends on what you are reading. Sometimes it is necessary to slow down and let your mind and emotions catch up with what you have read. Not everything should be read quickly. It is somewhat akin to inline skating through the Louvre. Sure you can see everything 10 times as fast, but you miss details along the way.

Speed reading is basically scanning. With that said, I had a professor once who could scan long reports in seconds and give detailed feedback. Maybe I just need more practice. Thank for the great post.

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I just did the exercises in the article. I practiced photoreading quite a bit in college while cramming for exams. I found that I could not effectively recall the information for essay questions and oral exams, but it seemed to really help with multiple choice questions. Then again, maybe I just got good at taking MC tests. Any way I have been implimenting 4-HWW principals for about 2 years now and am loving life on my own terms! Thanks again and best of luck on your next book amigo! Sometimes for me it is hard to deal with the fact that education is not directly income generating.

Let me add to this something that I learned when I took my first speed reading course. I did it when I was an institutional broker for a large investment bank in London. He was teaching a class in Oxford. His first student came into the room and sat very near him. Seinfeld would have called him a close talker, I believe. As the tuition began, the first speed reading accessment came in. On average, most people read about words per minute, or about as fast as we talk, as we sound the words in our head as we read.

This kid came in at 1, words per minute. The instructor was astounded. Now most people, after trying and improving a few times, you can get over 1, words — I hit over 1, per minute — but it takes a couple of tries. This kid was doing 1, per minute every time, without the tuition. They just look at shapes. Much like Su Doku, which is NOT a numbers game, just a game played with numbers, you need to get 9 shapes in a square, row, or line without repeating. Like Liked by 4 people. I think it will stick with practice. Great post Tim, and awesome comment Sean about the deaf person who is seeing the word versus saying it in his mind!

Good things really do come to those who wait! You have both refuelled my drive to research alternate ways of teaching my struggling students to read. You have singlehandedly managed to change my way of learning, you introduced me to subvocalization and the effects it has on my reading efficiency.. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thanks for posting this. Finally someone tells us the actual science behind speed reading. This stuff actually works. I suggest you review you referencing. People are judgrd by the company they keep. I shot my Words Per Minute WPM rate up very quickly from to with just a few practice runs using this easy and fun program!! I was considering the speed reading exercises for some time now. At least when it comes to casual reading for pleasure I mean. However when it comes to work I would really like to improve my speed. I often need to look through hundreds of pages in a short time.

I have yet to do the exercise but I am hopeful for the wpm increase. I will be testing it in a foreign language, namely Polish. I thought it would be interesting if we could compare the results for different languages. You said it was tested in five Which ones? Has this been posted before? Maybe it was in the book? I remember it from someplace. Naysayers, it really works. But thats usually after a couple days living in airports.

Thanks to all of you for the great comments and dialogue! You said that the above post is a concise version of the actual course you taught at Princeton. Could you post the pdf containing transcripts of the entire course material so that those interested in following the entire PX project seminar, could go through all the contents of that course. Tim, very interesting post indeed. For online material, I recommend spreed! Set the speed to 4 times target, read it, then 2 times target, read it, then target speed. You will not understand the first two passes, but will do surprisingly well at your target speed!

Also, use this bookmarklet, which I modified from the site to handle apostrophes and bad Unicode characters:. Another one that I have been using as a resource is http: I hope to meet you one day and have been a big fan for years! Thanks but how to apply this with reading on computer screen? I have the same concern with my mobile phone. I read a lot on its little screen but I feel it is not fast enough.

I find I can use vertical peripheral for predictable nonchallenging text, skipping like this: Granted this is faster. Do I need to train it as a habit? I already haphazardly picked up speed reading principles and do use them when comprehension load is light. Will I see a further major cognitive processing benefit by practicing? Or is the real bottleneck cognition past a certain basic proficiency?

For example, when consciously using physical saccajumps I will still regress back to ponder over new things, like the sacca word. Does this go away with training? Or is cognition the bottleneck at that point? I agree with JB. I found myself naturally doing that. If you build a two-dimensional map of the text in your head, piecing it together using alternating ends of a line lets you scan the page faster. Sounds just like the adapted version of an Evelyn Wood-style speed reading class I took as a kid in high school.

Here are some comments that fit with my experience;. I remember seeing someone speed read in high school and always lwanted to learn. I forgot about this for a long time. Really, thanks for posting this. I need to read much faster… would save me tons of time with my website and other job. Just read about this in your book the other day. Back-reading is a major issue when it comes to increasing your speed, so these are great tips. If you read this article, you can pretty much scrap any speed-reading book out there.

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This is an excellent summary, written in readable English, of what countless books on the subject with regurgitate. This is a prime example of results vs. Just things I picked up while trying to finish schoolwork faster. A lot of very specific information here; thanks for sharing. As a person who is a slow reader with excellent recall, I look forward to trying out this technique. Does anyone have any good recommendations for a book to practice this on that meets the requirements pg, lays flat, etc.

My question is can you turn it off? After conditioning the brain to read this way, can you simply gear back down and read at a normal pace? I ask because I am one of those people in the world he reads just for the pure enjoyment. But if I train my brain that fast is the new normal and then want to go back to regular speed, will it be a constant process of learning and then unlearning?

Thank you very much.

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Greetings from the Netherlands. I read your book, and this article reminded me this technique. I need to put this technique into practice. I believe that the training times can be changed. That kind of techniques clearly help you to increase your reading speed. Basically they are the same things I teach in my speed reading courses. I think there is at least one important thing what has not turned much attention in this post, but what is vital for achieving good comprehension at high speeds.

You have to fully focus to the text you are reading. The main reason behind poor concentration is that we let our thoughts to wander away form the text. Because of that we do not remember what we read even if we read at slow speed. Actually reading at faster pace can help you to increase your comprehension if you concnetration abilities are poor. Consider an example of driving a car. Assume that you are driving at 30mph at any empty highway. If you are driving that slow then you can shave your beard, eat hamburgers and read newspaper while driving and you will still not crash. Now assume that you are driving at mph.

Now there is no possibility to read newspaper while driving. The same principle applies to reading. If you are reading at slow pace then you can think on other things while reading. If you are speed reading then there is no possibility to think irrelevant thought.

So if you force yourself to read faster then it wil help you to improve your concentration. In addition you will benefit from practicing special concentration exercises. For example you could peform following drills: Take a book and open it on any page. Count words in every paragraph. Count words only with your eyes, do not use your fingers or pencil for that purpose. If you reach the next paragraph, start counting from zero again. Duration of the exercise is minutes. Draw a geometrical shape on the paper for example circle, square, triangle.

Then draw a similar but a bit smaller shape inside the previously drawn shape. Draw it in a way that the smaller shape fits in the bigger shape, but does not touch it. Next draw another shape inside the previous one exactly as you did before. Continue until you reach the shape with minimal possible size.

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Reading a boring text. Find a book or journal, which content offers you absolutely no interest. Find minutes for the exercise.