Speed reading is going through the written content at a very high speed, usually each line under 1s. An average reading speed is 200 to 250 words per minute, but with practice and the right training, you can easily achieve over twice that. A good speed reading skill will make you read over 500-700 words per minute.
The objective of speed reading is to understand the gist of what you are reading by glancing at the content without emphasizing each word. You glance at the lines using your peripheral vision and try to interpret what the author is trying to say.
Imagine reading a book at such a speed, you can finish it by the time most people are done reading a few chapters only. Not just that, it’s becoming an essential skill for highly paid individuals by saving their time and effort.
For example, you would not want a lawyer to read slowly as it’ll take a lot of time, while you would want him to go through all of your files as soon as possible.
Another example could be that you have a presentation in a few minutes and you just received some new facts that might need going through like 50-60 pages in 15 mins. Then this skill set can come in really handy.
Some benefits of speed reading:
Improved Memory
You will be able to retain and learn faster and in larger volumes. Speed reading will keep pushing your brain to interpret things a lot faster and in a more efficient manner. It will also increase your audio interpreting speed.
Improved Focus
As speed reading requires an intake of a large volume of content in reduced time it can’t let you get distracted even for a fraction of a second so you’ll need to be super focused and sharp the entire time. With time as the duration of your speed reading increases, so will your focus.
Improved Logical Thinking
As you are making your brain more efficient, it will carry over to your logical thinking as well as your other brain functioning. Your brain will be able to sort and interpret information at a faster rate which is crucial for your Logical reasoning and thinking.
Time-Saving:
As you are reading data, documents, and books at a much faster rate, you will be saving a lot of time and will be able to get more done in less time.
Rejecting Unnecessary or Unwanted Information
Speed reading can help you glance over the content and judge what the author is trying to say in lesser time this helping you decide quickly whether you want to go ahead with consuming that information or not thus saving your precious time and efforts.
Speed reading isn’t something that is done as leisure by most people but can be considered as one of the most valuable skills to have when talking about high performing individuals.