Part of any good speed-reading program involves training your mind as well as your eyes. There are many things that slow down your reading speed, and most of them are because of your mind, not because of your eyes. One of the key speed-reading techniques is learning to focus your mind to concentrate on what you’re reading while keeping your eyes relaxed and moving quickly through the text. With this combination, you’ll find that you’re able to read and comprehend at a faster pace than you thought was possible.

Unhelpful Habit #4: Lack of Focus

As we mentioned in the last post, if you’re afraid of missing something important in the text you’re reading, you’ll slow yourself down. Not only does your reading speed decrease, but having that worry in your mind also interferes with your comprehension of the text. After all, the amount of brain power you’re devoting to worrying about how well you’re reading could actually be devoted to making sure that you are reading well. A lack of focus might also cause you to backtrack, or read something over and over.

If you’re thinking of seven other things at the time you’re reading something, you probably will miss part of what you read. If you aren’t mentally focused on what you’re reading, whether you’re reading slowly and carefully through a legal contract before signing it or just skimming through a magazine article while waiting for your train to arrive, you’ll prevent yourself from absorbing the information, whether it’s information you need to retain or not.

The fix: Learn to pay attention to what you’re reading, in proportion to the need to absorb and remember the information in the text. Everything your brain processes by way of the visual cortex is stored in your memory, but whether it’s put in short-term memory or in long-term memory for future use depends on how you’ve trained your brain to memorize information. Part of that training involves categorizing and sorting information by importance. If you’re flipping through the pages of a weekly magazine in the doctor’s office, your trained brain will probably decide that you don’t really need to remember the details of the catered buffet planned for that television star’s wedding, but when your doctor hands you the list of instructions on how to prepare for your upcoming surgery, your brain and your eyes will definitely focus on each step. Train your brain, and trust your brain, to help you improve both your reading speed and your ability to recall the things you’ve read.

For more information on improving your memory, check out this blog.