If you wake up every Monday morning dreading the number of things you have to do in the week, and fall asleep every Friday night frustrated that you haven’t had time to do them, then you’ll appreciate the fact that speed reading can be one of the best time management tools you’ll find. We all have so much information we have to deal with over the course of the day that anything which helps us to get through that information and those tasks more efficiently will help. And if you can get through your workload more quickly, you’ll have more time for yourself, your friends, and your family. You’ll be more relaxed, which will reduce the stress you feel at the workplace, and that will make you even more efficient.

While it’s obvious that a faster reading speed leads to the ability to get through work more quickly because you can read and process more words in less time, you may not be aware of another advantage of learning to speed read, and that’s learning how to read. We don’t mean “how to read” in the way you first learned to read as a child, but rather how to selectively sort through the piles of reading material you need to deal with. Most people spend a lot of time plowing through material they really don’t need to read in detail. However, a trained speed reader knows how to identify and categorize that material into three piles:

Scanning. Actually, all of the material gets scanned to classify it, but some items will not need more than that. You can usually get the gist of any text by scanning through it, noting the captions, titles, and summaries. If that’s all you needed from the document, then that’s all you need to do. However, if there are details you know you’ll need that you did not get from the scan, you’ll put the material in the second pile.

Skimming. At the second level, you’ll skim through the text and make a note of the key words, the chapter headings, any call-out quotes, and the tables and diagrams. You’ll probably want to read the first and last sentence of each paragraph to make sure you have a good idea of that part of the text. Speed reading training will teach you how to identify this key information.

Slowing down. With very detailed or highly technical material, you may not get all of the information you need by skimming through the text. In that case, you’ll put the document on a third pile, one that you know you’ll need to set aside some focused reading time to deal with.

At the end of this process, you should have three piles, and it’s very likely that much of the first pile can be thrown away. The second pile is probably things that you’ll want to file for later reference, and the third – which is undoubtedly the smallest – will give you a good idea of how much time to schedule into your week for reading.

If you find that something has stayed in one of these three piles for a long time and you haven’t read it, ask yourself if you really need to keep it around. There’s a saying in the fashion industry that if you have something in your closet that you haven’t worn for a year, throw it out – it’s obviously not something you’re going to wear. In the same light, look at any stacks of magazines, newspaper articles, or books that you have in a pile you’ve mentally marked “I’ll read these some day.” If that day hasn’t arrived, consider getting rid of the pile. If you never read through that material, it’s just one more thing on your weekly to-do list that will give you more stress, and no positive results.

In an earlier post, we talked about how taking notes, highlighting, summarizing, and otherwise marking up a text can help you reduce the overall amount of time you spend getting the information you need from a piece of reading material. If you followed the steps we suggested, you should have one or more pages of a book or article with key words highlighted. In this post, we’ll talk about how you can use that marked-up text as an exercise focusing on key words, something that will help increase reading speed in general.

Read through the text you’ve already highlighted, but only look at the key words. You’ll probably automatically start to read the words in between, but stop yourself from doing so. Remember, you’ve already identified the important words and phrases, and the rest is just clutter that will slow you down right now. Get used to the sensation of skipping over the non-essential parts of the text.

By training your eyes to focus only on the key words and phrases, you’re also training your brain and your eyes to take in more than one word at a time. This will translate into increased reading speed when move on to a new text, since you’ll be naturally “clumping” the words and processing them more quickly.

Another advantage of training your eyes to focus on key words is that you’ll be much less likely to subvocalize (to “read aloud” in your head) because the key words won’t make complete sentences, so your instinct to “read along” as you scan the text will not be triggered. Since subvocalization is one of the habits that will slow you down, eliminating this tendency will also help you become a faster speed reader.

As you practice with the marked-up text, you’ll find that you don’t need to read every word because the information you need is in the key phrases and words. Your goal is to reach the point where you’re able to automatically identify key words without marking them. Once you’ve trained yourself to pick out the key words, you won’t need to mark the text unless it’s something that you’ll need for later reference.

The process of vocabulary improvement is something that started when you were an infant, as you heard words and learned to attach them to people and objects around you. Later, you began connecting the sounds of words to their visual appearance and started acquiring new words each time your parents read a story to you as you followed along. Finally, you learned how to add words to your vocabulary both consciously as you were taught new words in school, and unconsciously by simply seeing a word enough times that it became part of your vocabulary automatically. As an adult, most of your vocabulary-building happens in this almost subconscious way. You learn new words by reading them in context; perhaps you look the word up, or just make your best guess at its meaning, but you probably don’t stop and say to yourself, “I must remember this word and make sure it’s part of my vocabulary.”

While rapid vocabulary improvement is best done by a focused study program, simply reading as much as possible will also gradually increase vocabulary. Obviously, the faster you read the more word’s you’ll see. In addition, the more words you know, the faster you’ll read, because you won’t have to slow down or stop to look up a definition. It’s best to develop an eclectic reading style so that you get the broadest possible range of words and see more than one way of using them.

The adjective eclectic (pronounced eh-KLEK-tik) means “drawing from a wide variety of sources and styles” and comes from the Greek verb eklegein (“to select”). Applied to reading, it means that you should avoid just reading things you’re familiar with; for example, if you normally only read spy thrillers, pick up a book on travel instead. It’s important to read many different things not only for the vocabulary, but also to see how different authors use the words. You can learn how to emphasize the beauty of words through poetry, and how to craft descriptive but to-the-point explanations by reading books on science or engineering that have been written for the general public. You’ll see examples of metaphor and simile, of conversational styles and narrative flow, and absorb new ideas along with the new words.

Cross-posted at The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog.

If you’re trying to increase your reading speed, it probably seems counterintuitive to include note-taking in the process. After all, if you’re stopping to take notes or mark a spot in the text, you’re also stopping the reading process, right? And the answer is “yes, you are” – but also “no, you’re not.” It all depends on whether you define reading process as your moment-by-moment words per minute rate, or as the total time it takes you to get all of the information you need out of a particular text.

The goal of speed reading is to absorb, process, and retain the essential contents of an article, book, magazine, or other written material. If you read something very quickly but don’t remember what you read, and later have to go back and re-read the material to look up a fact or figure, then the total time you spend reading the text is doubled. On the other hand, if you pause briefly to make notes, you’ll do two things: first, you’ll help your brain retain those specific items by incorporating another activity (writing) and thus activating more parts of the brain; and second, you’ll have a quick reference for later use, and so won’t have to page through the material looking for one small phrase.

You can make notes in the margins of the text, highlight or underline key phrases, or jot down what you need on a separate piece of paper (highly recommended if you’re reading a book from the library!). Here are some notes on taking notes you might find helpful:

Mark key words to get a quick visual overview of the entire page or chapter for later reference.

Highlight phrases that encapsulate the main ideas in the text.

Make a note of quotes that might be useful when citing the text in a presentation, and keep a list of facts, figures, and statistics that you can use later.

Write down in your own words the main points of a section; rewording something adds impact and makes the information easier to remember. Be sure to include the reason why you found what you marked important.

At the end of each major section or chapter, make your own short summaries to lock the information in your understanding and memory.

If you transfer all the notes you made to another page or two, it’s the perfect review material, and there’s no need to keep the original text. This will help you keep clutter off your desk, and you can organize the notes in a file folder in your desk drawer or on your computer.

Do you ever catch yourself leaning forward to look at your computer screen, or squinting to reduce the glare from the television at night, or holding a book closer or farther away so you can focus on the words? All three of these actions may be warning signs that you’re not doing all you can to keep your eyes in good shape, and that will have an immediate impact on your speed reading ability. Speed reading depends on having healthy, strong eye muscles. There are six muscles in the face that control the movement of the eye (the extraocular muscles), or the direction you look. There is a set of ciliary muscles inside the eye that change the shape of the lens, which allows you to focus on what you’re looking at. Other muscles change the size of the pupil, which determines how much light reaches the retina. All of these muscles work together in the reading process. Here are some tips to keep in mind to reduce strain on your eye muscles:

Make sure the light level is right. If you’re half-closing your eyes against glare, or peering forward trying to make out words in a dark room, then you’re putting unnecessary strain on your eye muscles. A room that’s too bright is as bad as one that’s too dark. Many people think that by turning off the light it will be easier to see the lighted screen of a television or computer, but in reality it creates too much contrast. Keep a light on but adjust the screen or monitor so that there is no reflection from the light that will interfere with the image. Always make sure there’s enough light for you to easily read any written materials.

Keep your eyes moist. Dry and irritated eyes won’t focus as quickly. Our eyes are mostly liquid, both inside and on the surface, and the natural remedy for dry eyes is the liquid produced by the tear ducts, which is spread across the surface of the eye by the action of the eyelids when we blink. This lubricates the eye while also washing away any dust, pollen, or other irritants. If you don’t blink often enough, your eyes will not get this necessary cleansing. Some people have a hard time producing enough liquid naturally, so artificial tears (eye drops) may be a solution. However, merely remembering to close your eyes and blink more often may be all you need.

Relax the muscles of your face. Although only six muscles directly control the movement of the eyes, all of the muscles of your head, face, and neck are connected. Keep your neck flexible and your shoulders relaxed, and you’ll find that your eyestrain decreases. Do a gentle direct massage of the muscles around your eye, both above and below, if your eyes are feeling tired.

Get regular vision checkups. An ophthalmologist will be able to look inside the eye to check on the internal structures and the action of the muscles. If you need to wear glasses or corrective lenses but you don’t, this places a great deal of stress on the muscles of your eyes, and may age them prematurely.

Keep your eyes in good shape, and your speed reading skills will stay in top form as well.

One of the best ways to improve your vocabulary is by reading as much as you can, from as many different categories of materials as possible. By exposing yourself to new texts and new information, you’ll learn many new vocabulary words, and also how to use those words in context. If you had taken the same vocabulary words from a list of words unconnected to text, you would miss the opportunity to see how they’re used, and that would slow down your rate of vocabulary acquisition. Naturally, the faster you’re able to read, the more material you’ll be able to cover. That’s why speed reading also helps with vocabulary improvement.

A good vocabulary, on the other hand, will help improve your reading skills. If you don’t have to stop or slow down to try to figure out the meaning of a word, your reading rate will stay high, and your comprehension of the text will not go down. In order to guarantee that your speed reading ability continues to grow, work on improving your vocabulary as well.

An easy way to add even more words to your vocabulary is to have a “word of the day” feature programmed into your computer. The Ultimate Vocabulary software system provides this, but there are also free phone apps that give you new words each day, and even paper calendars you can keep on your desk. Glance over at the calendar every hour or so, and by the end of the day – and with very little effort – you’ll have memorized the word and its definitions.

Here’s a word for you today: omnivorous. You might be able to guess already what it means, as most people know the word carnivorous (“meat-eating”). The Latin roots omni- (“all, everything”) and vorare (“to devour”) combine to make the word omnivorous, or “devouring everything.” We picked this word because that’s the sort of reader you should be in order to develop the large vocabulary and fast reading speed you want. Don’t stick to the types of books that you always read – pick a new category from the library or book store, and you might be surprised at what you end up enjoying. Not only will you find new things to read, you’ll get new information and new vocabulary words. Be hungry for new words, and you’ll always find something to satisfy you.

Cross-posted at The Vocabulary Builder’s Blog.

A Harvard professor once gave a group of 1,500 top-ranked college freshman a reading test (though he didn’t tell them it was one) by asking them to read a 30-page chapter of a history book which they would be quizzed on after 20 minutes of reading time. He told them that in the quiz, they would have to write a short essay about what they read and to identify the important details in the chapter. After 20 minutes, the students took the quiz, and while in general everyone did fairly well on a set of multiple-choice questions about specific facts mentioned in the chapter, only 15 out of the 1,500 – that’s only one percent of the entire group of students – were able to describe the overall theme of the chapter in their essay. Can you guess why these few students managed to complete this task? It’s because they focused on the keywords: they read the section marked “Summary,” they reviewed the call-out notes in the margins, and they scanned through the entire text looking at the headings and highlighted text. What they didn’t do was start at the first sentence and begin reading word-for-word through the text. Students who did that had two problems: first, they weren’t able to complete the chapter; and second, they weren’t able to form an overall idea of the chapter as a whole.

The lesson to learn from this study is that keywords are the key to increasing your reading speed. Get into the habit of starting out at what some people call “the 30,000-foot view” of a text. Scan the headings, look at any text in boxes (this is often the most important point in a paragraph), read the introduction and summary, and go over any review sections at the end. Always keep in mind the reason you’re reading the text, and the questions you want answered by the text. After you have finished the high-level scan of the material, ask yourself if your questions have been answered. If they have, you’re done! If not, the scanning process will have identified the best places to look for those answers in the text, and you’ll avoid having to go through the whole thing.