There’s no magic wand to wave that will instantly make you a speed reader. To really learn how to read more quickly, you need to practice, because you’re working on replacing the habits of all of the years you’ve been reading slowly. After all, most people learned to read at an early age, from teachers who frequently instructed their class to “sound the words out as you go” and “read slowly so you understand everything.” It can be very hard to break habits that were started so long ago, but with practice, it can be done.

Like anything you practice, speed reading will become easier as you go along, and your progress will be measurable. We encourage you to practice for 15 minutes a day. The exercises in the 7 Speed Reading program are perfect for focused practice time, and many of them can be done either at the computer or away from your desk. You can apply those lessons throughout the day to the material you have to read at work, at school or at home.

Because you’re doing things in a different way, it may feel strange at first, but you’ll soon get into new reading habits. Here are some of the old habits you’ll be breaking:
– backtracks and regressing
– subvocalization
– word-by-word reading
– lack of focus

In the next post we’ll start talking about how you can train yourself to lose these old habits and replace them with new habits that will increase your reading speed.