There are two aspects to speed reading: the rate at which you read words, and your ability to process, understand, and remember what you read. Much of the advice you’ll get on speed reading is focused on the first aspect; however, the fastest reading speed in the world won’t do you any good if you don’t remember what you just read. Here are some tips to help you make the most of your skills in speed reading:
Mark your text with notes. Underline important words and concepts, and make notes and comments in the margins. Don’t go overboard thinking you have to underline everything – look for the key points in each section. Use a bookmark, turn down the page, or attach a sticky note to mark each page that you’ve written on. If you can’t make notes in the book, write your comments on the sticky notes themselves.
Collect your notes in one place. When you’ve gone through the book, get out a separate sheet of paper. Go back and start at the beginning of the book, flipping through to each page where you’ve made a note, and transferring the notes onto the sheet of paper. Add headings to separate the notes into logical sections according to the main ideas or topics. You can also use different colors of ink when writing things down to distinguish between different topics and categories of information. If ideas or questions occur to you as you’re doing this, write them down too. By writing things down in this fashion, you’re involving your body with physical action that will reinforce your mind’s mental activity.
Organize your notes in the best format. Once you’ve gone through the book and transferred your notes to the paper, re-read what you’ve written down and make any changes in the order or grouping of each item to make more sense, if necessary. Continue to add your own thoughts and to make links and connections between ideas and important themes. At this point, you should be developing a sense of how all of the information fits together.
Summarize your notes and ideas. Read through your reorganized notes and write a summary. By putting things in your own words, you’ll lock the ideas in your brain. If there is a summary of the book or text (done by an editor, reviewer, or the author themselves), how closely does your summary match? Did you identify the information you needed from the book, and do you understand it?
Your speed reading will help you get through the first and second steps of this process in the most efficient manner, but taking the time to organize and summarize what you’ve read will help you retain that information, so you won’t have to use your speed-reading skills to read it over again!
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