We’ve all got our routines, and they’re usually pretty comfortable. We read the newspaper or our favorite online blogs over morning coffee, we flip through our usual magazines during lunch and coffee breaks at work, and at night we relax with a book in our preferred genre, whether that’s mystery, romance, or nonfiction. But one thing about routines is that they can end up slowing down your reading speed, and it’s something you might not even notice. One reason that this happens is because routine often dulls the mind, and habit means we stop paying close attention. Since part of speed reading is good comprehension, if you’re not focused on your reading material, you’re missing out on the content.

Getting out of any reading rut you’re in is simple: mix up your materials. That doesn’t mean you need to change the order of the pages in a book, but rather that you need to change the book itself. When you’re always reading the same things from the same sources, your mind might start to go on “autopilot” and you won’t be concentrating on the text. Concentration is key to faster reading speed with good comprehension, and when you’re not familiar with the material you’re reading, you’re more likely to concentrate.

There are several other reasons why a mix of reading materials is good for you, and for your reading speed. You’ll find that there are many interesting topics that you didn’t know about before, and that will keep your mind alert and eager for more knowledge. You’ll be faster to pick out new sources of information, and that will provide you with even more variety in your texts. The new material will generally contain a lot of new vocabulary words, and that will build your language skills. Better vocabulary means better speed reading skills, because you won’t have to stop to look up new words all the time.

Take steps in the new year to get a new perspective on your reading material, and you’ll find that 2013 will bring you the reading speed you need to stay moving into the future.