By Abby Marks Beale of  www.revitupreading.com

Think about your reading education. If you are like most, you haven’t had any reading training since elementary school yet your reading workload has certainly become more challenging and plentiful since then. Some people figure out how to manage it better than others.

The more challenged readers think some or all of these thoughts: “I’m a slow reader”, “I get sleepy when I read”, “I don’t easily understand what I read and I am frustrated”, “I feel like I waste my time when I read”, “I have a hard time concentrating when I read”, and/or “I have a hard time remembering what I read.” All of these negative thoughts reflect passive approaches to reading while people who learn speed reading strategies have more positive thoughts and are more active in their reading process.

Active readers use a variety of specific mindful and conscious reading strategies that force them to gain focus through an increase in reading speed. This increased focus allows for improved comprehension which results in stronger retention.

The active reading strategies are really simple to learn but are NOT widely taught in schools. Simple things like using one’s hands or card to read with or expanding one’s peripheral vision can be easily learned.

Some people think that if they learn speed reading they will have to read everything fast. This is a fallacy. Learning speed reading gives you speed choices that you mindfully decide upon whenever you sit down to read. It means you may speed up over familiar material and slow down over unfamiliar. It may mean you can will be able to read faster when you are sitting at a desk or table and slower when in bed. You ultimately have more control over your reading than ever before.

Look online for speed reading courses and software to learn more about this great skill set!