3 times faster. Other development courses

This tip will allow you to increase your reading speed by 3 times in 10 minutes!

If you haven't gone through mine yet speed reading course, then now you will touch one of its foundations.
If you’ve already done it, then see how easy these exercises are for you. True, they can now slow down your speed. If so, then after trying them, come back to our improvements.

This advice is in the cool book “How to work 4 hours a week and not be stuck in the office “from bell to bell,” live anywhere and get rich.”

If you haven’t read it yet, then especially for you I have posted a link to OZONE here, where you can read brief summary about the book and comments on the book! I recommend ordering it for yourself. At one time I read it in electronic form, and she gave me a lot of cool practical advice in business and in life!

And today we will take only one piece of speed reading advice from this book. Here it is:

Speed reading technique according to Timothy Ferriss:

1. 2 minutes: pencil or finger carry out line under each line as you read, while trying to read as quickly as possible. In the process of reading, we have a spasmodic eye movement, and the use of a visual guide prevents us from jumping over lines.

2. 3 minutes: while reading each line, concentrate your attention on the third word from the beginning(counting from the first word) and on the third word from the end (counting from the last word). This is how we use peripheral vision. Practice “clinging” to the line on both sides at once until you get it right.

3. 2 minutes: Having learned to notice 3-4 words on both sides of the page, try to take only 2 “snapshots” ( fixation) – on the first and last words lines.

4. 3 minutes: practice read very quickly, but without losing meaning and adhering to previously taught techniques. After reading 5 pages in this way, go back to reading at normal speed. At the same time, perception will sharpen and the speed limit will shift.

Please write in the comments:

How useful was this article to you? to increase your reading speed. Which ones do you have? Questions about this technique?
What else would you like to know? on the topic of speed reading?

PS: If you want to specifically improve not only your reading speed, but it is also important for you to better remember what you read, We invite you to our speed reading course, where I combined all this into a clear methodology and a clear algorithm of actions! You come to us, do everything according to our algorithm, and speed reading will stay with you!

Reading quickly is a useful skill needed to modern man, which is very useful in work, study or even when reading art books. In this article we will learn to read 2-3 times faster. The main thing is to learn how to work with your eyes correctly while reading, since a significant part of the time is spent moving the eyes, holding them, and so on.

Required equipment:

A book, two hundred pages thick

Pencil

Open the book so that it does not close on its own. Make sure there are no distractions during the exercise. Remove anything that might distract you. Record 20 minutes on the timer.

1. Reduce the number of stops while you read to zero.

While you are reading, your eyes do not move smoothly through the text, but intermittently, and, as is clear, an involuntary stop of the eyes follows at the end of the jump.

Stopping the eyes takes a lot of time (from a quarter to half a second) compared to reading.

If you don’t feel jumps during normal reading, try closing one eye, then they will become much more noticeable.

2. Don't go back

It often happens that while a person is reading, moments or phrases are missed and the reader has to go back to re-read. For some, it happens automatically, but this happens thanks to the subconscious, which itself returns to the place where concentration was lost.

When reading, we spend 1/3 of our time going back to previous words.

3. Take time to practice concentration

Without special speed reading skills, a central focus is used, which limits the perception of words by half at each jump, as opposed to reading words line by line using peripheral vision.

4. Improve your skills separately

Do not combine two or more exercises in one workout, because this will have less effect than training different exercises separately. For example, reading speed and text comprehension need to be trained separately from each other. When training your reading speed, you don’t need to focus on deep understanding of the text. At first it may not be there at all and that’s normal.

You need to train in reading speed at a speed that is 3 times higher than desired. If you want to learn to read at a speed of 400 words per minute, then you need to train at a speed of 1200 words per minute. It seems like something extreme and fantastic, but it works.

Step 1: Calculate your own reading speed

To get started, select unknown book, but not scientific style, so as not to bother with terminology and possible in unknown words, A better book from the classics.

Set a timer for one minute, and be sure to mark the beginning and end of the passage you will read. Determine the average value of characters in lines and count the number of lines. The result will be the number of characters per minute.

Step 2: Accelerator and Speed

It was said above that a significant amount of time is wasted on pauses in the text, but there is a way to get rid of them and also increase your reading speed.

The finger is a pointer and an accelerator. Slide your finger over the text to make it easier for you. Remember that the eyes follow the finger, not the other way around.

Training with a pointer for 2 minutes

You can use a pencil or pen instead of your finger. The latter will be more convenient due to the existing tip.

The goal of the exercise is to spend 1 second reading each line, no matter whether you understood what you read or not. In two minutes at this speed you will read 450 words. If you conduct the same experiment without an accelerator (pointer), the result will be less.

Training with a pointer for 3 minutes

The exercise is similar to the previous one, but with a change: the reading time for one line is half a second. And again, it doesn’t matter that you didn’t understand what you read, because now the perception of the text is being trained to get used to this reading speed. Maintain speed for 3 minutes.

The number of words after reading will be 600. While you are reading, one obstacle will interfere: it is impossible to immediately start reading without understanding, it will interfere and subconsciously bring you back, but by controlling yourself, you can get rid of this.

Often even the speed of a pencil is lost, because it is difficult for the brain to adapt to a new type of reading - useless reading, thoughts become uncontrollable. Now do you understand the point of such training?

Step 3: Increasing the range of perception

I'll give you an example with a picture. When you look at a painting, you see it entirely and it doesn’t matter where you look. Similarly with the text, concentrating attention on one word, the surrounding words are captured.

This skill is called peripheral vision, which significantly increases the size of the perceived area with text. If you master this skill, your reading speed will triple.

Typically, no one uses their peripheral vision when reading every word. But you can only read a few words in a sentence, the rest of the words will be automatically perceived by peripheral vision

For example, the picture shows text with clearly depicted words - readable words, and dimly marked ones are perceived by peripheral vision.

Exercise 1. Practice the technique in one minute

Using the index, read the text line by line without missing a single word. Read at a speed of one line per second, even if at first it will be difficult to keep up with reading all the words in a line. The brain quickly adapts and after several trainings will keep up with you.

Exercise 2. Improving technique in one more minute

Now start reading from the second word in each line, and do not read the last 2 words.

Exercise 3. Speed up for 3 minutes

If there is no reading comprehension, it’s okay. The exercise presented is focused on perception rather than understanding. Concentrate on the text, immerse yourself in it.

Step 4: Check your reading speed again

Time yourself for one minute and read as quickly as possible, but so that the meaning of the text is clear. If the exercises have been worked out well, then the reading speed will increase by approximately 200% compared to the initial one.

Speed reading in 30 days

Increase your reading speed by 2-3 times in 30 days. From 150-200 to 300-600 words per minute or from 400 to 800-1200 words per minute. The course uses traditional exercises for developing speed reading, techniques that speed up brain function, methods for progressively increasing reading speed, exercises for memorizing what you read, the psychology of speed reading and questions from course participants. Suitable for children and adults reading up to 5000 words per minute.

Other development courses

Development of memory and attention in a child 5-10 years old

The course includes 30 lessons with useful tips and exercises for children's development. In every lesson useful advice, some interesting exercises, an assignment for the lesson and an additional bonus at the end: an educational mini-game from our partner. Course duration: 30 days. The course is useful not only for children, but also for their parents.

Super memory in 30 days

Remember necessary information quickly and for a long time. Do light and simple exercises to train your memory little by little throughout the day. Train your memory with dozens of exercises that will be useful in everyday life.

Oral counting

Learn to quickly and correctly add, subtract, multiply, divide, square numbers, and even take roots. I will teach you how to use easy techniques to simplify arithmetic operations. Each lesson contains new techniques, clear examples and useful tasks.

Brain fitness secrets

The brain, like the body, needs fitness. Exercise strengthen the body, mentally develop the brain. 30 days useful exercises and educational games to develop memory, concentration, intelligence and speed reading will strengthen the brain, turning it into a supercomputer.

Conclusion

At the end of the training, you will notice that: The described exercises are striking in their simplicity and effectiveness. After completing the training, you will notice that:

Peripheral vision has become more extensive

No return to previous words/phrases

Reading speed increased 2-3 times

Back in 1998 in Princeton University a seminar “Project PX” was held, dedicated to high speed reading. This post is an excerpt from that seminar, taken from this article, and personal experience speed up reading.

So, “Project PX” is a three-hour cognitive experiment that allows you to increase your reading speed by 386%. The experiment was carried out on people speaking five languages, and even those suffering from dyslexia were trained to read up to 3,000 words of technical text per minute, 10 pages of text. Page in 6 seconds.

For comparison, the average reading speed in the United States is between 200 and 300 words per minute. We, due to the peculiarities of the language, have from 120 to 180 words per minute. And you can easily increase your numbers to 700-900 words per minute.

All you need is to understand the principles by which human vision works, where time is wasted during the reading process, and how to stop wasting it. When we look at the mistakes and practice not making them, you will read several times faster, not mindlessly skimming, but perceiving and remembering all the information you read.

Are you ready to start the experiment? Then let's begin.

You will need:

book of at least 200 pages;
pen or pencil;
timer.

The book should lie in front of you without closing (press down the pages if it tries to close without support).

You will need at least 20 minutes for one exercise session. Make sure that no one distracts you during this time.

And before we jump straight into the exercises, here are a few short advice how to increase your reading speed.

Make as few stops as possible when reading a line of text.

When we read, our eyes move across the text not smoothly, but in jumps. Each such jump ends with fixation of attention on part of the text or stopping the gaze on an area of about a quarter of the page, as if you were taking a photograph of this part of the sheet.

Each eye stop on the text lasts from 1/4 to 1/2 second.

To feel this, close one eye and lightly press the eyelid with your fingertip, and with the other eye try to slowly glide along a line of text. The jumps become even more obvious if you slide not along the letters, but simply along a straight horizontal line:

Well, do you feel the jumps?

Try to go back through the text as little as possible

A person who reads at an average pace often goes back to reread a missed point. This can happen consciously or unconsciously. IN the latter case the subconscious itself returns the eyes to the place in the text where concentration was lost.

On average, up to 30% of the time is spent consciously and unconsciously going back through the text.

Train your concentration to increase the coverage of words read in one stop

People with average speed reading uses central focus rather than horizontal peripheral vision. Due to this, they perceive half less words in one leap of vision.

Train skills individually

The exercises are different from each other, and you don't need to try to combine them into one. For example, if you are training your reading speed, don't worry about understanding the text. You will progress through three stages: learning the technique, applying the technique to increase speed, and reading with understanding.

The main rule is to practice your technique at three times your desired reading speed. For example, if your reading speed is currently around 150 words per minute, and you want to read 300 words per minute, you need to train to read 900 words per minute.

Step One: Determining Initial Reading Speed

First, we count how many words fit in five lines of text, divide this number by five and round. I counted 40 words in five lines: 40: 5 = 8 - an average of eight words per line.

And lastly: we count how many words fit on the page. To do this, multiply the average number of lines by the average number of words per line: 39 ⋅ 8 = 312.

Now is the time to find out your reading speed. Set the timer for 1 minute and read the text, calmly and slowly, as you usually do.

How much did you get? I have a little more than a page - 328 words.

Step two: landmark and speed

As I wrote above, returning through the text and stopping the gaze takes a lot of time. But you can very well reduce them by using a tool to track your focus.

A pen, pencil, or even your finger will serve as such a tool. After all, when counting words and lines, you probably used a pencil or finger, which helped you not to lose count? We will use it for training.

1. Technique (2 minutes)

Practice using a pen or pencil to maintain focus. Smoothly move your pencil under the line you are reading. at the moment, and concentrate on the place where the tip of the pencil is now.

Set the pace with the tip of a pencil and follow it with your eyes, keeping up with stops and returns through the text. And don't worry about understanding the text, because this is an exercise to develop speed, not comprehension.

Try to complete each line in 1 second and increase your speed with each page.

Do not stay on one line for more than 1 second under any circumstances, even if you do not understand what the text is about.

With this technique, I was able to read 936 words in 2 minutes, which means 460 words per minute. Interestingly, when you follow with a pen or pencil, it seems that your vision is ahead of the pencil, and you read faster. And when you try to remove it, your vision immediately seems to disperse across the page, as if the focus was released and it began to float across the entire sheet.

2. Speed (3 minutes)

Repeat the technique with the tracker, but take no more than half a second to read each line (read two lines of text in the time it takes to say “twenty-two”).

Most likely, you will not understand anything at all from what you read, but that doesn’t matter. Now you are training your perceptual reflexes, and these exercises help you adapt to the system. Do not reduce speed for 3 minutes. Concentrate on the tip of your pen and the technique of increasing speed.

In 3 minutes of such a frantic race, I read five pages and 14 lines, an average of 586 words per minute. The most difficult thing in this exercise is not to slow down the speed of the pencil. This is a real block: you have been reading all your life to understand what you read, and it is not so easy to give up on it.

Thoughts cling to the lines in an effort to return to understand what it is about, and the pencil also begins to slow down. It is also difficult to maintain concentration on such useless reading, the brain gives up and thoughts fly away, which also affects the speed of the pencil.

Step three: expanding the area of perception

When you focus your gaze on the center of the monitor, you can still see it extreme areas. It’s the same with text: you concentrate on one word, but see several words surrounding it.

So, the more words you learn to see in this way using your peripheral vision, the faster you will be able to read. The expanded viewing area allows you to increase reading speed by 300%.

Beginners with normal reading speed spend their peripheral vision on the margins, that is, they run their eyes over the letters of absolutely all the words of the text, from the first to the last. In this case, peripheral vision is wasted on empty fields, and the reader loses from 25 to 50% of the time.

A pumped up reader will not “read the fields”. He will skim only a few words from a sentence, and see the rest in his peripheral vision. In the illustration below you see an approximate picture of the concentration of vision of an experienced reader: words in the center are read, and vague ones are marked by peripheral vision.

Here's an example. Read this sentence:

One day the students were enjoying reading for four hours straight.

1. Technique (1 minute)

Use a pencil to read as quickly as possible, starting with the first word of the line and ending with the last word in the line. That is, there is no expansion of the area of perception yet - just repeat exercise No. 1, but spend no more than 1 second on each line. Under no circumstances should one line take more than 1 second.

2. Technique (1 minute)

Continue to pace your reading with a pen or pencil, but start reading with the second word in the line and finish reading the line two words before the end.

3. Speed (3 minutes)

Start reading from the third word on a line and finish three words before the end, while moving your pencil at a rate of one line per half second (two lines in the time it takes to say “twenty-two”).

If you don't understand a single line of what you read, that's okay. Now you are training your reflexes of perception, and there is no need to worry about understanding. Concentrate on the exercise as hard as you can and don't let your mind wander away from the uninteresting activity.

Step Four: Test Your New Speed

Now it's time to test your new reading speed. Set a timer for 1 minute and read on maximum speed, in which you continue to understand the text. I got 720 words per minute - twice as fast as before starting classes using this method.

These are cool indicators, but they are not surprising, because you yourself begin to notice how the scope of words has expanded. You don’t waste time on fields, you don’t go back through the text, and the speed increases significantly.

If you tried this technique right now, share your success in the comments. How many words per minute did you get before and after?

The ability to read quickly frees up a lot of free time. Just imagine, you can cope with all literature - technical, professional or fiction - three times faster. And now the good news: unlike most skills that need to be mastered gradually, speed reading is available to you after just 20 minutes of training. After all the exercises described in the article, I was able to more than double my reading speed.

Background: "Project PX"
Back in 1998, Princeton University hosted a seminar called Project PX, dedicated to high reading speed. This post is an excerpt of information from that seminar, gleaned from this article, and personal experience with speeding up reading.

You will need:
book of at least 200 pages;
pen or pencil;
timer.

The book should lie in front of you without closing (press down the pages if it tries to close without support).

Find a book that you don't have to hold so it doesn't close.
You will need at least 20 minutes for one exercise session. Make sure that no one distracts you during this time.

And before we jump straight into the exercises, here are some quick tips on how to increase your reading speed.

Make as few stops as possible when reading a line of text.
When we read, our eyes move across the text not smoothly, but in jumps. Each such jump ends with fixation of attention on part of the text or stopping the gaze on an area of about a quarter of the page, as if you were taking a photograph of this part of the sheet.

Each eye stop on the text lasts from 1/4 to 1/2 second.

Well, do you feel the jumps?
Try to go back through the text as little as possible
A person who reads at an average pace often goes back to reread a missed point. This can happen consciously or unconsciously. In the latter case, the subconscious itself returns the eyes to the place in the text where concentration was lost.

On average, up to 30% of the time is spent consciously and unconsciously going back through the text.

Train your concentration to increase the coverage of words read in one stop.
People with average reading speed use central focus rather than horizontal peripheral vision. Due to this, they perceive half as many words in one visual leap.

Train skills individually.
The exercises are different from each other, and you don't need to try to combine them into one. For example, if you are training your reading speed, don't worry about understanding the text. You will progress through three stages: learning the technique, applying the technique to increase speed, and reading with understanding.

Step One: Definition initial speed reading
Now you have to count the number of words and lines in the book you chose for training. We will calculate approximate quantity words, because count exact value It will be too boring and long.

First, we count how many words fit in five lines of text, divide this number by five and round. I counted 40 words in five lines: 40: 5 = 8 - an average of eight words per line.

Next, we count the number of lines on five pages of the book and divide the resulting number by five. I got 194 lines, I rounded up to 39 lines per page: 195: 5 = 39.
And lastly: we count how many words fit on the page. To do this, multiply the average number of lines by the average number of words per line: 39? 8 = 312.

Now is the time to find out your reading speed. Set the timer for 1 minute and read the text, calmly and slowly, as you usually do.

How much did you get? I have a little more than a page - 328 words.

Step two: landmark and speed
As I wrote above, returning through the text and stopping the gaze takes a lot of time. But you can very well reduce them by using a tool to track your focus.
A pen, pencil, or even your finger will serve as such a tool. After all, when counting words and lines, you probably used a pencil or finger, which helped you not to lose count? We will use it for training.

1. Technique (2 minutes)
Practice using a pen or pencil to maintain focus. Smoothly move the pencil under the line you are currently reading and concentrate on the place where the tip of the pencil is now.

Using the tip of a pencil, follow the lines
Set the pace with the tip of a pencil and follow it with your eyes, keeping up with stops and returns through the text. And don't worry about understanding the text, because this is an exercise to develop speed, not comprehension.

Try to complete each line in 1 second and increase your speed with each page.

Do not stay on one line for more than 1 second under any circumstances, even if you do not understand what the text is about.

2. Speed (3 minutes)
Repeat the technique with the tracker, but take no more than half a second to read each line (read two lines of text in the time it takes to say “twenty-two”).

Step three: expanding the area of perception
When you concentrate your gaze on the center of the monitor, you still see its extreme areas. It’s the same with text: you concentrate on one word, but see several words surrounding it.
So, the more words you learn to see in this way using your peripheral vision, the faster you will be able to read. The expanded viewing area allows you to increase reading speed by 300%.

Focus on central words
Here's an example. Read this sentence:

One day the students were enjoying reading for four hours straight.

1. Technique (1 minute)
Use a pencil to read as quickly as possible, starting with the first word of the line and ending with the last word in the line. That is, there is no expansion of the area of perception yet - just repeat exercise No. 1, but spend no more than 1 second on each line. Under no circumstances should one line take more than 1 second.

2. Technique (1 minute)
Continue to pace your reading with a pen or pencil, but start reading with the second word in the line and finish reading the line two words before the end.

3. Speed (3 minutes)
Start reading from the third word on a line and finish three words before the end, while moving your pencil at a rate of one line per half second (two lines in the time it takes to say “twenty-two”).

If you don't understand a single line of what you read, that's okay. Now you are training your perceptual reflexes, and you should not worry about speed. Concentrate on the exercise as hard as you can and don't let your mind wander away from the uninteresting activity.

Step Four: Test Your New Speed
Now it's time to test your new reading speed. Set a timer for 1 minute and read at the maximum speed at which you continue to understand the text. I got 720 words per minute - twice as fast as before starting classes using this method.

From school we were taught to memorize information mechanically, that is, to cram. This is ineffective because after short time what you have learned “flies” out of your head. Roger Sipe, author of the book “Brain Development,” suggests learning techniques that will help you remember any information faster and, most importantly, not forget it over time.

How to evaluate memory capabilities

To understand the capabilities of your memory, do this exercise. Below you will see a list of 20 items. Study it for five minutes, don't write anything down. Rely only on your own memory.

Now close the file, take a piece of paper and write down these 20 points in order. When seminar participants take the test, they score an average of 6 points out of 20. If you get a similar result, don't worry. The problem is not with you, but with the fact that you acted haphazardly. The brain effectively records information at the beginning and end of the test, but difficulties arise in the middle.

Those who scored more than 10 points most likely used some kind of system. Let me give you an example of such a system. Divide the first table into pieces and create vivid images. For example, a table can be presented in the form of four pieces, and the values can be numbered.

For most words serial number creates a useful association. For example, 1 - unicorn; 5 - hand, that is, five fingers; 11 - chopsticks, etc. Study the list again, find associations. Now close the file and write down the words again. Sipe is confident that this time your result will be better: 15–18 correct answers. The next way is to draw vivid images in your head.

How to remember information a year later

Often you will learn information that is important to remember for a long time: weeks, months or even years. In order not to forget, it must be repeated. Use the spaced repetition method:

in an hour, while the information is still fresh in your memory;
every other day, after you have slept and been doing something else for a long time;
in a week; if you return to this information after five to seven days, the neural pathway for long-term recall begins to strengthen.

To ensure that the information is retained, you can repeat it later, preferably shortly before use. For example, quickly mentally say the names of the people you are about to meet; repeat the presentation you will be giving. The main thing is that you do not need to constantly repeat information in order to retain it for a long time.

Kato remember names

For a short time. Sometimes it happens that you meet a person, and five seconds later you cannot remember his name. The problem here is not yours bad memory, but in the inability to listen. Your brain thinks seven times faster than people talk and is easily distracted. In a conversation, focus on one thing - listen to the name of your interlocutor. Repeat your new friend's name two or three times in conversation. For example: “Roger, nice to meet you, Roger.”

For a long time. Have you ever met someone you know, but couldn't remember his name? To avoid such situations, use the spaced repetition method. Say your new friend's name at the end of the conversation. Saying “Nice to meet you, Dave” is more helpful to your memory than simply saying “Goodbye!”

At the end of the same day, refresh your memory of the names of new acquaintances. At the end of the week, take five minutes to review them again. Mentally imagine names, turning them into images. So, for the name Ivan the image can serve fairy tale hero or the toy “Vanka-Vstanka”, for the name Mikhail - a bear (live or toy).

Reading speed. Count the number of words in the text (Word can do this), note the time. Determine how many words per minute you read.

Less than 200 words/min - below average speed, you mentally pronounce every word. It has been proven that slow reading does not always improve comprehension.

200–300 words/min - average result, 90 percent of the population read at this speed. You have learned to read one word at a time. The way your eyes move as you read is such that this method limits your speed.
300–450 words/min is above average speed, and there are two conclusions to be drawn here. As a reader, you can be called a thinker. You don't have to say every word in your head. Plus, you probably read a lot.
More than 450 wpm is a “regulated” figure. You use techniques that allow you to perceive two or more words at the same time. Roger Sipe notes that when he was first tested, he read 340 words per minute. After the exercises, my reading speed increased to 1000 words per minute. Here are the techniques that helped him with this.

When reading, the muscles stop the eyes four times per second. Each such stop is called a fixation. Information enters the brain only during stops. This feature is inherent in nature - you cannot change anything, but you are able to influence how many words you perceive at each stop.

Exercise 1. Stand up straight and look forward. Without turning your head, look as far to the left as possible. Then go as far to the right as possible. Then, as quickly as possible, move your eyes left to right and back again five times. horizontal plane. Now sit down. Do this exercise a couple of times a day.

Exercise 2. It will train your eyes to move more rhythmically when reading. You need to feel your eyes “jumping” across the page. Re-read the text a couple of times a day. Don't read into the meaning - your goal is to train your eyes to rhythmic movements. At the same time, note the time and try to improve the result each time.

Exercise 3. Use right or left index finger. The idea is that when reading, you move your finger vertically down the page from constant speed- slightly faster than the pace at which your eyes can move. You need to maintain a constant pace, without stopping and without returning your finger up. You can swipe down the left margin, down the right margin, or down the center of the text.

There is another way for which you will need a card measuring 13x7.5 cm or blank slate paper folded in half. Take the card and place it above the line you are reading. This method immediately increases reading speed and improves attentiveness. By cutting off the path to retreat, you give your brain a signal - you need to be careful, since there is only one chance. As you read, move the card down the page at a steady pace.