Think about it for a second, how much time to you take out of your day by reading documentation, emails and other written communication or information? You will be amazed at how conventional reading is able to eat away at your time, it is for this reason that speed reading is such a valuable talent to develop.
The secret here is to be able to effectively speed read without actually allowing this talent to deny or rob you of vital information or comprehension of what it is which you are reading. The secret lies within the ability to be able to fully comprehend and understand what it is that you are reading even though you might be doing it far faster than you normally would have been able to do.
Many people think that they are able to read quickly, but when you are able to effectively practice speed reading, you will be able to skim over a page of content and effectively pick out the important sections and actually have a far better retention of the information which you have absorbed.
Please do not be fooled, this is not a talent which you will master overnight, but the more regularly and intensely you practice it, the better you will become at it. This is very much the same as anything which you choose to learn in life, if you are willing to apply the Kaizen Principle and aim for constant and never ending improvement, you will continue to grow and become better and better at what it is you are applying the Kaizen Principle to.
Here are a couple of very effective techniques which will assist you in improving your speed reading skills:
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Always keep record of your times – Be sure to begin to time yourself when it comes to the speed of your reading, by doing this you will have a baseline measure of your reading speed and the improvements which you make by applying your speed reading skills.
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Make reading a regular practice – As the old saying goes, practice makes perfect and it is for this reason that you must work on your speed reading skills on a daily basis, even if it is only for a short period of time, but remain constant in your efforts to improve on a daily basis as the Kaizen Principle teaches us to do. A good idea is for you to focus on perhaps a chapter or two per day and then time yourself and test your information retention skills by paraphrasing what it is that you have read.
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Apply the Kaizen to your speed of reading – Encourage yourself to improve your reading speed on a daily basis, effectively applying the Kaizen Principle to improve on a constant and never ending basis. Learn simple tricks such as being able to skip over common words such as to, from, the, and all the others which might take up unnecessary time. The human mind is an amazing tool and is able to absorb content without having to read or hear these common words which are there to make sentences grammatically correct.
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Use your hands – By simply moving your hand down the page which you are reading, you will help to focus your eyes and attention on what it is that you are reading.
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Don’t waste time on re-reading – The first time you read something, try not to get too caught up in the detail, rather skim over the content and retrieve all the valuable content which you can at a first glance, rather than allowing yourself to get caught up in the detail and trying to fully understand what it is that you are reading, you can always go back at a later stage if there is information which you feel might require further attention.
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Avoid distractions – Surrounding noise or distractions will greatly impair your ability to speed read and it is for this reason that I would suggest that you find a quiet place to do your reading and when you know you will not be disturbed. Try to do this while you are trying to hone your speed reading skills and your efforts will definitely pay off.
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Focus on effective and improved reading habits – Many people allow bad reading habits to slow down the pace at which they read. Make a conscious effort to stop things such as vocalization of words or moving your lips while you read and you will be amazed at the results which you achieve. Always try to keep your focus and concentration internalized, in other words, let your mind do the work, not your body.
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Break your reading up into blocks – One should try to learn the skill of being able to break your reading up into blocks rather than trying to read word for word, rather strive to be able to understand what the author is saying by reading in blocks of information than actually following what they are saying word by word.
These are but a few of the ways by which you will dramatically be able to increase your reading speed and if you apply them correctly, you will soon be freeing up a lot of the time in your day which you would have spent reading.
As all or many of you should know by now, I choose to apply theFormula for Riches to every aspect of my life and this includes how I see the way you can use the skill of speed reading to obtain success. If you are willing to put in the TEM$ or time, energy, mindset and self investment into acquiring this highly useful skill, then before long you will be freeing up vast amounts of your time in the day so as to be able to concentrate on becoming a Wealth Creator so as to guarantee your financial freedom