Read Better And Faster: 10 Simple Tips To Increase Efficiency
There is too much to read and only a short amount of time, you have tried everything you know, but somehow you think that you can increase the speed of your reading, but at the same time you do not want to compromise on the quality. It is a reader’s dilemma, how do you do it, what are fast, effective and efficient ways to do this?
Well, we come up with 10 simple effective steps to read better and faster and more efficiently.
1) THE PURPOSE OF THE ARTICLE
What is the article trying to convey, what is the message it if focusing on? Every passage or article is a story and it is trying to convey a message to you. Identify what the author is trying to say, if you would give a heading to that passage, what would that heading be? That will be the theme of the passage, hunt for it.
2) YOUR PURPOSE OF READING IT
What is your purpose of reading the article? Are you going for the facts or the opinion? If you are looking for the opinion, there will be a lot of details you can skim or even skip to save some time for yourself. If you are looking for the facts, just make a note of them, don’t try to remember them right away, just highlight them or use shorthand and write a couple of points per paragraph
3) DON’ READ IT OUT LOUD!
Our eyes and brain work faster than the mouth and voice. The more we try to vocalize and read it out load, it just means that we are using more time to complete a single sentence. Instead of looking at the comprehension like a passage, look at it like a picture, a part or a fragment of the story and how each part adds together – like bones of a skeletal structure.
4) READ THE PICTURE NOT THE WORDS
We are usually trained to assimilate the words and then make a picture of them. Even while reading this post, how are you reading it? Are you reading the words first and then associating a picture to it? If you are doing that, you are going through the traditional way. Skip that, just look at the picture, just look at what image the line or the sentence creates in your mind.
5) READ WITH YOUR EYES AND NOT THE LIPS
What is the span of your eye. Do you move your eyelids word to word or do you read it sentence by sentence or line by line. Instead of reading one word at once, look at one sentence at a time or a couple of them at a time. This way you are looking for the meaning than the individual word
6) DON’T BE LOST IN THE DETAILS
It is very easy to be stuck in the details and interesting facts. In order to avoid that trap, identify the purpose of the passage, if it is leisure or a novel, take your time, savor it. But if it is an academic article, then skip that, just look at what you want out of it than what all is in there. For all you know you may be looking at one or two points in the article and the rest can just be a landing to that. Be clever, move to that. Be a treasure hunter, someone who looks for clues at each step to go to the bigger picture instead of being lost in the details.
7) KNOW YOUR SPEED
It pays to know where you stand, time yourself, identify the word per minute speed you are generating. Knowing where you are helps to know where you can be. Do it every 3 days, see how you improve. It is very easy to increase your speed from 250 words per minute to 500 words per minute and you can do that without much effort. All you have to do is train yourself a little better, avoid the regular traps and mistakes.
8) IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE MEANING OF A WORD
Well, skip it. Don’t worry about the exact meaning of a word, you will be able to derive it from the context. There is no point in being stuck in the details, one word cannot harm the entire theme of the passage or the theme of the sentence. You have to be clever, you have to be smart, just feel free to neglect it, you can come back to it later
9) DISTRACTIONS
Although we all know that it is best to be in a quiet place, we sometimes feel that an additional resource can amplify your speed. Steer away from these traps, do not try to multi task, esp while you are reading, make this the only task you do. If you are training yourself to increase the speed and accuracy, then stop treating it like leisure, it is not, it is more of a work in the initial days and it will pay you off very well.
10) BE CURIOS
No matter what purpose you are reading it for, it is something which you are not going to do again, atleast not in the same state of mind. Be curios about it, know that there is something to learn, an opportunity to understand something and realize something new and if possible even integrate in your life. Make the best out of it, enjoy it and don’t lose that creative spirit in you. It is going to pay off exceedingly well.
If these suggestions helped, there is one book which made a huge difference in both my speed and comprehension and I would love to suggest the same : It is How To Read Better & Faster
If you want to remember it better and want to download the top tips, here you go with the slide show, please feel free to share, copy, promote or download. It would be great if you can give a link to us or credits if not, we really don’t mind as long as it helps :)
Product Director with 10+ years in leadership roles - team building, product strategy, coaching and mentoring are a part of my everyday responsibilities. I write about motivational words that inspire us and shape our thinking and help us go beyond these thoughts to find what our minds are telling us and evolve.
Thank you mate :). Glad that you found the post useful.
Sure mate, I will come up with one such post by the end of the month. Kavitha too suggested the idea of writing an article and speed, I will certainly come up with some interesting pointers on that :)
I tried out this, “Our eyes and brain work faster than the mouth and voice” suggested by you above. It is giving awesome result. I’m a UPSC aspirant, this tip is going to rock my preparation. Thanks again.
Awesome mate :). Brilliant! Oh if it is the UPSC I am sure the speed reading will be quite a blessing through the process, esp with the short time at hand. I will come up with the writing one too, that too I am sure will make a difference in preparation :)
Thank you Gowtham, very nice to hear from you and thanks for such a lovely comment.
I am so sorry about that discrepancy, I did notice that tried changing it, somehow there was something in the code that was being overwritten. I have finally managed to solve that issue here :).
Thanks so much for going through with the post despite that, would love to keep hearing more from you and more importantly would love to know how these work for you :)
Thank you Nozzer :). We wanted to make readability easier and realize the real goal of the post – to add value or try and find a solution. The slideshow was an interesting idea Vidya pointed out and we have been using it on an experimental mode. Going ahead, I am thinking we would be doing some youtube videos on this as well. Hoping for a similar support for those too :)
Effective tips….for I myself practice or at least try to follow rule no. 1-5 while reading ( no, not official files but l-o-n-g emails and other related stuffs ) :-D Will try out the other too.
I’ve come back after a short hiatus and the first blog post I’m reading is yours…..was missing the Inspire99 :-)
Thank you Maniparna :). Aah welcome back! .He he he, do lemme know how they work, I would love to hear any thoughts on these ideas and their practicality.
I think this was the best post I came up this week with, so a perfect start at inspire99.. Ahww that’s indeed very sweet of you to say that. A feather in the cap of inspire99 :)
Hi here..a nd there , anywhere except my own box …he he .. not a problem just a little embarrassing to enter here and there… hope you will not mind Vinay and Mani… :)
Great post Vinay .. as always and yes I follow 3,4,5,6 spontaneously but only for academic passages… for poetry, prose and other things of my interest .. accept my apologies, as I’ll read between the lines too :)
Then I have to feel the paper and the ink and even read and re-read the grocery list somebody had scribbled on the back of my fav. book… :)
But good news is that I have a good reading speed (like my mother) and was with winners in a reading speed test :D I can see you grinning :)
He he he. Hi Kokila :). Not at all Kokila, I am sure Maniparna wouldn’t either.
I think that is a clever way to go about it. For the matters which we like and the ones which need further understanding we do need to spend more time and in fact enjoy it a little more. I somehow have forgotten the habit of doing that with novels, I skim a lot and thus reduce my experiences in enjoying them. But it is amazing to have that flexibility and to know that we can shift paddles is a great realization indeed :).
That’s pretty neat! Really winners in the reading speed test? That’s pretty damn cool. Do share with us a few of your well guarded secrets ;) .. I promise I won’t tell ;)
Awesome post Vfinay, though as I said that unable to check the slideshare will do that later tonight. Though I realized one thing Vinay, you used H6 for all the points, but why is those having two different background colors? Did you choose the colors manually? Please do change the colors of the point number 1, 7, 8 and 9. These are not looking readable.
BTW I must say you created a superb post once again. This is becoming your USP now. You can anytime come up with some points on any topic and honestly all those points seems unique.
Thank you Alok, this is one post I am really really proud of. Felt very good while writing it :).
I did use H6 for all these points Alok, but somehow some of these points are not taking the color change. I even tried coding it with the color segment, I don’t understand why it is not reflecting. The same thing happened with the Vivekananda post. I am not sure how to tackle that part. Maybe I should type it again and see if that works.
Thanks so much Alok, I really wanted to show off this article with you. I only wish the slide show displayed at your end, it was something I was indeed very proud of, Vidya has done some amazing work adding creativity and presentation to it. He he I think I finally realize the true strength of this site now, providing some unique content and most importantly useful and productive ones which was always the dream :).
It feels really good and this comment is sure the highlight of the day for me :)
Solved it Alok :). .This was a really weird problem which the wordpress editor created. Must be something to do with that highlight plug in. I changed the color and reverted to the earlier color and now it shows properly!
Thank You Vinay for this. I was trying to get some helpful notes on the same topic and found this one really helpful. Let me implement it now and will tell you how I progress.
Thank you Krishna :)> So happy to know that this post helped :). Do lemme know how the implementation goes and that book is an amazing read, I read it about 7 years ago and my god my speed has doubled to say the least :)
The slides said it all…inspire99 is truly inspiring. I too have had problems when I want to read quickly, understand, comprehend!!! But I’ll really try and apply these tips when I read from now on. Thank you!!!
Thank you Shahen. The addition of the slides was a new idea and I was really keen to know how it would be received. I am very happy to know that they are received with such open arms, we will make sure that all our 10 point scheme posts from now on will have the slides :)..
Do lemme know how the implementatio goes Shahen, it really has done some wonders for me. I hope it does the same to you too :)
I agree to the reading out loud vs reading in my mind…although in my schooling days, my parents used to say read everything out loud because it helps you retain better…it’s like reading twice at the same time…once for your ears and once for your mind.
I know a friend of mine and she is a avid reader..her normal speed of reading lies between 500 to 600 words per min sometimes she says it can get upto 800 to thousand depending on the genre….She can also process what she reads equally fast and provide her analysis….yet to know anyone like her….
Thank you Vidhya :) . Actually even I did the same during my school days and it actually worked well, probably cos we had to memorize most of what we studied and like you said retained it better. 500-600 words is damn cool, 800 is amazing. I don’t know where I stand but the last time I checked I was averaging at about a 650, probably cos I skim a lot :D :D .. But it is certainly very exciting to have that flexibility in reading :)
Good tips Vinay, for me it depends if i got to study something or just leisure read. If i got to study, i always read loud and may be its just me but i remember it better. I liked the article very much.
Thank you Shweta :). You’re absolutely spot on, it depends on why we are reading, if it is a study to ensure that we remember, I think reading out loud actually helps better than the skimming mode..
Thanks much Shweta :), it was really a new style we were trying out in the site and I am so happy to see that it is received so well :)
considering all the posts i have missed in all the several blogs i follow…this post ought to help me :) :) interesting points…never thought of a few of them before. And the point that said ‘do not get lost in the details’ is so true… sometimes one has to go back a page and read again just to get the details… and we lose so much time on that. enjoyed reading this post :) very practical too :)
Ahoy matey!! Can’t tell you how much of a delight it is to hear from you! How are you doing Preethi? Had missed you around here :).
He he Thank you . Nice to know that these are the points we can apply. I mean there sure is a lot of content out there, and a lot of advice too, wanted to write something which we could put into action and see the results.
Now that you are back, I will look forward to seeing more of you :).. Have a lovely day ahead Preethi :)
Doing great thanks :) feels good to start reading again. Hope to write soon too. Let me try to catch up with a few older posts too…now that I have great pointers for reading faster :)
He he you sure should Preethi. You have been a constant supporter when the site was very much in its inception and you are someone who has seen a change in it too. How does the new look and the articles appear Preethi. Would love thoughts from you and kinda feels nice to have an assessment of change :).
Ah! very well Vinay. I found it very interesting. We read articles, posts, newspapers, study materials, magazines and such like every day. This is something we can practice reading in every possible way. Loved the idea. Good work Vinay……:)
Thank you Priyashi :). Nice to know that it helps. I have been an absolute fan of this idea from the time I read that book from Norman Lewis. Well that book along with Word Power Made easy, those two books kinda revolutionized my approach towards the language and also finer aspects of things around us. It is a lovely feeling to know that these ideas can be extrapolated and they help :)
Hi vinay! My query is something different from this. Since you write really lovely posts and more than that I really love the art of your writing,that -how you string the words beautifully.:) Just like you have suggested above the tips about reading. Can you please suggest some tips/book on writing too. :) I too want to write lucidly just like you :)
Thank you Kavita, that is a fantastic suggestion. We shall come up with a post on that soon, it is a lovely idea and I would love to write a post on it!
Thanks so much for the kind words, for me it is just a way to have a conversation and I guess I don’t speak any differently than I write. I will certainly come up with an interesting post on it Kavita, thanks so much for such wonderful words :)
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Hey Vinay,
This post is really good. Thank you. Please write a post on how to write effectively. It will be a immense help to all of us.
Thank you mate :). Glad that you found the post useful.
Sure mate, I will come up with one such post by the end of the month. Kavitha too suggested the idea of writing an article and speed, I will certainly come up with some interesting pointers on that :)
I tried out this, “Our eyes and brain work faster than the mouth and voice” suggested by you above. It is giving awesome result. I’m a UPSC aspirant, this tip is going to rock my preparation. Thanks again.
Awesome mate :). Brilliant! Oh if it is the UPSC I am sure the speed reading will be quite a blessing through the process, esp with the short time at hand. I will come up with the writing one too, that too I am sure will make a difference in preparation :)
Hello my friend :).. Finally I managed a post on effective writing.. Thought you might like it .. Here you go
https://inspire99.com/writing-better-and-faster-10-effective-tips/
Thank you Gowtham, very nice to hear from you and thanks for such a lovely comment.
I am so sorry about that discrepancy, I did notice that tried changing it, somehow there was something in the code that was being overwritten. I have finally managed to solve that issue here :).
Thanks so much for going through with the post despite that, would love to keep hearing more from you and more importantly would love to know how these work for you :)
Thank you Nozzer :). We wanted to make readability easier and realize the real goal of the post – to add value or try and find a solution. The slideshow was an interesting idea Vidya pointed out and we have been using it on an experimental mode. Going ahead, I am thinking we would be doing some youtube videos on this as well. Hoping for a similar support for those too :)
Effective tips….for I myself practice or at least try to follow rule no. 1-5 while reading ( no, not official files but l-o-n-g emails and other related stuffs ) :-D Will try out the other too.
I’ve come back after a short hiatus and the first blog post I’m reading is yours…..was missing the Inspire99 :-)
Thank you Maniparna :). Aah welcome back! .He he he, do lemme know how they work, I would love to hear any thoughts on these ideas and their practicality.
I think this was the best post I came up this week with, so a perfect start at inspire99.. Ahww that’s indeed very sweet of you to say that. A feather in the cap of inspire99 :)
Hi here..a nd there , anywhere except my own box …he he .. not a problem just a little embarrassing to enter here and there… hope you will not mind Vinay and Mani… :)
Great post Vinay .. as always and yes I follow 3,4,5,6 spontaneously but only for academic passages… for poetry, prose and other things of my interest .. accept my apologies, as I’ll read between the lines too :)
Then I have to feel the paper and the ink and even read and re-read the grocery list somebody had scribbled on the back of my fav. book… :)
But good news is that I have a good reading speed (like my mother) and was with winners in a reading speed test :D I can see you grinning :)
He he he. Hi Kokila :). Not at all Kokila, I am sure Maniparna wouldn’t either.
I think that is a clever way to go about it. For the matters which we like and the ones which need further understanding we do need to spend more time and in fact enjoy it a little more. I somehow have forgotten the habit of doing that with novels, I skim a lot and thus reduce my experiences in enjoying them. But it is amazing to have that flexibility and to know that we can shift paddles is a great realization indeed :).
That’s pretty neat! Really winners in the reading speed test? That’s pretty damn cool. Do share with us a few of your well guarded secrets ;) .. I promise I won’t tell ;)
Awesome post Vfinay, though as I said that unable to check the slideshare will do that later tonight. Though I realized one thing Vinay, you used H6 for all the points, but why is those having two different background colors? Did you choose the colors manually? Please do change the colors of the point number 1, 7, 8 and 9. These are not looking readable.
BTW I must say you created a superb post once again. This is becoming your USP now. You can anytime come up with some points on any topic and honestly all those points seems unique.
Thank you Alok, this is one post I am really really proud of. Felt very good while writing it :).
I did use H6 for all these points Alok, but somehow some of these points are not taking the color change. I even tried coding it with the color segment, I don’t understand why it is not reflecting. The same thing happened with the Vivekananda post. I am not sure how to tackle that part. Maybe I should type it again and see if that works.
Thanks so much Alok, I really wanted to show off this article with you. I only wish the slide show displayed at your end, it was something I was indeed very proud of, Vidya has done some amazing work adding creativity and presentation to it. He he I think I finally realize the true strength of this site now, providing some unique content and most importantly useful and productive ones which was always the dream :).
It feels really good and this comment is sure the highlight of the day for me :)
Solved it Alok :). .This was a really weird problem which the wordpress editor created. Must be something to do with that highlight plug in. I changed the color and reverted to the earlier color and now it shows properly!
Weird thing haan?!
Thank You Vinay for this. I was trying to get some helpful notes on the same topic and found this one really helpful. Let me implement it now and will tell you how I progress.
Thank you Krishna :)> So happy to know that this post helped :). Do lemme know how the implementation goes and that book is an amazing read, I read it about 7 years ago and my god my speed has doubled to say the least :)
The slides said it all…inspire99 is truly inspiring. I too have had problems when I want to read quickly, understand, comprehend!!! But I’ll really try and apply these tips when I read from now on. Thank you!!!
Thank you Shahen. The addition of the slides was a new idea and I was really keen to know how it would be received. I am very happy to know that they are received with such open arms, we will make sure that all our 10 point scheme posts from now on will have the slides :)..
Do lemme know how the implementatio goes Shahen, it really has done some wonders for me. I hope it does the same to you too :)
I agree to the reading out loud vs reading in my mind…although in my schooling days, my parents used to say read everything out loud because it helps you retain better…it’s like reading twice at the same time…once for your ears and once for your mind.
I know a friend of mine and she is a avid reader..her normal speed of reading lies between 500 to 600 words per min sometimes she says it can get upto 800 to thousand depending on the genre….She can also process what she reads equally fast and provide her analysis….yet to know anyone like her….
Thank you Vidhya :) . Actually even I did the same during my school days and it actually worked well, probably cos we had to memorize most of what we studied and like you said retained it better. 500-600 words is damn cool, 800 is amazing. I don’t know where I stand but the last time I checked I was averaging at about a 650, probably cos I skim a lot :D :D .. But it is certainly very exciting to have that flexibility in reading :)
Good tips Vinay, for me it depends if i got to study something or just leisure read. If i got to study, i always read loud and may be its just me but i remember it better. I liked the article very much.
Thank you Shweta :). You’re absolutely spot on, it depends on why we are reading, if it is a study to ensure that we remember, I think reading out loud actually helps better than the skimming mode..
Thanks much Shweta :), it was really a new style we were trying out in the site and I am so happy to see that it is received so well :)
considering all the posts i have missed in all the several blogs i follow…this post ought to help me :) :) interesting points…never thought of a few of them before. And the point that said ‘do not get lost in the details’ is so true… sometimes one has to go back a page and read again just to get the details… and we lose so much time on that. enjoyed reading this post :) very practical too :)
Ahoy matey!! Can’t tell you how much of a delight it is to hear from you! How are you doing Preethi? Had missed you around here :).
He he Thank you . Nice to know that these are the points we can apply. I mean there sure is a lot of content out there, and a lot of advice too, wanted to write something which we could put into action and see the results.
Now that you are back, I will look forward to seeing more of you :).. Have a lovely day ahead Preethi :)
Doing great thanks :) feels good to start reading again. Hope to write soon too. Let me try to catch up with a few older posts too…now that I have great pointers for reading faster :)
He he you sure should Preethi. You have been a constant supporter when the site was very much in its inception and you are someone who has seen a change in it too. How does the new look and the articles appear Preethi. Would love thoughts from you and kinda feels nice to have an assessment of change :).
Ah! very well Vinay. I found it very interesting. We read articles, posts, newspapers, study materials, magazines and such like every day. This is something we can practice reading in every possible way. Loved the idea. Good work Vinay……:)
Thank you Priyashi :). Nice to know that it helps. I have been an absolute fan of this idea from the time I read that book from Norman Lewis. Well that book along with Word Power Made easy, those two books kinda revolutionized my approach towards the language and also finer aspects of things around us. It is a lovely feeling to know that these ideas can be extrapolated and they help :)
Hi vinay! My query is something different from this. Since you write really lovely posts and more than that I really love the art of your writing,that -how you string the words beautifully.:) Just like you have suggested above the tips about reading. Can you please suggest some tips/book on writing too. :) I too want to write lucidly just like you :)
Thank you Kavita, that is a fantastic suggestion. We shall come up with a post on that soon, it is a lovely idea and I would love to write a post on it!
Thanks so much for the kind words, for me it is just a way to have a conversation and I guess I don’t speak any differently than I write. I will certainly come up with an interesting post on it Kavita, thanks so much for such wonderful words :)