Limitless - Jim Kwik Page 0,92
by two. This is your new reading rate. Write it down.
How did that feel? By doing this exercise, you will notice that your rate has increased. Here’s an analogy: If you are driving on the highway at 65 mph, and then slow down to 40 mph for some mild traffic, you will notice quite a bit of difference. This is because you are used to driving at a higher speed. But in reality, you are not going very slowly, because it is all relative.
The same principle applies to reading. If you push yourself to read two or three times faster than what you are used to, when you finally decrease your rate to a comfortable speed, your original rate feels slow.
You want to practice this 4-minute exercise at least once a day until you reach a level that you are pleased and satisfied with. Schedule your reading. Just as with exercising, you cannot expect to work out only one time and be done for life. You must read on a regular basis, otherwise your reading muscles will grow weak.
2. Expand Your Peripheral Vision
Your peripheral vision is the span of letters or words that your eyes can see in a single glance. By increasing your peripheral vision, you will be able to see and take in more words at a time. Most people were taught to read only one word at a time. But in fact, you are capable of reading more than that.
When you first learned to read, you were taught that letters made up larger structures, called words. As a child, you would sound out a word by its letters. For example, the word report would be broken down into letters so that you could understand it, R-E-P-O-R-T. Now that you are older, you are not as aware of the letters as you are reading, you see the larger units, known as words.
One of the reasons why people have a limited reading speed is because they read one word at a time. But if you put the word card at the end of the report, you get REPORT CARD. These two words have their own distinct meanings, but your mind sees them as one unit. Just as your mind is capable of seeing these two words together, it is also capable of seeing groups of words at the same time. By doing so, you will take your reading speed to even greater heights. Just as you see the words and not the individual letters, skilled readers see groups of words (or ideas) and not the individual words. See Additional tips below that you can use to condition yourself to “see” more.
3. Counting
By using the exercises I’ve outlined, the challenge of subvocalization will begin to decrease. The process of reading faster naturally makes it more difficult to say all the words, even inside your head. When you have passed a certain rate (about 300 to 350 words per minute), it will be impossible to subvocalize all the words. As you hit this threshold, your brain will begin to make the shift from saying the words to seeing them more as images. Reading a book will be more like watching a movie.
Counting is another tool you can use to drown out this inner voice. The process is deceptively simple: count out loud as you are reading, “one, two, three . . .” and so on. You’ll find it is very difficult to count out loud and talk inside (subvocalize) at the same time. Doing this process conditions you to subvocalize less, allowing you to see the words rather than say them, thus leading to better speed and comprehension.
People tend to remember and understand what they see, more than what they hear. This makes sense, as most people can recall someone’s face they see, more than the name they hear. By practicing these other exercises, your reading speed will improve because you are no longer saying every word. Initially, you may be a little confused (and your comprehension may even decrease), but in a very short time, your mind will grow bored of counting and will eventually stop. With practice, your comprehension will soon increase and expand because you will be able to more fully see and understand the material.
SUCCESS STORIES
I could fill an entire book with speed-reading success stories from students, and we post them regularly on social media. Here’s one we received today. Sarah was a very slow reader, had difficulty focusing, and felt it impossible to remember names and