4 Reasons to Avoid “Speed Reading” ⏩📖
What is Speed Reading?
Speed reading is a reading method that should help you read books faster. It involves some of the following techniques:
- Batching: focus on multiple words instead of one at a time
- Visual aids: use a finger to guide your eye while reading
- Eliminating subvocalization: don’t pronounce words in your head
- Minimizing regression: don’t go back too much to read words again,
I tried this method, and I didn’t find it beneficial.
While some situations may benefit from speed reading, for the most part, speed reading isn’t something that you should strive to do.
5 Reasons Why You Should Not Speed Read
Speed Damage Reading
Reading -> understanding and learning
Speed -> getting to the end faster
These terms get into conflict here.
Reading more words per minute will undoubtedly reduce the amount of information you retain from what you read.
Read at your own pace and make sure you fully understand the words your read. Reading faster doesn’t mean anything if you don’t enjoy it or learn something new.
Reading More Books is Not the Goal
Speed readers will read more books. But I don’t think that is what we should all strive for.
Instead of reading 10 books a month on a topic like sales, you should read the best book about sales, summaries it, study it, put it into practice, and come back to it multiple times during the same month.
This way is a much more efficient way to learn new skills, and it makes new information stick longer in your brain.
Reading is an Experience Not a Chore
Do you wish to 2X your experience when going to the movies? Do you watch your favorite TV show and just wait for it to end?
Treat books the same way. If you read a novel, play the scene in your head. If you read nonfiction, use your critical thinking skills to challenge what you read.
Immerses yourself in reading, enjoy it or learn something new. Don’t just check it off your to-do list or use it to brag on social media.
Speed Reading Has Bad Consequences.
Reading fast is worse than not reading. There, I said it.
When you finish a book and don’t prioritize comprehension, you still get a confidence boost (because you just finished a whole book!), but the truth is, you didn’t learn that much, but you think that you did.
This will only lead to mistakes that will take more time for you to fix, and all because you wanted to fast rack your way through knowledge. You will fast read 5 marketing books and try to get a job in marketing, only to fail at the interviews because you don’t really know what you are talking about.
It’s also possible that you will never try to read the book again because you feel like you read it, and you will miss great pieces of knowledge that way.
In the next article, I will discuss what to do instead of “Speed reading”.
It will be the ultimate guide to reading a book properly. Stay tuned.
Originally published at https://simplyproductive.substack.com.
