Article written by Jon Rhodes, of www.freehypnosistreatment.com

There are many courses out there that make bold claims that they can help you read at extraordinary speeds. They charge a fortune for online courses and the like. Here you can get this information for free! I am a little sceptical about the gravity of some of these claims, but there is no doubt that you can train yourself to read much faster. I suppose if you trained long and hard enough then you could achieve some pretty amazing stuff, but for most of us that time spent would be counter productive to our original aim – to save time!

There is also a payout to reading fast. The faster you read, the harder it is to comprehend and remember the information. That is why you need to practice comprehending at fast speeds, and learning what to ignore. When a child first learns to read, their comprehension levels are very low. They build this up with practice. You must do the same – at speed! When you are good enough, you can re-read material two or three times and understand it more than reading it at a normal pace, which would take longer.

Here are the tips to help you increase your reading pace.

Time your present reading speed - Find out how fast you read now so that you can observe your improvement over time. This will help motivate you as you can see your improvement. Obviously you cannot compare times by reading the same text as you will become more familiar with it. You must choose a different text, but of a similar difficulty each time in order to get a fair comparison. Test yourself about once every week, and reward yourself for any improvements.

Practice and push yourself - Speed reading is a skill that requires a lot of practice. You must push yourself beyond your comfort levels. Keep practicing regularly – daily if you can.

Read in a quiet place - You can instantly increase your speed if you remove all distractions whilst you read. Turn off the TV, stereo and phone. Find a room where you will not be disturbed for a set period of time.

Learn to adjust reading speed depending on the material - Usually we must trade off comprehension for speed. You must therefore learn how to recognise how thoroughly you need to understand what you are reading. This comes with experience – the more you do it, the quicker you will cotton on. You may not wish to read an emotional novel at speed for example.

Before you start reading some text, decide how fast you intend to go. If you're reading a newspaper article, you may wish to just get the main ideas, and skim through it. If you are reading a deeper more complicated article, then you may wish to understand it more thoroughly, and adjust your reading speed accordingly.

Learn to separate important text from ‘filler’- There is usually a lot of ‘filler’ that you can read quickly through or even skim over. With practice you can identify the most important parts of a text as you skim through it. Before you begin reading look over the whole text very quickly. Try to find patterns of repeated words, key ideas, bold print and other indicators of important concepts. When you come to do your reading you may be able to skim over large portions of the text, slowing only when you come to something you know is important.

Stop reading to yourself - Most people when they read subvocalise, or pronounce the words to themselves. Some people move their lips or say the words under their breath. Other people say each word in their heads. These slow you down. Try to get yourself in the habit of not doing this. Focus on whether you do this. Stop yourself whenever you notice yourself do it. This habit will be quickly broken.

Practice reading blocks of words - In order to read quickly you need to read groups of words - or even whole sentences or short paragraphs instantaneously. Most people read three or four words at a time. If you make yourself aware of how many words you read at a time, you can gradually increase this. Try holding the book a little further from your eyes than normal to help see a wider field.

Train yourself not to reread - Most people often stop and skip back to words or sentences they just read to try to make sure they understood the meaning. This is usually unnecessary, but can easily become a habit. Smooth consistent eye motion is essential to speed reading. Here are a few methods to help this: -

The Hand - Place your right hand on the page and slowly move it straight down the page, drawing your eyes down as you read. Keep an even slow motion as if your right hand has its own mind. Your eyes may not be exactly where your hand is, but this simple motion will help you go faster. Keep the movement slow and easy and try not to stop.

The Card - Use a card or a piece of paper over the line of text to block the words after you read them. Draw it down the page slowly and evenly and try to read the passage before you cover the words up. This helps break the habit of reading a passage over and over again. Push yourself and move the card down faster than you think you can go.

The Sweep - Another method is to use your hand to help draw your eyes across the page. Cup your right hand a little and keep your fingers together. With a very light and smooth motion, sweep your fingers from left to right, underlining the line with the tip of your index finger from about an inch in and an inch out on each line.

The Hop - Similar to the sweep method is the "hop". In the hop you lift your fingers and make two even bounces on each line. Each time you bounce you make a fixation which should catch sets of three or four words. This method makes it easier to keep a steady pace as you can build up a rhythm like when tapping your fingers on a table.

The Zig-Zag or Loop -Take your hand and cut across the text diagonally about three lines and then slide back to the next line. The idea here is not necessarily to see each word, but to scan the entire area, letting your mind pick out the main ideas.

Unfortunately there is no magical formula to speed reading. It takes hard work and perseverance, but it can be done. You may or may not see the ‘amazing results’ you expected, but you can hope to see a big improvement over time.

If you are initially struggling then try reading texts you have read before. It is easier to skip words, and will help you get into good habits. You could also try reading texts with large fonts. Remember to take regular breaks. You probably cannot concentrate for more than half an hour and you must keep your eyes healthy and avoid straining them.