Speed Reading: How to Double (or Triple) Your Reading Speed in Just 1 Hour!

by Justin Hammond

your mind sees the written letters, thinks about the sounds those letters represent, and then connects these sounds to the meanings. This process is called subvocalization.

Long story short, words are symbols of ideas. When we talk or read, we’re really just using symbols to communicate what we’re thinking. This process of subvocalization can actually slow down your reading speed, because you’re trying to pronounce each word in your mind.

If you can choose between reading out loud and reading in your head, then choose to read in your head. Reading silently is easily five to ten times faster than reading out loud.

The aim is to decrease subvocalization. Since words are directly related to meaning, controlling what you “hear” in your mind means that you can decrease the amount of time it takes to construct meaning.

Remember that sentences, not individual words, have meaning. When your eyes stop, pause or wander, it means that you’re probably trying to derive more meaning out of an individual word rather than out of the sentence’s complete meaning.

You don’t need to think about sounds of words! • You don’t need to read every word!

Just like you don’t need to hear every single word, you don’t need to read every single word. If you think about it, each sentence usually has only a few important words – the rest is just “filler.” How many relatively meaningless, “connecting” words (like the, is, and, of, with, and so on) are in each sentence? Many. When you pick up your reading speed, you’ll start trusting your mind to automatically absorb these filler words so that your attention will only be consumed by those few important ones in each sentence.

When individuals finally master the martial arts, earning black belts and achieving impressive skills, they are given the command: “Use what you’ve learned only when the need arises.”

We looked at what reading really is, and how it works • We tackled the misconceptions and benefits of speed reading • We uncovered the bad reading habits you may not even have realized you had • We discovered the most powerful speed reading techniques available – including learning how to stop subvocalization, how to read in phrases, and the secrets of meta-guiding • We discussed when it’s appropriate to speed read – and when it isn’t