ScotthYoung.com Members Area

Ass-Kicking Email – Speed Reading Tricks

Hey,

Last ass-kicking email, I went over some ways you can improve how
you speed read.

I showed how by defining what kind of information is crucial and
what isn’t, you can improve your comprehension while still reading
relatively quickly.

Today I’m going to follow-up with another speed-reading tactic,
this time showing how you can remember more of what you speed read.

—

The #1 Problem When Speed Reading

In my experience, the biggest problem people face when trying to
speed read is that it is more difficult to stay focused on the page.

Sure, your reading rate might be 700 or 1000wpm if you’re completely
focused. But maintaining high speeds like that for an hour or more,
and you’ll most likely gloss over huge important sections.

The reason is that after about 400 words per minute you stop
subvocalizing. Normally in speed reading literature this is a good
thing. It means you’re no longer pronouncing each word to yourself
mentally, and just getting the meaning of a phrase or sentence as
a whole.

In fact, to read faster, you will have to stop subvocalizing at
some point, since it’s impossible to mentally read aloud each word
to yourself at that speed.

But the price of this is that it becomes harder to stay focused.
The monotonous subvocalization has one advantage–it forces you to
pay attention to what is being said. Once this is gone, it’s easy
to breeze over entire paragraphs without realizing you aren’t
actually reading the text.

—

Losing Focus While Reading? Here’s the Fix

The solution to this problem is fairly simple. After each page or
section, do a quick self test. Just ask yourself mentally:

“What were the most important ideas in the last section?”

Do this after each section and you’ll snap yourself out of moments
of lost focus.

This step shouldn’t take more than a few seconds. It’s not as
elaborate as active reading, where you might be taking notes or
creating metaphors. Instead, it’s just a simple test to ask if you
were actually paying attention when reading.

I find this step useful when I’m doing longer speed-reading
sessions. Particularly when the information is boring and I’m
likely to have my mind wander away from the page.

Of course, if you’re still wandering, it sometimes helps to
deliberately read slower and subvocalize for a few pages to focus
your mind back on the page again.

—

The tenth month of implementation guides will be going live sometime
next week. For everyone who subscribed after September, you’ll get
your second month’s guides 40 days after you purchased the program.
The extra ten days are to make sure that your account renews
successfully.

Next week I’ll be coming back with more tactics to help you learn
faster and get the most out of the program!