Why Everyone Should Learn to Speed Read

I think everyone should take the time to learn to speed read, unless you never plan on reading in your life. My reasoning for this is pretty straightforward and runs along the same lines as my reasoning for taking time off work to learn how to improve your skills (see this post for more details).

The basic reasoning is this.

Learning to speed read pays for itself. What I mean by this is that if you "sacrifice" some of your usual reading time to learn to speed read, it will get paid back (and a lot more) in the long run.

For example, let's say it takes you 12 hours to read a book and you read 12 hours a week. This would mean you're reading a book a week (not a bad habit).

We'll make the following assumptions about the variables in my calculations;
-learning to speed read will allow you to read four times faster than you are now (if you currently read at an average speed this is very possible).
-learning to speed read at this level will take 6 hours of practise a week for 10 weeks.
-no progress in reading speed is made until after 10 weeks when you suddenly learn it all (to make the estimate simpler).

Let's now look at the difference in the results after 10 weeks between not learning to speed read and learning to speed read.

Without Learning to Speed Read
You read 10 books.

While Learning to Speed Read
You read 5 books.

Now the results for the 10 weeks after that.

Without Learning to Speed Read
10 books read.

Having Learned to Speed Read
40 books read.

So let's look at the grand totals for 20 weeks.

Without Learning to Speed Read
20 books read.

Having Learned to Speed Read
45 books read.

The above results demonstrate that within relatively little time speed reading pays itself back and more. So hopefully this will really encourage you to go out and learn this skill because it is invaliable in the persuit of information and personal growth.

So how do you learn to speed read?

I couldn't summarise it in one blog post, so I recommend Breakthrough Rapid Reading or any other good book on the subject.