Speed reading and listening: pros, cons, and conclusions after 3 years of intensive using

**TLDR:** In my case speed reading and listening are working great. I’ve been reading books using speed reading techniques for 3 years and I can’t imagine coming back to reading most of my books at standard speed. Usually, I read one book and make notes about this book in 90 minutes.

I would venture to say that speed reading and listening is a big advantage for knowledge-based industries in the same way automation is for car industries. Despite this advantage, many people still think speed reading doesn’t work and look at this skill with skepticism and disbelief. Speed reading is not a new skill, I found out that speed reading was first used in the mid-20th century.

In this short post, I will share with you my observations about learning and using speed reading.
I will also wrote about two complementary skills to speed reading: speed listening, and speed watching video.

1. Before fast reading

I’ve always looked at books as like the knowledge that I can use in practice. I’ve never read books for pleasure, I read mainly technical books, business and classical psychology books (like Reich, Fraud, or Lowen). In high school, when I had more free time, I spent whole days reading books and articles on the Internet (I would read 12–16 hours daily on the weekends). After finishing high school, I didn’t have as much time for reading as I used to, and so I decided to read less (This situation made me realize that I should be more selective when it comes to what I’m reading because 95% of the modern books including also bestsellers will not stand the test of time).

In December of 2016, I decided that I would get back into the habit of reading books (a minimum of 10 hours per week). My plan was to read 52 books a year.

When I was planning a list of books to read in 2017, I found an article about speed reading on the Internet. To stick to my plan of reading 52 books, I decided that I would try speed reading. I signed up for the course in one of the schools in Poland. I didn’t have high hopes for this course, I simply wanted to try without any expectations.

2. Learning Speed Reading

My course lasted 12 weeks, we met each Thursday for 2 hours, and additionally, every course participant every day practised for 1.5 hours (30 minutes of exercise, and 60 minutes of speed reading practice).

During the course, we learned the basic method for speed reading by using an indicator, eliminating subvocalization, and increasing the surface of read text.

The biggest problem for every participant was understanding the read text. Fortunately, the instructor told us that understanding everything that you’ve just read requires much effort, and you can achieve the same level of comprehension as when reading at normal speed only after 3–6 months of continued practise.

The above paragraph is very important, because most people quit speed reading or negates this skill because their level of understanding the text they’re reading is very low. Keep in mind that the level of comprehension is a matter of time and continuous practice.

Summarizing, speed reading is not a hard to master skill. To tell the truth, speed reading relies on few simple principles such as a level of remembering information, reading without subvocalization (picture reading). If you’re thinking about speed reading, and which books or courses you should choose, remember that this is not the most important. First and foremost is practice and taking time for continuous exercise every day to master new skills despite old habits, when you read slowly, you vocalize probably every word etc. One person is going to mastering this skill in 3 months, the other person in 6 months depending on the duration of exercise and how good your memory is (before the start of the course).

The best practice in my opinion is reading books which you have read before and you know well. An alternative option is reading every chapter at normal speed, and then in the same chapter with indicator and speed reading technique.

Attention:

I wrote above that speed reading skill important is practice. When I started learning speed reading, I tried many apps on the phone and computer, and I noticed that the apps for speed reading allow you to read word by word on your screen which is not good for a person who wants to learn speed reading. These apps would most likely discourage you from mastering the speed reading technique.

3. Pros speed reading

Below I described the main pros of speed reading:

3.1 Time vs Amount Of Books

Some people may say that is not the amount of read books that matters, but the quality of them. I agree with this statement, but only if you read great and high-quality books, which have stood the test of time and are still popular based on the below principle:

popularity: high (at this moment)

date of release: at least 100 years

Apart from the above criteria, which I actually use, I gradually increase the number of read books at THE same time about 2 to 3 times on average. If reading more books at THE same time is not your goal, or you read only for pleasure, this point is not for you. However, if you are reading books for the same reasons as I am, where you are using and implementing the knowledge from books into your private and business life, this point is very important for you.

Because of this aspect, I became interested in speed reading.

3.2 Deep Work

When I was learning speed reading I became interested again in topics like deep work. I think that I can work really well without distractions. For 2 years I have been practicing yoga, meditation, and working without multitasking, but when I started learning speed reading I noticed that my skills are not as great as I thought and that I could improve my deep work skills. During daily exercises of speed reading, I also practiced calmness and focus which is important for deep work and effective learning. I wanted on maximum efficiency so I implemented to my daily routines concepts like slow life, work or zero FOMO. I also started working in an extended working block (90 minutes deep work / 30 minutes break and relax).

When I look back I appreciate this point even more. Speed reading has helped me with my efficiency in life, but this is a topic for another post.

3.3 Better Brain Efficiency

2 months after I started the course I noticed that my brain started to work on another level, I become more creative and could remember many things easier than I used to earlier. This happens naturally when you exercise your brain and memory and turns out to be very beneficial in your everyday life.

4. The cons of speed reading

In this section, I will describe 3 main cons of speed reading.

4.1 Level of comprehension

I wrote about this in section two. Many people disregard and ignore speed reading because they have problems with achieving the same level of understanding of the read text compared to when they read normally. I agree with those people, this is the biggest con of speed reading.

This idea concerns people who have deep work and concentration difficulties. If you have a problem with the level of understanding the text you’ve just read, please be more aware of your level of concentration and improve it every day through exercises as like meditation, brain training, and mindfulness.

4.2 The pleasure of reading

If you read for pleasure, or you like to celebrate the moment when you are reading books, like when you can hear children playing by the lake in the background and you cannot multitask, speed reading is not for you. When you read using speed reading you should concentrate without multitasking and being lazy. I also don’t like speed reading because of this point, but please remember that speed reading is merely a technique. read every 12 books at normal tempo, because I also like to celebrate and slowly read my books by the ocean, etc.

4.3 Reading paper books

I like paper books very much, but since I’ve been using speed reading with a pointer, paper books are no longer convenient for me. Now when I read a paper book, I need to read by the table because other positions make it impossible for me to use a pointer and hold my book comfortably. Due to this, I read only on my phone, as I can hold the phone in my left hand and use the pointer with my right hand.

5. Speed listening to podcast

A complementary skill to speed reading is speed listening. In my case, I used speed reading all the time, when this option was unavailable in the podcast app and I would change the speed in web javascript player.

I’ve always spoke very quickly. When in 2014 years I started listening to podcasts and audiobooks when I was running I wanted to listen to more material per hour and increase the speed rate from 1.0 to 2.7–3.0 every week (depending on the quality of the recording). I also used options in podcast apps like trimming to remove pauses between dialogues etc. Currently, due to the information overload, I very rarely listen to podcasts or interviews.

6. Speed watching video materials

Another complementary skill to speed reading and listening is speed watching. Because I don’t like wasting time, I’ve also optimized this element of my life. I use speed watching for materials on youtube, courses, and learning on websites like course.org, khan academy or datacamp.com.

For speed watching, I use the tempo 2x-2.5x according to the type of the material which I’m viewing.

7. My setup for speed reading, listening and watching

Below I describe my typical setup for consuming content at speed tempo:

7.1 for books

• device: 6.5 inch iPhone

• indicator: wooden toothpick or coffee stirrer

• app: iBooks from Apple

7.2 for news and content online

• device: 6.5 inch iPhone

• indicator: wooden toothpick or coffee stirrer

• app: getPocket or Feedly

7.3 for listening to podcasts and books

• device: 6.5 inch iPhone + AirPods

• app: Pocketcast for podcasts, Amazon Audible for books

7.4 for watching online content

• device: MacBook pro

• app: chrome + the extension video speed control:

8. Summary

I hope that this post helped you decide if speed reading or listening is for you. In my case thanks to speed reading just last year I was able to read 100+ books with the minimum required time, and still had time to do other things. If you master speed reading, you may also become interested in photo reading. This method is more efficient than speed reading but is also more difficult. At the moment I am learning photo reading and I am working on improving the level of understanding text with only one look.