What prevents us from reading faster and how to deal with it

Remember the famous parable of the lion and the gazelle: when the sun rises, each of them must run to survive. Oddly enough, but the situation is similar to life in a modern civilization, oversaturated with information. In this savannah, the one who learns more and faster than others survives. Having millions of texts on the web has made the skill of quick reading a condition of survival. No other skill can be compared to a speed reading in importance and versatility.
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How fast can I read? The average rate of reading of the Russian-language text by an educated adult is 180 words per minute. More than half (or rather 52%) are absorbed at this rate. read the information. Speed reading is three to four times faster than the average: 600-800 words per minute. It's even faster, but the researchers say that the assimilation will be quite bad.

What prevents you from speeding up? It turns out the problem is in the brain, eyes and language. In the brain, rapid reading is constrained by lack of strategy and absent-minded attention, in the eyes - a small field of vision and regression, in the language - articulation. Factors are only five, and to defeat them one by one is more than real.  https://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=7182

Lack of strategy

The strategy of quick reading consists of a clear idea of the goal (why to read) and understanding the logic of the text (how it works). It is worth starting reading with the setting of the goal, on which everything else will depend.
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There are four strategies for different purposes: scanning, browsing, skimming and in-depth reading. Each next involves a deeper reading and a greater time.

Scanning is the fastest reading strategy to find specific facts in the text. These can be dates, names, numbers, percentages, or keywords. Limit the search and glide through the text. Immersion in the text is minimal, the view snatches only the most necessary (single portions of information).
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View - study of the title of the book (the plan of the article), important provisions (they are most often highlighted by a different color or brought to the fields) and conclusions. The purpose of reading is to understand whether the text is worth reading in detail (value) and whether there is new information (use) in it.

Skimming involves a slightly deeper immersion in the content of the text and a greater time spent. Focus on keywords, seeing which, stop and read into the text before and after the keywords. Thus, we accept only information that is directly in the area of interest, and secondary ignore.
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In-depth - thoughtful reading based on existing knowledge, with attention to details. In this way, we learn, understand and remember new information. The strategy refers to speedreading, but it can also be "pumped" and accelerated.

Knowing the logic and structure of the text, you can quickly find the right information. For example, in scientific articles the essence is described in the annotation, the logic of the presentation is fixed in the article itself: purpose, tasks, the history of the question, experiment, results, conclusions. In popular texts, we look at the title, the subtitle and the last paragraph. In all texts, "salt" is in the first sentences of paragraphs; in the paragraphs themselves - the details of the main thoughts, in the last sentence - conclusions on the first.

Fighting the following four deterrents is literally a matter of technique. They concern rather banal physiological reasons.
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2. Scattered attention

You read the text, but you don't understand anything, because you think about which cafe to go to in the evening, listen to music (or street noise) or feel that your hand has flowed. Familiar? Don't tune in to read, don't take it. All experts on speed reading in one voice advise to throw a book out the window, if you are not interested in reading it or you do not feel an urgent need for information from this book.

To combat distracted attention, decide on a goal and create an environment in which nothing distracts from reading. Turn off the phone, turn on the table lamp, read not only sitting, but standing, periodically push up or do slopes. And yet turn off the phone.

3. Small field of view

In the field of view of the ordinary reader gets 1-2 words, so his eyes run horizontally row by line. In the field of view of the high-speed reader is the whole line, so he reads the page from top to bottom or diagonally.

You can expand the field of vision with special exercises (simple, but regular). They can be found, for example, on this site.

4. Regression
how fast to read

A big problem is the involuntary return of the gaze to a just-read word, sentence or phrase - regression. It occurs when distracted, lack of attention, misunderstanding of the read. Solving the problem of concentration partially solves the problem of regression. In addition, it helps to track your finger or pencil. The view will not return, and the acceleration of tracking will accelerate and eye movement.