8 Tips for Reading FASTER in English

- Hey, guys, welcome to my channel.

Today, I'm gonna give you some tips and tricks

that help me read faster.

And it doesn't matter whether English

is your first language or second or third.

I'm gonna give you very practical tips

that will help you read in any language.

And I started reading four to five books a month.

Sometimes I go beyond that number,

and I know that there are people

who read like 10 books a month.

There are so many amazing books coming out.

I read books on marketing, management, health.

And you don't want to miss that information.

So, the thing you can do

right now is improve your reading speed.

And I'm gonna teach you how.

Today, I'm gonna teach you to read faster.

The first step you have to take,

and the first step that I've taken

is actually separating formats.

What I mean by that,

there are three general formats of books that we have.

There are hard copies, right there, that's a hard copy.

There's an audio book, and there's an electronic book.

So for audiobooks, I try to stick to fiction,

because I don't really write things down

when I'm listening to stories.

And I can actually do another thing while listening

to an audiobook, like I can clean my room.

I can do my makeup, I can do my nails, I can cook.

- That's multitasking.

- 'Cause I'm just listening to a story.

I'm not necessarily writing a to-do list,

because when I'm reading practical books,

like books on marketing, books on management,

I really need to read,

'cause I would highlight some paragraphs.

I would send something that comes to my mind,

to my husband, or to my team.

Hey, we need to do this, this, and that.

I would say, audiobooks for stories.

Audio, stories.

So, you can be more relaxed.

Then, electronic books for learning,

so you can highlight things.

- Highlighter.

- And hard copy books, I don't really do them anymore,

'cause I like to declutter my space.

I don't like when extra things appear in my room.

But I would use hard copy books for poolside

or like for relaxing.

It's just another experience,

because if you highlight things in those books,

you just sometimes lose that information.

So really, I would recommend sticking to these two formats.

- Hard copy.

- Now, let's go to reading faster.

On average,

a person would read 150

to 200 words per minute.

And this is very, very, very slow reading.

- Slow.

- This can actually be compared to the pace of speaking.

You can read so much faster.

You can go above 300 words per minute,

and this is considered fast reading.

There's by the way test available

to check your reading speed.

I will leave a link below, so if you're not sure

where you are at, and you're probably not,

take the test and see where you are.

But people can go to as fast as 600 words a minute,

700 words a minute and, yes, that's doable.

- I can read over 3000 words a minute.

- Why does this happen,

'cause most of us think that reading is actually

speaking in your head.

So, a lot of people actually say words

that they're reading in their heads,

and this slows them down completely.

You need to start on working on visual reading,

instead of saying words in your head.

So, get rid of this sub-vocalization.

I'm writing this term down just for you to make sure

that you understand me completely.

Sub-vocalization, ways to get rid of it.

Count words.

- You can count.

- And, by the way, I'm gonna do this.

We don't need this at all.

What do I mean by counting words in your head?

So, you're reading something,

and in your head you go like,

this was word number one, number two, number three.

So, you are trying to distract your brain

with something else.

Instead of your brain trying to pronounce

everything that you're reading,

you're actually telling your brain,

hey, do the word count and I'll just read,

because two things at at time is,

I think, the maximum a brain can do.

You stop saying things in your head,

and you actually start to do the visual reading,

like getting the meaning of the words

just by seeing them.

- You should be able to see the words, Mr. Three Thousand.

- Another thing you can do is use a rhythm.

- Get in rhythm.

- And what I mean by that,

for example, you want to read at this pace.

A method that you use for reading

should depend on your goals,

education, relaxing, learning your words.

And if I speed myself up,

a method you're gonna read first should depend

on your goals, relaxing, reading, learning.

This is what you can do,

so just create a rhythm for yourself, and follow it.

Again, helps a lot to speed up your reading.

- Here we go, guys, find the rhythm.

- The third thing you can do

to get rid of sub-vocalization is listen to music.

Instrumental, classical music is the best

'cause, again, it has the pace,

and it acts as distraction for your brain.

- Nice distraction.

- Guide yourself.

By guiding yourself while reading,

I actually mean using your hand

or a pen to go through whatever you have to read.

Sub-vocalization, count words, use a rhythm,

listen to music, guide yourself.

The faster you move, the faster your brain starts to read.

Just, again, create a pace for yourself

that's a little above your comfort zone,

that makes you read a little faster.

Just guide yourself with your hand.

- That's why I'm gonna read these lines

I wrote myself with my own two hands.

- Please start practicing these techniques

the next time you're gonna be reading.

Find the one that's comfortable for you.

Find the one that makes you read faster.

If these are not enough,

there are also several things you could do.

One of them is go to Skillshare.

There is an amazing course

called Read Better and Faster in Just Seven Days.

And because Skillshare is sponsoring this video,

you can get free access to the platform

by clicking a link below,

and you're gonna get two months access for free.

By the way, there is another course

that I would recommend taking on Skillshare.

It's called Productivity Masterclass,

Creating a Custom System that Works.

Because apart from reading faster,

you would actually need to find time

for being productive and reading more books.

And when you start reading more books,

you start getting more information.

It's like communicating with more and more people,

so I would really advise you

to find time for reading different books.

And this masterclass by Thomas Frank

is gonna actually help you find that time.

And Skillshare in general is an amazing place

to find online classes.

And there are thousands of other classes covering

dozens of creating and entrepreneurial skills.

Premium membership gives you unlimited access,

so you can join the classes and communities

that are just right for you.

And if you think of affordability,

don't forget that you're getting two months for free

using my link below.

And also if later on you decide

to get an annual membership,

you're gonna end up paying $10 a month

for full access to all of the classes.

And if we compare it to private tutoring,

or even taking an online class at a university,

you are saving a lot of money.

So, again, two courses that I recommend there,

first, is this reading faster course,

and the second one is the productivity class.

Now, let's go back to tips that work for me,

and I mentioned productivity class.

And before creating any book,

I want to create a set of tasks for myself

to stay productive while reading this book,

'cause it's very easy.

And comment down below if you have this problem.

It's very easy to buy a lot of books,

and you're like, I'm gonna read, this, this, and this.

And then you start reading every book,

and you never finish, and you never

even get to the middle of the book.

This is why whenever I start a new book,

I write down my goal, or I just, you know, think about it,

like my goal after reading this management book

is to create an instruction

for my new personal assistant

on how to work with my email, for example.

So, this be a very specific goal,

not just learn new things about marketing, no.

Actually, you have to be very specific

and your goals have to be actionable,

which means that you can act upon them

right after reading the book.

The second, skills.

What skills am I trying to learn after reading this book?

Again, if it's a management book,

I'm trying to learn how to write the right instructions.

I'm trying to learn how to create a resume,

or I'm trying to learn how to create a job posting,

so that I find the right people.

Time for this book.

Now, this is super important.

Again, what happens?

You start reading a book,

and in a year you realize you've only read 10 pages.

So, I tell myself, we need to finish by November, that's it.

And in order to be more specific about this,

you can set up the number of pages that you read per day.

For example, you tell yourself,

every day, I read 20 pages of this book.

In order to make yourself more accountable

for what you're doing, you can post it on your social media,

like, hey, I love to share my plans

for the day on my Instagram.

By the way, if you're not yet subscribed, it's LinguaMarina.

I love to share my plans because I feel responsible

for what I'm actually sharing.

I would be like, I told my followers

that I'm gonna read 20 pages of this book today,

and I haven't, so I just need to go back to this,

and really accomplish it,

'cause I promised thousands of people.

Or even if your promise to like 60 of your followers,

that's already some accountability, so try that.

- Then, I promised I'm reading this book,

so I gotta go, bye.

- And it's okay, by the way,

to read several books at a time.

- Have you ever read four books at a time?

- So, it's not like, you have to read

just one book at a time,

and start another one once you finish.

It's totally okay.

The only thing that, again, really helps me

is selecting the books on the similar topic.

So, if I'm reading a management book, like,

I don't know, how to manage a company,

another book that I will be reading is

like a story of a company that's grown very fast.

And I can listen to an audiobook,

because I don't have to write things down,

but I would just listen

how they applied different methods.

So, they are similar but they're different genres,

so that helps a lot.

- You're really mixing genres.

- So, once you've become all productive

and you set your goals,

some more tips.

Number five.

Don't read

word by word.

You don't actually need that.

Your brain is totally fine with understanding

just a few words from a sentence,

and figuring out the meaning from them.

This is particularly important

for anyone who is trying to read in English,

and for whom English is not their first language,

because sometimes we try to translate

every single word, and this is totally wrong.

You don't have to do that.

You only need to translate words

that affect the meaning in general.

What I translate as well is that if there is a word

that I've seen for 10 times in this book already,

and I still don't know what it means,

I would translate it just to be sure that

I'm using this word in my own speech as well,

since native speakers are using that word so much.

Just a fun fact for you.

If you're reading like a scientific book,

you can decrease the number of words

by 2.5 times without losing its meaning.

If you're reading a fiction book,

you can decrease the number of words by three or four times

without losing its meaning,

which means that you can skip words

to still get what the author wanted to tell you.

Another thing that might help psychologically.

Sometimes you think that

if you read your book back-to-back,

you're gonna understand its meaning.

In reality, you can read the book five or six times,

and still not get its meaning.

So, it's not about how many words you read.

It's about how concentrated you are.

It's about how familiar you are with the topic

because, again, you can decrease the number of words

in a book without losing its meaning.

- I think he could've said

what he has to say with a lot less.

- Six, I just mentioned it.

Focus.

When reading an electronic book or a hard copy book,

it's actually really important to focus.

How do you know if you're focused enough?

When you're reading something,

and your brain is still analyzing the previous paragraph,

that tells you that you're not focused enough.

That tells you that you're distracted,

that your brain still hasn't digested information

it has just received, and that it's somewhere else.

With this point of time,

I would ask you to stop reading.

Maybe, get some tea.

Get more comfortable wherever you are,

'cause it's very important

to feel comfortable while reading.

If you don't have to think about changing your position,

or drinking, or whatever,

you tend to stay more focused,

and your speed naturally increases.

And, by the way, reading is a great, great way

to get rid of your stress.

Just make this process enjoyable,

just relax and help your brain dig deeper

into the content of the book.

- Got to go much deeper, yeah

- Another tip.

Make a movie

in your head.

I do this all the time.

Make a movie in your head means

create visual images of whatever is going on in the book.

Create a visual image of everyone who's in the book,

of main character's apartment,

of things they're doing for their companies,

or whatever you're reading about.

Visual images help a lot,

especially for people like me who love videos.

I love videos, and if you're watching YouTube,

I guess you love videos, too.

And visualization is a great tool

to speed up your reading process,

because when you read the character's name,

you already have all those visual images in your head,

and it helps you digest information faster.

- Create a visualization.

- Next thing, read reviews beforehand.

Those could be reviews, or a very short version of a book,

because this way you're gonna know what you're looking for.

You're gonna know what people loved about this book.

You're gonna know what to look for in this book

'cause, maybe, they would tell you

for example, you're looking for a perfect resume,

or whatever, and in reviews you'll be like,

this guy is sharing the prefect resume samples

in chapter four and five and it was so useful.

And you know exactly that when you're gonna read this book,

you're gonna be extra careful

with the chapter four and five,

because this is what you're looking for.

So, go to different resources, read those reviews.

It's gonna help structure your brain

and prepare it for all the upcoming information.

That was it from me, guys, for today.

Let's just conclude.

I wanted to highlight something.

So, no matter what speed you're at,

I want you to get to the speed of 800 words per minute.

This is the best speed

for reading five to six books a month.

Another thing that I wanted to highlight once again

use your pen to guide you.

This is one of the most practical skills

that worked for me,

like guiding yourself through reading.

The last but not the least,

something to pay attention to,

pay attention to where your eyes are looking at

when you're reading.

Ideally, they have to be focused on the middle of the page.

So, don't go from the first word

to the last word of the paragraph.

Mostly focus on what's in the middle area of the page.

This way you're just making sure

that you're not reading every single word,

that you're just scanning and digesting

the most important words to understand the meaning.

Again, this might sound very complicated.

I want you to start practicing.

I want you to write things down

in your own exercise books, or whatever, so you have them.

And I want you to take those classes that I've mentioned,

the productivity and the reading class in the links below.

Two months for free with Skillshare

just because you watched this video, guys.

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I hope this was useful and I hope you're gonna use it,

and I will see you very soon in my next videos.

Bye-bye.