Before you start reading anything in the magazine you want to sift through the table of contents and determine what needs to be read. Circle the articles in the table of contents that you plan to read. You can cross out the article after it has been read.

Let’s start with this basic assumption: You can read something faster if you are familiar with it. Most people would agree with this statement. The problem is that most of the material you read is not familiar to you, which is obviously on of the reasons why you would want to read it.

So the idea here is to somehow get familiar with the material before actually reading it. Think of this as warming up before you read, just like you would before you exercise. The can easily familiarize yourself with an article and “speed read” it by following three simple steps.

Step #1 – Read the First and Last Paragraph

In well written material, the first paragraph is usually an introduction to what you are about to read in the article. Similarly, the last paragraph should summarize the article. So if we read the first and last paragraph we should, at the very least come away with a strong sense of what the main idea is in the article.  (more…)

President John F. Kennedy

President Kennedy was a strong proponent of speed reading after taking a speed reading course with his brother Bobby Kennedy. He encouraged many in his cabinet to take similar courses and helped make speed reading popular throughout the U.S. in the 1960s. (more…)

Gathering information is something all humans do naturally. So it’s only natural that once learn to read we want to start doing it faster so we can gather and absorb more information.

One of the first insights into speed reading was developed through the United States Air Force (more…)