How much more could you get done if you completed all of your required reading in 1/3 or 1/5 the time?
Increasing reading speed is a process of controlling fine motor movement—period.
This post is a condensed overview of principles I taught to undergraduates at Princeton University in 1998 at a seminar called the “PX Project.” The below was written several years ago, so it’s worded like Ivy Leaguer pompous-ass prose, but the results are substantial. In fact, while on an airplane in China two weeks ago, I helped Glenn McElhose increase his reading speed 34% in less than 5 minutes.
I have never seen the method fail. Here’s how it works…
The PX Project
The PX Project, a single 3-hour cognitive experiment, produced an average increase in reading speed of 386%.
It was tested with speakers of five languages, and even dyslexics were conditioned to read technical material at more than 3,000 words-per-minute (wpm), or 10 pages per minute. One page every 6 seconds. By comparison, the average reading speed in the US is 200-300 wpm (1/2 to 1 page per minute), with the top 1% of the population reading over 400 wpm…
If you understand several basic principles of the human visual system, you can eliminate inefficiencies and increase speed while improving retention.
To perform the exercises in this post and see the results, you will need: a book of 200+ pages that can lie flat when open, a pen, and a timer (a stop watch with alarm or kitchen timer is ideal). You should complete the 20 minutes of exercises in one session.
First, several definitions and distinctions specific to the reading process:
A) Synopsis: You must minimize the number and duration of fixations per line to increase speed.
You do not read in a straight line, but rather in a sequence of saccadic movements (jumps). Each of these saccades ends with a fixation, or a temporary snapshot of the text within you focus area (approx. the size of a quarter at 8 inches from reading surface). Each fixation will last ¼ to ½ seconds in the untrained subject. To demonstrate this, close one eye, place a fingertip on top of that eyelid, and then slowly scan a straight horizontal line with your other eye-you will feel distinct and separate movements and periods of fixation.
B) Synopsis: You must eliminate regression and back-skipping to increase speed.
The untrained subject engages in regression (conscious rereading) and back-skipping (subconscious rereading via misplacement of fixation) for up to 30% of total reading time.
C) Synopsis: You must use conditioning drills to increase horizontal peripheral vision span and the number of words registered per fixation.
Untrained subjects use central focus but not horizontal peripheral vision span during reading, foregoing up to 50% of their words per fixation (the number of words that can be perceived and “read” in each fixation).
The Protocol
You will 1) learn technique, 2) learn to apply techniques with speed through conditioning, then 3) learn to test yourself with reading for comprehension.
These are separate, and your adaptation to the sequencing depends on keeping them separate. Do not worry about comprehension if you are learning to apply a motor skill with speed, for example. The adaptive sequence is: technique ‘ technique with speed ‘ comprehensive reading testing.
As a general rule, you will need to practice technique at 3x the speed of your ultimate target reading speed. Thus, if you currently read at 300 wpm and your target reading speed is 900 wpm, you will need to practice technique at 2,700 words-per-minute, or 6 pages per minute (10 seconds per page).
We will cover two main techniques in this introduction:
1) Trackers and Pacers (to address A and B above)
2) Perceptual Expansion (to address C)
First – Determining Baseline
To determine your current reading speed, take your practice book (which should lay flat when open on a table) and count the number of words in 5 lines. Divide this number of words by 5, and you have your average number of words-per-line.
Example: 62 words/5 lines = 12.4, which you round to 12 words-per-line
Next, count the number of text lines on 5 pages and divide by 5 to arrive at the average number of lines per page. Multiply this by average number of words-per-line, and you have your average number of words per page.
Example: 154 lines/5 pages = 30.8, rounded to 31 lines per page x 12 words-per-line = 372 words per page
Mark your first line and read with a timer for 1 minute exactly-do not read faster than normal, and read for comprehension. After exactly one minute, multiply the number of lines by your average words-per-line to determine your current words-per-minute (wpm) rate.
Second – Trackers and Pacers
Regression, back-skipping, and the duration of fixations can be minimized by using a tracker and pacer. To illustrate the importance of a tracker-did you use a pen or finger when counting the number of words or lines in above baseline calculations? If you did, it was for the purpose of tracking-using a visual aid to guide fixation efficiency and accuracy. Nowhere is this more relevant than in conditioning reading speed by eliminating such inefficiencies.
For the purposes of this article, we will use a pen. Holding the pen in your dominant hand, you will underline each line (with the cap on), keeping your eye fixation above the tip of the pen. This will not only serve as a tracker, but it will also serve as a pacer for maintaining consistent speed and decreasing fixation duration. You may hold it as you would when writing, but it is recommended that you hold it under your hand, flat against the page.
1) Technique (2 minutes):
Practice using the pen as a tracker and pacer. Underline each line, focusing above the tip of the pen. DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION. Keep each line to a maximum of 1 second, and increase the speed with each subsequent page. Read, but under no circumstances should you take longer than 1 second per line.
2) Speed (3 minutes):
Repeat the technique, keeping each line to no more than ½ second (2 lines for a single “one-one-thousand”). Some will comprehend nothing, which is to be expected. Maintain speed and technique-you are conditioning your perceptual reflexes, and this is a speed exercise designed to facilitate adaptations in your system. Do not decrease speed. ½ second per line for 3 minutes; focus above the pen and concentrate on technique with speed. Focus on the exercise, and do not daydream.
Third – Perceptual Expansion
If you focus on the center of your computer screen (focus relating to the focal area of the fovea in within the eye), you can still perceive and register the sides of the screen. Training peripheral vision to register more effectively can increase reading speed over 300%. Untrained readers use up to ½ of their peripheral field on margins by moving from 1st word to last, spending 25-50% of their time “reading” margins with no content.
To illustrate, let us take the hypothetical one line: “Once upon a time, students enjoyed reading four hours a day.” If you were able to begin your reading at “time” and finish the line at “four”, you would eliminate 6 of 11 words, more than doubling your reading speed. This concept is easy to implement and combine with the tracking and pacing you’ve already practiced.
1) Technique (1 minute):
Use the pen to track and pace at a consistent speed of one line per second. Begin 1 word in from the first word of each line, and end 1 word in from the last word.
DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION. Keep each line to a maximum of 1 second, and increase the speed with each subsequent page. Read, but under no circumstances should you take longer than 1 second per line.
2) Technique (1 minute):
Use the pen to track and pace at a consistent speed of one line per second. Begin 2 words in from the first word of each line, and end 2 words in from the last word.
3) Speed (3 minutes):
Begin at least 3 words in from the first word of each line, and end 3 words in from the last word. Repeat the technique, keeping each line to no more than ½ second (2 lines for a single “one-one-thousand”).
Some will comprehend nothing, which is to be expected. Maintain speed and technique-you are conditioning your perceptual reflexes, and this is a speed exercise designed to facilitate adaptations in your system. Do not decrease speed. ½ second per line for 3 minutes; focus above the pen and concentrate on technique with speed. Focus on the exercise, and do not daydream.
Fourth – Calculate New WPM Reading Speed
Mark your first line and read with a timer for 1 minute exactly- Read at your fastest comprehension rate. Multiply the number of lines by your previously determined average words-per-line to get determine your new words-per-minute (wpm) rate.
Congratulations on completing your cursory overview of some of the techniques that can be used to accelerate human cognition (defined as the processing and use of information).
Final recommendations: If used for study, it is recommended that you not read 3 assignments in the time it would take you to read one, but rather, read the same assignment 3 times for exposure and recall improvement, depending on relevancy to testing.
Happy trails, page blazers.
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Related and Recommended Posts:
Tim Ferriss interviewed by Derek Sivers
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Great article on speed reading. Thank you Tim for sharing with us. Side note: I'm glad that I can scroll through the comments and see intelligent thoughts, debate and constructive criticism.
Thanks,very useful technique . But what if I do not understand the passage after finishing reading it?yes,I can speed up reading,but it means nothing if I did not understand it.
too much to read for dyslex
Being in the digital era, are there any techniques that can help for reading on a computer screen? I knwo that the peripheral field training would help but is there anything else that we can do such as some other method for tracking and pacing?
Tim, This is an incredible article. I really appreciate it. Because this seems to be a drill, is one supposed to use the "pacer" forever or is it just for drilling purposes only? Al
Thanks Tim. You helped not only me, but also many others succeed through speed reading. I have looked for several months, searching in YouTube and other multimedia websites. None helped me. Thanks once again.
All I achieved was an insane headache 🙁 How are we supposed to use the pen? Moving it from left to right while reading above it….or leaving it stationary to mark the bottom of the line…then read the line? At 2 lines per second my eyes ached and i couldnt even read 1 word per line.
Amazing. While I "only" got a 72% increase, that's pretty amazing for 20 minutes. I will go through the steps again as I am very confident that a little more practice will produce a greater result. Thanks!
This will help me with all those textbooks and articles I need to read before exams start. You know, cause I've been busy with 4-Hour Work Week! Thanks Tim!
well, a brilliant and exciting scientific research. can we later on read the same stuff without the user of tracker? it will seems quite boring to read all the time with the tracker for the maintenance of the speed. Thanks for the tip.
when it says taking the steps and doing what its asking am i suppose to be rereading the same wording over and over or am i continuing reading after i do every exercise?
In today's day and age with time being the most valuable commodity, any technique we can use to shave a few moments here and there is worth doing. ONLY if we use the time we gain by being more efficient towards something important, something that is of value to us. Being quicker so we can cram more busy tasks into our day is not how to live life. I have been a big fan of 4 Hour Work Week since it first came out. So far I am at 38 Hour Work Week! 🙂
CHALLENGE FOR YOU TIM: HIGH SPEED MORSE CODE RECEPTION 50+ WPM HEAD START: http://www.tasrt.ca/TASRTVersions/TASRT.pdf Report back to me. Mike, KN8J
I loved this! I've been wanting to speed read for months and this actually helps me do it with tips that are logical. Thank you!
Just increased my reading speed approx 283% from 299 wpm to 1144 wpm with this article!
Amazing. I increased my speed by 45%. Is it permanent, or do you have top practice the technique over period of time to maintain the increase in speed? If yes, how often to maintain? Thanks, Blanche
This is amazing. I did not know i could read this fast. Thanks
Not bad at all 210 to 530
I would like to say that this DOES WORK. I spent one night practicing, and the next day read a novel I had not read before. Previously, the book of its length may have taken a day or two to finish, now I finished it in a matter of hours. I went from 228 WPM to 877 WPM. The most encouraging aspect: I could still comprehend the story, the character's motivations, and appreciate the language. The hardest part was shutting out the "voice in the head", or hearing myself speak the words while I read, that's what slowed me down before. Other than that, I think with further practice, anything is possible.
I thought my initial suspicion was vindicated by comparing the control wpm test with the final wpm test. It's not hard to see how you would get different results comparing your natural reading speed with your "fastest comprehension rate", but after doing the excersises it becomes clear that "Read at your fastest comprehension rate" actually means "Slow Down!"
This is really amazing..Wondering why I didn't look for this earlier..Thanks a lot..
Awesome stuff! I just found a really nice Timer and I'm using it to determine the wpm; http://www.timer-tab.com
Very helpful! Do you have a product you recommend to take it to the next level?
"approx. the size of a quarter at 8? from reading surface" What does "8?" refer to? Typo? Sorry, I am not English. I lost the line right there. Thanks.
I may be four years late to this party, but I feel this comment is necessary. First off, Tim, thank you so much for this post. I found instant success after completing the exercises. However, my skills can still use more practice and drilling to reach my pinnacle (the wrestler's mentality hehe). I greatly admire and appreciate all of the information you post! The knowledge on this site seems to "enlighten" me on many subjects and it is all FREE. Secondly, thank you to the four hour community for sharing thoughts ( I loved reading Sean's comment about the deaf) and providing more insight. Thanks again, Collin
We are comparing normal comprehension speed in step 1 to fastest comprehension speed in step 4. Isin't it better to be comparing fastest comprehension speed at both step 1 and step 4?
I increased my speed "reading" by 3x, however I think I killed my comprehension by 50% 🙁 Need to pause and absorb the information.
i like reading and also read fast. i sometimes get bored when reading. i want to know how i will not feel dizzy when reading. i also needs more books to improve my reading ability. Thank you.
Hello Tim, I am really impressed by all of your work. I am following your blog regularly since 2 months. I have been a slow reader since my school days and have been attempting to increase my speed for a long time now but never could achieve it. After reading this article I took the 20 mins test and this is what I could find. When started I was 161 words per min. When I finished the the drill I was 414 words per min. I was surprised that I achieved a 156% increase in my speed. Really amazed with my self and thank you very much for sharing this. Regards, Rithesh R
I'm going into college next year and think developing this technique will be quite helpful. One thing that's still a bit unclear for me though is the matter of comprehension. I've heard that speed reading isn't worth it due to the loss of comprehension, that one should read things multiple times if speed reading to make up for comprehension loss, and that speed reading actually increases comprehension. Is one of these correct? Is something else? Any clarification would be much appreciated 🙂
i can now read fast
It took me about 30 to 40 minutes to double my words per minute! Sweet, thanks Tim!
This is shit.
Amazing amazing amazinggggg! I almost trippled my rate from 324 to 948 WPM! This is so inspiring! For 20 minutes? I will do the drills everyday for the next one month and I am very excited to see where that will get me. Please do yourself a favor and try this people! Thank you for sharing Timothy!
This suprisingly actually works! I went from 110 words per minute to 220 words per minute. In just 8 minutes or so! And I'm not an ad or computer saying this!
Grt job
Wow! I know most of these websites don't give much detail, but I found this one very detailed and astonishing. I went from 267 WPM to 936 WPM! Thank You so much! 🙂
Hi Tim thanks for your inspirational work (your books, your blogs, your videos…)! in addition to faster reading, do you have any tips for better comprehension, and especially, better memorization of texts? Aman
WOW! This is amazing! I can't believe how well it worked! I've more then doubled my previous reading speeds thanks to this, before I started I was at a pretty slow 231 wpm and now I'm at 506 wpm with full comprehension! I wonder if trying this again and repeating the process will increase my speed even more!
Thanks so much for this resource! It provided a great capstone for my introductory speed reading blog post http://shanks-blog.com/?p=64 , I hope you don't mind the pingback 🙂 Thanks again for all your hard work putting this out for us.
So I'm not the fastest reader, but this helped increase my comprehension rate from 220 wpm to 517 wpm. Very satisfied(:
Um…Evelyn Woods Reading Dynamics-late 60's.
Wow, this really works. I cannot believe that I just came across this. I went from 350wpm to 760wpm.
I don't think I've ever felt such a wide range of weak and empowered in a 20 minute time span. I'm 23 years old, in college for music, and have always been the bottom of the curve because of my below-average 112 WPM. 20 minutes later, I am at 280 and I'm repeating the process whenever I can so much as get a magazine in my hands. It's AMAZING! And especially fun to read to fast background music, reading a line for every 2 beats, just as a way to keep track of my eyes. I'll be trying with a metronome soon. Thank you for this gift, Carlos
Wow, I went from 350 to 620 in just 20 minutes, thanks a lot!
Am I crazy or is there a crucial arithmetic error in your section "The Protocol"? It says to practice technique at 3x your target reading speed (TRS) and then uses the example of a 900 WPM TRS. Then it recommends practicing at 1800 WPM, which is only 2xTRS. I believe you meant to use 600 as a TRM example, but it's unclear where the typo is. I love all things 4 hour! Thanks Tim!
The technique is really when you are reading the hard copy, but i generally read ebooks, so can you please suggest some tip to improve the speed while reading on computer. Thanks!
This might save my butt this year. I'm going to be a Junior in highschool, with a heavy schedule ahead of me. I've never even taken an honors or advanced course, and yet I've got two A.Ps on my schedule this year, with A LOT of reading to do. And that's not even why I'm here. i'm here because I've got a book to read, along with other summer homework for A.Ps due in 4 days that I've barely started.
Wow, I'm using this technique from now on. I took a reading speed test and went from 478 wpm to 1,104 and still got 5 out of 6 comprehension questions right (I missed one question the first time, too. Oh well.)
I just did these exercises over two days and more than doubled my reading speed. I do think there was a reduction in comprehension, but not by as much as you might expect. I think with practice this will become very handy, because I read a LOT :-). Thanks Tim.
I cannot wait to try this out! I am such a slow reader, and I hope this can change that! It sounds like (from other comments) that it does!
It increased mine by 225% – Still my comprehension at the faster speed is crappy
Wow, this is amazing. I did a quick google search, "improve reading speed" in order to read faster for a tough exam coming up. It honestly works, and I have to say, I expected it not to. I went from 120 words per minute (extremely slow) to 440 words per minute, which is absolutely astounding for me. Thank you for doing this! I will definitely be trying this out over and over to continue to improve! 😀
i could not understand how to do the techniques
It is very useful , but I want name some of books talk about speed reading
Thanks for this great post! I'm just wondering: what's the best way to practice your suggested reading scheme to be the most effective? Ie: how often do I do the 2 min vs 3 mins reading, and then the 1st word, 2nd last word etc…? Do I repeat the sequence again after I finished the first cycle? Thanks
A good evening to you sirs/madam. I am a B.A English literature,final year college student. I have a very will to read many books. But after sometime, I feel sleepy or boredom after finishing some(few) pages in the book. so, my query is what can I do for this? I want to taste many many lots of books …pls, help me.
I just increased my read speed by almost 75% in just one round of training!
Hey thanks so much for the tips and help on how to read faster. I am trying to increase my reading speed and comprehension as I prepare for MCAT. I am finding that I am running out of time during my verbal practice. But just in the time I spent practicing my reading I think that it is helping me. The pen as a ticker is such a great idea. Thank you.
Brilliant! I read the article on The Art of Manliness to draw me in, get the basics, then pasted this article into spreeder, it was amazing! Having primed the content with the other shorter article, it helped me get through this longer one quicker, and still comprehend it all while practicing the concept. This one was definitely better in the long run as it hard far more detail and practical exercises. Beautiful. I'll keep at it, thanks for the article!
Nice step by step instruction Using the techniques to read 4HWW LOL
Trying to speed read this article…
God, i love you! I just increased my wpm by 150% in half an hour, up from 400. Awesome stuff.
I increased my wpm from 230 to 810! This really works! Thank you so much! I'm reading a book for a report and this is really helping!
Good stuff. My reading went from 315 wpm to 730 in about twenty minutes. This is gonna save me a ton of time for speed reading in the ACT Reading section.
Here is a handy tool as well: http://www.eyercize.com/practice/bm_read/
Thank you so much! I almost gave up on reading.. I was reading at about 150wpm and it was torture. After going through this guide it boosted my wpm to 341!
This is great!
Wow, it actually worked! I'm reading a very hard book so my original wpm was 145.6… now it is up to 343.2! Really almost exactly a 300% increase! Thank you so much!!
Hey Tim, Your technique probably appears to be more complicated than it actually is. It's also a good candidate for a web app – having some automated way to test reading speed and provide feedback would be awesome.
Wow. This is incredible. I still have a lot of work to do but this took my words per minute from 436 to 756 in 10 minutes. Incredible. Thank you very much
Thanks so much for the great tip. Went from 312 wpm to 864 wpm! Need more practice though…..
HUGE thanks for this. In just 15 minutes I upped my reading speed by 50%. I'll keep practising and look forward to getting faster. cheers, Karl
Thank you. Seemed to help a little. I improved by 60 wpm.
Fantastic article. I have always been searching for speed read and how to speed read but this one takes the cake, mainly because of how feasible it is to do and the fact that it just takes less than an hour. The ones I've come across had the attitude of completely revamping your reading style which does take quite a lot of time, and effort. Tim this is fantastic!
I am extremely slow. I used to read 93 words per minute and now I read 160 words per minute. Still, an improvement ^^. I will keep working on this so hopefully I'll be able to someday read 300 words per minute.
Hey Tim, About the photoreading, I believe it has to do with your memory. If you have good memory concerning the recollection of images, I think it would be easier to remember what is written on it. Thanks for this article by the way, I'm really pumped to do this!
OMG!!!!!!!! This really works. My reading rate doubled and I did the excersise only once!!!!!!!!!1
Hello, Im doing it, but with zero comprehension. Is this normal?
This is brilliant, I have about a bazillion things to read (trying to make sense of other bazillion things I already have). Will give this a try and report back!
I am an incredibly slow reader at just 106 words per minute! I physically can't do that section where you need to get through 2 lines in 1/2 a second. Even when I am not reading for comprehension I physically can't get through that much and still actually see the page or aim the pen! feeling very defeated…
This sounds wonderful, and I will enjoy testing this technique. Does it effect your retention rates or level of comprehension? Even if it doesn't, do you know of any methods that can be used with this one to improve both speed and long term retention?
NIce.. I increased 60% of my speed…Will practice to do even more better
There is also now a google chrome extension called "Spreed" that helps with speed reading any web page.
Hi Tim, this is a really useful post. Would you mind write the follow-up/sequel of this post as I think you point out that this just an introduction. Thanks in advance.
By the way, would you be able to write a post about how to Not day dream? It would be very much appreciated and helpful and useful as to most people I know today (including myself) tend to have problem of focusing. Thanks
Question. How do I reach my goal? Do I continue to do all the techniques or do I continue to read?
I must be doing something wrong, because I have not really improved my speed at all…maybe by a couple of lines 🙁
Alternately, you could stop moving your eyes altogether and use something like squirt.io, a speed reading bookmarklet that you can use on any page. Enjoy!
I wonder will they ever build a device for speed reading someday? and you would just plug an usb with all the books you need into your head?
This is bull. The experiment goes like this: 1. Read at your normal pase, don't try and read fast 2. Do stuff 3. Read again, this time try to read fast! 4. See? the stuff in step 2 made you read faster! There does seem to be a point in speedreading, but this page is complete bullshit.
I tried this and also mindbulb speed reader which is pretty much the same and now I read 500+ words a minute. You are amazing!!
I can't even scan my eyes over a whole line of text in one second, let alone say all the words to myself in my mind. When I try to practice that technique I can only register two or three words per line. Am I doing something wrong here?
Thank you I will keep practicing to better my reading and speed.
Wow Tim, this is a fantastic post…I just did the exercise using my kindle paperwhite and jumped from 234 wpm to 621 wpm WITH comprehension. Love it! Thank you, Jason
I think that reading more than one word per one eye move is impossible for majority of people. Understanding of text could easily go rapidly down. However using iOS app we developed is much more easy and you can read very fast without loosing context. http://www.textioapp.com/
You have no idea how useful this is for people reading mile thick novels and people doing an English major. Next up, Ulysses by James Joyce and Finnegan's Wake!
This is so cool! After doing the exercise, I went from being able to read with comprehension at 300 wpm to nearly 800 wpm!
Want Better, Faster and More Productive Emailing? Very good points! Techcrunch actually wrote an interesting article about the newest speed reader for email too, which I really liked.See here: http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/21/mailbird-brings-speed-reading-technology-to-email/?ncid=rss. I spend a ton of time reading emails every day, so betting it will help me save me time every day 🙂
Wow this works so good. I didn't expected passing from 220 wpm to 660 wpm in so short time. This is great considering the fact that I'm a native Spanish speaker and the material I read was in English. PROPS to this method.
I'm guessing that's supposed to be 8 inches (8"). I'll check out.
you just go reading of news paper and software which can improve your skills.
Anyone else feel like instead of speed-reading they are just bypassing words? I am trying so hard to actually read the entire line but only move my lines from three words on the left to three words in on the right, but I think I am actually just skipping words. Glad it is working so well for everyone else!
The technique is only easier to practice with hard copies, but the act of teaching your eyes to scan faster carries over to all reading you will do. A previous post by a Diego Scataglini (please feel free to search his name on this page with ctrl-f for the full quote) recommends the use of some online software he made himself to exercise these same principles. It uses highlighting instead of a pen. http://www.eyercize.com Another interesting one is http://zapreader.com/ It allows you to copy and paste the text OR the link to the article you want to speed-read. Both are excellent tools!
I am concerned about Comprehension as well. Can somebody, who has benefited out of this technique, kindly clarify if you are able to understand things perfectly or are you reading at the cost of comprehension. It does not augur well for exam preparations then. And then what about retention ? If this technique is only about reading fast with little comprehension and little retention then the latter would need the same old reading-word-to-word technique. May be I haven't understood the technique because I need more clarity. But someone please help me on this. I have very critical exams coming ahead ! Thank you. Warm Regards. Sandeep.
Sit at a desk, use the methods in this article (don't forget the tracker or pacer), read interesting stuff, and drink a frap 🙂
The worst thing you can do is say the words in your mind. Practice not doing that, it will take a while though. After practice you should be able to read lines at a glance, instead of just words.
Just read your comment today, so I know it is rather late to comment back. But, I bet after practicing the technique if you went back and read at your normal speed you would find that you were reading faster. Here are some tips that might help you. 1) It sounds like you are pronouncing every word in your head as you read, instead just follow your pen or your fingers and just see the words, 2) try using two fingers on one hand slightly spread apart as your tracker (it forces you to widen your eye span and see more words at once, similar to Mr. Ferriss's technique of starting one then two words from the beginning and end of a sentence), 3) after going through the whole technique try practicing in smaller chunks like paragraphs, and 4) you're not trying to memorize the text word for word just understand what you have read. Hence read a paragraph and see what you remember. Do you get the gist of it. Hope this helps.
Remember he said not to concern yourself with comprehension
Try actually doing the experiment rather than skimming through the steps and coming to a conclusion, look at all the positive feedback on this thing man. The author tells you to read at your normal pace to see how fast you are so you can compare your results. After you "do stuff" you retest yourself to see if you improved. I can tell you personally that this more than doubled my original WPM, I had a base speed of 96 and now have 204, and that's after just one practice, I plan to continue with this. Just try it.
Dear Tim, I am back to this article 2 years later. I am not a native speaker, however typos and grammar still makes the point not clear to me and the article not quite as enjoyable or useful as you supposed it to be. Could you pls. look again on my suggestion in my post on October 29, 2013 at 3:27 pm? I can't reply to that reply. I deeply appreciate you.
?
Thanks Tim for fixing, However, these two sentences are still not clear: "Each of these saccades ends with a fixation, or a temporary snapshot of the text within you focus area (approx. the size of a quarter at 8 inches from reading surface). Each fixation will last ¼ to ½ seconds in the untrained subject." 1st sentence, my guess: "Each of these saccades ends with a fixation, or a temporary snapshot of the text within you -> YOUR focus area" 2nd sentence: maybe it means "for the untrained eye?' Just guessing, I have no idea what do you mean by this sentence. English is not my native language, though I assume I have a pretty solid understanding of it when it comes to even well edited academic texts. This article still comes up high on Google for the term speed reading, maybe it would be worth editing it thoroughly for the benefit a humankind. Thank you, in the name of the 'English as a second language' crowd. Hopefully I don't have to come back here asking for meanings sentence after sentence, edit after edit. I mean I read your book, I had no problem understanding it. 😉
Yeah, remember the author says do NOT concern yourself with comprehension. That is the worst thing you can do until the end.