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How much do you read every day?
You might have dozens of emails to get through, project proposals to consider, or trade publications to look at. Not to mention the magazines, books, newspapers, and websites you read for your own enjoyment.
Many of us spend a good portion of our time reading something. But despite this, we don't often think about improving our reading skills. Becoming a better reader means we can take in information faster, and retain more of it.
The first step to reading more effectively is to break your poor reading habits. For instance, many people focus on each word. But this can cause you to miss the overall message.
Instead, try chunking words together. You can practice this by expanding the number of words you read at a time. To do this, try to position the text a little further away from your eyes. Then, instead of reading a single word at a time, read four or five.
Another bad reading habit is sub-vocalization. This is when you “speak” each word in your head as you read. This takes more time than is necessary, because your brain can understand a word more quickly than you can say it. To address this, practice stifling that voice in your head by reading larger chunks of words.
