Before we start, a word of advice. Don’t try to speed read everything! If you’re reading a good book, or need to understand a complex document – a legal text, for example – take the time to read them properly. Speed reading isn’t really to do with reading faster, but to make you more efficient; the intention is to help you identify the parts of a text which need close attention, and just skim  the rest.

1. Pre-read
Before you start a text, decide how quickly you want to read it. Look over the whole piece, checking the headings, the bullet points and the words printed in bold. This will enable you to identify the key material, after which you can go back and re-read what’s really important – slowly!

2. Read in blocks
Most of us were taught to read one word at a time, line by line. But actually, if you absorb blocks of text when you read, instead of concentrating on one word at a time, your comprehension of the material as a whole can be increased.

Hold the text a bit further away from your eyes than you usually would, and try to relax your face and your eyes. The idea is to train your eyes to look at more words at once: whole lines or sentences instead of individual words.

Focus on the middle of each line, instead of starting at the beginning. Let yourself take in the meaning of the text in the line, and then move on to the next one. Once you can do this, you can try focussing on the middle of a paragraph, and then a larger block of text – even a whole page. You’ll be amazed at how much you understand. Again, the aim here is not to gain any in-depth understanding of the text, but to “scan” it quickly to identify what you really need to concentrate on.

3. Don’t sub-vocalise
This is the main cause of slow reading. As you read, you pronounce each word – not aloud, but in your head. Most people don’t realise that they do this. Do you? Read this sentence: are you saying the words in your breath, in your head – even moving your lips as you read them? Once you’ve realised you do this, you have to consciously turn the voice off. Yes, it is possible!

The thing is, we speak at an average speed of about 120 words per minute, so if you “vocalise” or “say” words as you read them, you can only read as fast as you can speak.

To turn off the voice in your head, try humming to yourself while you’re reading, or counting up to four, over and over again. (Obviously, don’t do this if it means you will disturb other people.) In other words, you occupy your mouth, tongue and breathing with repetitive, simple sounds while your eyes effortlessly skim the page. It really works – try it now: read this paragraph again, counting in your head.

4. Just read it once
Talking of re-reading: it’s a habit – and it’s one you can break. Unless you really need to make the words stick, or you’re reading a complex document, you most likely understand text the first time you read it. It’s just a waste of time.

So don’t allow yourself to re-read material. Smoothly run a pencil, or your finger, under the words as you read; your eye will follow the pointer. Or better still, cover up the lines as you’ve read them, with a bookmark or a piece of paper, so your eye can’t return. Increase your speed as it feels comfortable.

So there we are. One final tip: nowadays, many people think that to be a high achiever, they have to multitask. But this can seriously reduce your concentration. Watch someone trying to read in a noisy environment: they are almost certainly speaking the words in their head as they read, and also re-reading (see next point) in order to concentrate. So turn off your mp3 player, iPod, radio or TV, and go into a room where no one is talking and there are no distractions. Or buy some earplugs. It will help.

If you have a few more minutes, try reading this article again, using one of the methods we’ve suggested. And don’t forget: practice makes perfect!