When people think about speed reading they often narrow it down to simply reading fast. This, however, is only a small part of the overall process. The key to truly effective speed reading is first being able to identify what you really want or need to read and then reading that carefully selected material – fast.
Take a moment to mentally review all the information that passes in front of you in a typical day: at home, at work, in the papers at the local coffee shop. How much of it do you ignore because it looks like too much to take on, leaving it instead to build up and stack high until you’re so behind you need days or weeks to catch up – if you ever manage to at all?
If you had a simple process to follow that allowed you to quickly and easily identify the information you need and eliminate that which you don’t need, this backlog of information wouldn’t happen and you’d have more time to live your life instead of worrying about what you might be missing because you think you’re overloaded.
The aim of this book is to give you the tools you need to get up to date and stay that way. The key to this is practice. You don’t have to set aside an hour a day, simply use what you learn in this book on everything you read – from books to newspapers and manuals to cornflake boxes. The more you use it, the more natural it will become so, eventually, you’ll wonder how you ever read any other way.
Each of the seven chapters in Speed Reading In A Week covers a different aspect:
– Sunday: The five-step system
– Monday: Speed reading
– Tuesday: Remember what you read
– Wednesday: Your eyes and effective reading
– Thursday: Distractions and solutions
– Friday: Reading different types of material for different reasons
– Saturday: What next?