Archive for 'Speed Reading'

This week saw a regression and an epiphany. The regression was that I lost some of my ability to focus on the text at higher speeds and had to step back to lesson 9. I also missed several lesson times. The epiphany was that fatigue and burnout changethings.

While trying to work two jobs, start my own business, deal with insurance issues as well as general housekeeping (did you know that cockroaches in Arizona can reach sizes so big they’re protected under the Fourth Amendment?) I forgot that the body has a tendency to need rest. Not just the body, but the mind. My brain has achieved escape velocity and left a note scribbled in cerebrospinal fluid raving about Maggie’s farm and that this is bat country.

I hope it comes back sometime before I have to talk to take a support call. Then again, that might be amusing enough to be worth it.

• Monday:
  • Morning: Lesson 10
  • Evening: Missed
• Tuesday:
  • Morning:  Lesson 10
  • Evening:  Lesson 9
• Wednesday:
  • Morning:  Lesson 9
  • Evening:  Lesson 9
• Thursday:
  • Morning:  Lesson 9
  • Evening:
• Friday / Saturday: FAIL

I think I’ll take extra care to factor in fatigue, start back at lesson 7 or 8 and gradually regain and hopefully surpass what I had previously attained.

Instead of posting mostly unedifying laundry lists of my weekly speed reading process, I’ll suspend regular updates in favor of occasional check-ins. I’ll try to research speed reading a little more and post some critical and supporting arguments for it.

Does anyone else have experience and opinions concerning speed reading that they’d be willing to share?

I was going good this week, hitting lesson 10 which is the last lesson in the first part of this Speed Reading system I’m using. However, I lost steam on Saturday. Not much to give as an excuse. I just gave up that day.

• Monday:
  • Morning: Lesson 8
  • Evening: Lesson 8
• Tuesday:
  • Morning: Lesson 9
  • Evening: Lesson 9
• Wednesday:
  • Morning: Lesson 9
  • Evening: Lesson 9
• Thursday:
  • Morning: Lesson 10
  • Evening: Missed
• Friday:
  • Morning: Lesson 10
  • Evening: Lesson 10
• Saturday:
  • Morning: Missed
  • Evening: Missed

I’m struggling with developing new habits in my vision as I read. It’s mostly coming together, but I’m in an awkward stage where I understand the change that needs to be made, but get tired of consciously having to implement it. That merely takes time to develop the habits.

I took a speed reading test on the web and was clocked at 377 WPM. I was taking my time and I was also tired. I’m not focusing on a number very much. Only on results. I’ll stick to lesson 10 for a few more days before moving on.

The first full month of my attempt at staying faithful to my chosen speed reading curriculum is now finished. This was the most consistent week so far. I only missed one lesson. That might be overstating my success a little since some lessons were done hurried or were interrupted, but at least the habit of performing the lessons is more ingrained in me.

• Monday:
  • Morning: Lesson 6
  • Evening: Lesson 6
• Tuesday:
  • Morning: Lesson Lesson 7
  • Evening: Lesson Lesson 7
• Wednesday:
  • Morning: Lesson 7
  • Evening: Lesson 7
• Thursday:
  • Morning: Lesson 8
  • Evening: Missed
• Friday:
  • Morning: Lesson 8
  • Evening: Lesson 8
• Saturday:
  • Morning: Lesson 8
  • Evening: Lesson 8

I’m continuing to work against the habit of speaking words in my mind. I’m having more and more success at comprehending the text I read. The last three weeks has been focused more in reading technique and less on comprehension. Now I’m getting comprehension much better.

All of these efforts are to help focus my mind on reading, which is something of a challenge. My mind tends to wander and overanalyze what I’m reading while I’m reading it. Speeding up my reading forces me to focus on the text alone. After absorbing the material, I can then go back and mull over its contents better than I could before since I have the whole picture of the text.

Does anyone have any experience with speed reading? Have you found the scams? Found any gems?

Onward to week 5…

My third week of speed reading lessons wasn’t too bad.

• Monday:
  • Morning: Lesson 4
  • Evening: Lesson 4
• Tuesday:
  • Morning: Lesson 4
  • Evening: Lesson 4
• Wednesday:
  • Morning: Lesson 5
  • Evening: Lesson 5
• Thursday:
  • Morning: Lesson 5
  • Evening: Missed
• Friday:
  • Morning: Lesson 5
  • Evening: Missed
• Saturday:
  • Morning: Lesson 6
  • Evening: Missed

I got off to a great, consistent start! Thursday, Friday and Saturday were busy, I accept guilt that the last half of Friday and Saturday was a failure of time management. However, all in all it was a great week.

I made a major vision breakthrough. Instead of focusing my eyes on a single point in the sentence, I am now capable of focusing on the general area and taking in multiple words at a time. This is helping to break the habit of speaking the words in my mind.

My lesson bundle goes up to lesson 10. To go from Lesson 11 to 20 I’d have to purchase the second bundle. If this improvement keeps up, I might have to consider buying the second bundle.

My technique for reading is improving rapidly, but my comprehension is improving more slowly. It’s just plain fatiguing to suck that much info in. However, it is improving so that’s good. I’m still skeptical about 1000+ WPM speeds with 100% comprehension.

Anyone out there have speed reading experience? Any insights to share? Week 4, here I come…