Friday, February 26, 2010

Move Forward

If you want to read faster, you must give up the luxury of allowing yourself to frequently regress while reading. Regressing, in the context of reading, is the act of allowing your eyes to backtrack to what you just read. Regression is a crutch you have become dependent upon as a result of thinking it is inconsequential if your mind wanders while reading and causes you to glide over information-rich passages without even attempting to gather what is being said.

Think of reading a book as watching a movie in a theater; you better be paying attention because if you miss what a character says, you will be unable to rewind the movie. Your mind will stop wandering when you stop regressing, because you will focus very intently when you hold yourself to only one exposure of a particular passage (except for previewing and reviewing).

Kicking the Regression Habit with a Pacer:

The most effective way to kick the regression habit is to use a pen, notecard, cursor, or your finger as a pacer while reading. Using a pacer feels natural (try underlining the rest of this post with your finger) and will force you to become conscious of your regressions, providing you with the key to overcoming the regression habit.

There are numerous pacer techniques, which can viewed in an upcoming post titled "Pacer Techniques -- From Basic to Advanced," but you should begin with the basic underlining technique, which consists of simply underlining each line of text with your pacer's edge just above the reading surface at a smooth, consistent pace that is fast enough to provide an appropriate challenge.

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