Freshman year, I bought a book on speedreading. I opened the workbook and began to practice increasing my Words-Per-Minute while trying to maintain a decent reading comprehension.
Why? Because I wanted to read books faster.
But the real reason? Because I didn't really enjoy reading. Reading was an obligation that I wanted to finish as quickly as possible. It wasn't just that I wanted to know how to read faster, it was that I wanted to be done with reading altogether.
Do you like the idea of having read something more than actually reading it?
The reason why people don't read as many books have less to do with method and more to do with motivation. Why do you want to read?
Take a step back and think about the act of reading and writing. Countless generations of humanity had to be extremely disciplined in rote memory and oral tradition being passed down from generation to generation in order to maintain some semblance of ideas that had existed in the past. But now, thanks to the gift of reading and writing, we are able to preserve human thought! The thoughts of man are no longer tossed into the ether, the dark void of time and space. Future generations can read words, learn from the past, and progress in the future!
Reading is a powerful tool. So the question isn't "How do I read faster?" but "How do I read better?"
So this is a guide - not just how to read fast (though I will go into that), but how to read well.
90% of the battle to read isn't on the page, but in your mind.
In a world where words whizz past us in the torrential waterfall of the web, we've been conditioned away from focus and towards distraction.
Did you check your phone while reading this article? Most of you have.
The first step in reading well isn't in method, but mentality.
Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work, talks about the need for deep, uninterrupted periods of focused work. He offers this equation:
Amount of work done = Time spent x Work intensity
If you want to read well, you need periods of uninterrupted, focused reading. Here are some tips on working deeply:
Deliberately plan out moments in your schedule where you are going to be uninterrupted in your reading. Tell yourself that texting, social media, and the ball game can wait. Hold your brain hostage. When choosing between difficult work or boredom, it will choose the former. But if it has to choose between difficult work, boredom, or Twitter, get ready for the river of chirps to drown out any murmurings of intelligent thought. Speaking of chirps...
In his book, Cal Newport observes that distractions aren't as harmless as you might think. Every time you check your email or social media, it will take you far more time to get back into your focus than you might initially think. It's like gorging on fettucine alfredo and then attempting to sprint a 5k. You might think the two are unrelated, but that pasta will be ever present and will likely make a... spectacular return.