Speed Reading; Tim Ferriss

My introduction to speed reading came from Evelyn Wood the book written about her system, by Stanley D. Frank 'The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading And Learning Program.'

I then found out about Tim Ferriss, from someone interviewed by Lex Fridman, whose name eludes me.

This post will heavily reference Tim's post here; https://tim.blog/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/ which implements a lot of techniques found in the Evelyn Wood system.

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Theory

#1, Eye movement, Saccades and Fixations

We don't read in a straight line, but in a sequence of jumps. Close one eye, place your finger on that eyelid, and read a few lines with your other eye. You'll notice distinct momvements.

Each jump ends with a fixation - a temporary snapshot - within your focus area, about the size of a 10p, and lasts about a quarter of a second.

#2, Re-reading and back skipping

Untrained individuals consciously reread (regression)

and subconsciously reread (back-skip due to misplacing fixation)

#3, Use conditioning drills to increase peripheral vision and words registered

We need to increase the number of words that can be perceived and 'read' in each fixation (snapshot).

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Protocol

Do not worry about comprehension. Learn the technique, and then speed it up.

Practice the technique at 3x the speed of your ultimate target reading speed.

Determine Baseline

Take a book, count the number of words in 5 lines. Divide that number by 5, and you have average words per line.

Count the number of lines on 5 pages and divide by 5 to get average number of lines per page.

Multiply this by average number of words per line = average number of words per page.

Set a timer for 1 minute, read at normal speed and read for comprehension.

After 1 minute, multiply the number of lines read by your average words per line to get your current words per minute (wpm).

Tracking and Pacing

In order to minimize re-reading, back-skipping and fixation length, we read using a pacer. This can be your thumb, finger, or pen; like this;

We keep moving the pacer at constant speed. Keep your eye above the tip of the pen.

Tim's technique is as follows;

For 2 minutes;

DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION.

Keep each line to a maximum of 1 second, and increase the speed with each page.

Read, but do not take longer than 1 second per line.

For 3 minutes;

Repeat above, but taking no longer than 1/2 second for each line.

You may comprehend nothing, but that's expected.

Maintain speed and technique to condition perceptual reflexes.

Focus on the exercise and do not daydream.

Perceptual Expansion

You are no doubt aware you have peripheral vision.

Untrained readers use up to half of their peripheral field on margins by moving from first words to last.

Technique;

For 1 minute;

Track and pace at one line per second.

Begin 1 word in from the first word of each line and end 1 word in from the last word.

DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION

For 1 minute;

Repeat above but being 2 words in from the first word and end 2 words in from the last.

For 3 minutes;

Begin at least 3 words in from the first word and end 3 from the last.

Try to speed up as you go. Take no longer than half a second per line.

You may comprehend nothing - this is a speed exercise designed to facilitate adaptations in your system.

Calculate new reading speed

*If using speed reading for study, it is recommended that you not read 3 assignments in the time it would take you to read one, but rather, read the same assignment 3 times for exposure and recall improvement.