Julian Edgar

In my training courses on reading, the most common question is: “How can I remember what I read?”

Variations include comments like: “I often read a whole page then stop and say to myself, gosh, what have I been reading? Often, I can’t remember!”

So how can you remember what you read? In many cases, it’s a case of unlearning bad habits, habits that have ‘got you through in the past’ but which are unsuited to your current work.

Let’s first take a look at some bad habits. Read the rest of this entry »

When reading at work, many people find it hard to concentrate.  

In my reading courses participants often don’t actually say that - instead they’ll say things like “I am easily distracted” or “I can’t remember what I read because I keep thinking of other things”.

So how can you concentrate in your work reading, so gaining the maximum amount of information in the shortest time?
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In the speed reading courses that I facilitate we spend a lot of time improving your ability to move fast when reading. That’s because to read really quickly, you need to move your eyes fast, move your fingers fast, and get used to you brain absorbing material quickly.

But there’s another aspect of reading that’s often more effective in improving your speed of reading. It’s also one that people seldom give much thought to. And what’s that?

Before you start reading, you need to know the key questions:

1) why you are reading the document

2) what you have to do with that information.

In other words, to read quickly, you need a plan of attack.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the speed reading classes that I facilitate, I get participants to perform a difficult exercise.  

They’re asked to look through a major article in Time magazine, one that they’ve never seen before. I set the stopwatch running and after 60 seconds, I ask them to close the magazine. The participants then have a few moments to write notes before they’re asked to describe to the whole group what the article was about.

Sometimes, as they close the magazine, people will say: “I just looked at the pictures and diagrams. So I cheated.”

That’s not cheating!

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It doesn’t matter if it’s for business, education or just general interest, accurately absorbing written information at high speed will benefit you.

For an opening ‘motherhood’ statement, that one is hard to beat: no one will disagree! But the corollary is that it makes sense for everyone to learn speed reading – to be able to read at a pace faster than they’ve grown accustomed to.

But isn’t ‘speed reading’ just a gimmick? As in, no one actually uses speed reading techniques for real? Not all: it doesn’t matter what you call it – speed reading, accelerated reading or just plain fast reading, in all cases the outcome is a hugely positive step.

The one-day speed reading course that I run for Anne Jenkin and Associates typically sees participants double in their effective reading rate (and that measure includes both speed and comprehension), while in my last course, two participants increased their speed by a mind-boggling seven times!

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