We’ve been publishing research-based articles every week about meaningful work, boosting productivity in the workplace, and finding work/life balance for the past few months.
Today we’re started an experiment. Every week, alongside our longer, research-based articles, we’ll also publish a short roundup of tips relating to one theme.
For our first roundup we’re looking at tips to help you read more.
1. Stop trying to speed-read
It turns out, speed reading doesn’t actually work. It might seem like you’re reading faster, but the only way to do so is to not absorb the information as well. So you can “read” more quickly, but you won’t remember much of what you’ve read, so there’s not much point in doing so.
The truth is, speed reading isn’t much better than skimming:
You can flash as many words as you like in front of your eyes, and though you may be able to understand each word on its own, they won’t mean much as a collective whole. Language processing just doesn’t work that way.
2. Improve your vocabulary
Though speed reading doesn’t work, some people can read faster than others. But researchers say the reason isn’t that they can take in more at once or silence the voice in their heads (which doesn’t actually slow you down, anyway).
No, faster readers simply have a bigger vocabulary:
As Treiman and her co-authors write in their Psychological Science paper, “the factor that most strongly determined reading speed was word-identification ability,” which means that an individual’s reading speed is more about their language skills than where or how quickly they move their eyes.
Knowing more words means you can more quickly understand what you’re reading. And of course, the way to increase your vocabulary is simply to read more.
3. Make it easy to read a lot
When reading is difficult or uncomfortable, you’re more likely to avoid it, as writer Patrick Allan recently found:
I realized I wasn’t buying into reading because I had made it difficult to access it. My reading light was in a bad position where I couldn’t comfortably reach the switch from my bed. I would have to get up out of bed to turn it on or off. Also, my bed was too tall and against a window sill so I couldn’t prop myself up when I didn’t feel like holding a book above my head. And worst of all, I had a giant TV in my room. Why read when I can fall asleep to Bob’s Burgers every night instead?
Allan’s solution was to adjust his bedroom to be a perfect reading environment. When reading was one of few things he could do in bed, and it was easy to get started and stay focused on his book, he started reading more:
I moved my reading light to a better spot and got a Kindle Paperwhite with a decent backlight. I fixed my bed so it was more comfortable for laying upright and holding a book without worrying about dropping it on my face. And I moved my TV out of my room. The TV removal alone was a huge game-changer for me. I also moved my handheld gaming systems and stopped keeping my phone near my bed so there weren’t any other temptations around when it was reading time. Now there are only a few things I can do in my room: I can read, listen to music, or sleep—that’s it. The perfect reading environment makes picking up a book your easiest choice.
4. Race two books against each other
Productivity expert Mark Forster recently shared a tip for getting through your existing stack of books. The trick is to read two (and only two) books at once.
Choose two books that are close to the same ease of reading and length, and make sure they’re either both digital or both paper books.
Then, you race them:
If you are reading with a Kindle or similar device, it will tell you what percentage of the book you have read. On each reading session, read the book which has the least amount read. So if one book is 35% read and the other 38% read, you read the one which is 35% read.
It doesn’t matter whether the book you are reading catches up with the other one or not. Just read for as long as you want and then apply the rule again the next time you read.
If you’re using paper books, each time you read, choose the book with fewest number of pages read, rather than working out a percentage. “This is why the books need to be reasonably compatible in length,” says Forster. “When the shorter book gets finished, you’ll still be in sight of the end with the longer book.”
If you find sticking with one book at a time too boring, or you’re constantly worrying about the huge pile of books on your nightstand waiting to be read, try racing two books at once to give yourself variety and get through that stack.
What’s your best tip for reading more? Let us know in the comments.
I think the best tip I have for reading more is allowing myself to stop reading a book I am not enjoying or don’t like. For many of us there is a sense of “I started it therefore I *must* finish it!” Not only is this not enjoyable it is demoralizing and undermines the whole reading enterprise. Once I felt the freedom to decide that I didn’t need to finish a book, simply because I started it, I became an even better reader.
Great point. If you don’t like the book you’re reading and feel like you have to finish it, you may read even less because you’re avoiding that book!