Use an Index Card to Learn How to Speed up Your Reading
Speed reading is a difficult skill to master. There are many books, conversations and articles out there on teaching people the “right” way to learn a skill. Fast Company spoke to one of those experts who wrote the book on the topic this week for some quick and dirty tips on how to learn. One of her tips: use a record card.
The idea behind this is pretty simple. Whenever you read physical media such as a book or newspaper, place a white index card above the sentence you are reading. Placing a card under what you are reading blocks out everything underneath and helps your mind focus on the sentence you are trying to process right now.
While many people who try this trick put a card under what they read, the expert argued that leaving what you’ve already read naked will encourage you to come back and re-read this part. Placing the card above blocks what you have already done and allows you to focus on where you are going rather than where you have been. It also pushes your eyes down the page.
For online text, you can do something similar by always reading the documents at the very top of the browser window. Scroll as you go so that the part of the page you have read disappears from sight.
The trick also doesn’t have to be a record card. I am doing something similar with bookmarks and get similar result. It also allows me to focus on where I am reading something so that when this imminent interruption comes, I can continue reading where I left off.