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The most often question I get asked is, “How can I read over 1500 words per minute and still understand, or comprehend the material?” Stated in another form, “Does speed reading really work?” Without writing an entire course, this article will try to answer these questions.

When people question about reading fast and not comprehending, there is a basic misunderstanding of terms. Reading is the mind’s response to print. If your mind is not responding when you are applying any speed reading technique, then you are in fact not reading. The word reading, then, always assumes some level of comprehension.

If you have been exposed to some program that teaches you how to move through materials at very high rates in the thousands of words per minute range and you are not comprehending, then the program has failed you. Recently I got an email from someone who told me they had been working with a computerized program and that they had increased their speed to over 2000 words per minute but were not comprehending much and asked if I could help. This was an excellent example of bad, misguided training.

There are two primary aspects of “speed reading.” The first is improving the mechanical aspect of reading. That happens with some sort of eye movement techniques. In fact, it is possible to physically move the eyes and see all the words in the material at rates of 10,000 - 100,000 words per minute. Naturally a speed reading program will contain this aspect. But unfortunately, this is about all that is trained, leaving the user frustrated as I so often hear.

The second aspect of speed reading is comprehension. Comprehension is the mind’s response to the symbols on the page. In effect, then, reading is thinking. You can read as fast as your mind can respond to the print. So, to truly speed read, you need to learn how to move your mind faster as well.

To answer the question, Does speed reading really work,” I say no! You work it! That means there are ways to train your brain to respond differently as you accelerate your speeds. What I have found to work best is to teach learners the mechanics first with some level of comprehension, but letting them relax and not worry about getting(memorizing) as they go thru this initial skill building stage.

After the learner is more comfortable with the physical/mechanical skills, then we build comprehension in a purposeful manner. When the learner has broken out of the old habits they have accumulated in the past, then they are taught how to monitor what the mind is doing as they don’t have to think so much about the eye mechanics.

One of the keys to comprehension is preparing the mind for reading. There are a wide assortment of tools to help this phase of training. The comprehension approach breaks the learner out from the traditional left brain approach they learned in early life and engage the whole brain. Or, in other words they learn how to activate the right hemisphere as well. One way of helping to do this is looking thru the material in a manner that gives you the “30,000 foot view” instead of the word-by-word view you were taught when first learning to read.

From that “high” view, you then learn to navigate at various levels depending on you needs and purposes. But remember, comprehension is you. It’s your mind’s response to print. As your eyes are moving through the material, ask yourself, “what am I thinking about?” If it has nothing to do with the print, you are not reading. You’re doing something else, possibly daydreaming, or criticizing yourself. Bring it back to the print. Again, speed reading does not work. You work it! Learn how to build better comprehension. Monitor what your mind is thinking about.

Ed Caldwell, formerly National Director of Instruction for Evelyn Wood has
taught these skills for 30 years, created the “Masters Online Program:
Dynamic Speed Reading, Memory, and Recall” at ProductivElearn.com You can
learn more a “Free Tips.”

Life is undeniably chaotic. It doesn’t seem to matter how many gadgets we get, what new devices there are on the market to save time, we are always short of the stuff. Time and tide certainly wait for no man and the more we have, the more we try to cram in. Scientists are constantly working to find the elixir of life so that me can continue on this mortal coil even longer, cramming our lives with more and more.

There’s nothing we cannot do now apart from stop and enjoy time. It has got to a point where people even pre-arrange their holidays in order to cram in as much as possible, filling their days with activities in order to feel like they have had their monies worth and done as much as possible.

All these new inventions that we get to make our time more ‘our own’ just don’t seem to help. We have machines to cook, clean clothes, dry clothes, wash dishes in fact, pretty much everything yet there is still not enough hours in a day. On top of this, we are trying to do so much that we constantly need to buy gadgets that serve as reminder services to tell us of other things we have to cram in.

Reminder services come in the shape of notes and alarms on mobile phones, again with emails - they come with their own calendar that will alert you and provide a reminder service so that you don’t forget important dates. People are carrying more and more gadgets such as electronic diaries to provide a tailored reminder service for that all important meeting, that all important date or simply reminding us where we live!

Are we any better off for all this gadgetry? Well, in one sense we are but we need to keep it in perspective. It’s great to have a washing machine, I mean, can you imagine trying to fit in carting your load down to the nearest river and scrubbing it clean amid your busy schedule? Working mothers would be non-existent!

Computers and mobile phones have been an absolute god send when it comes to instant communication. The exchange of information that used to take weeks now takes minutes, even if it’s coming from the other side of the world.

However, when we are needing electronic reminder services to tell us of events going on in our children’s worlds that we promised to attend then something is seriously wrong. If we need a reminder service to tell us we actually have children, then we need to re-evaluate our lives, and quickly!

It’s not just us either. Living life in the fast lane has become such an everyday occurrence that our children also need these reminders. They have their own gadgets to remind them of school commitments, after school activities, dates with friends and all sorts of deadlines that they are already expected to commit to at even a young age. This is the way of the world these days but is it right?

What happened to good old fashioned pen and paper, notes stuck to the fridge as reminders or one paper calendar on the wall? Our lives have become that complicated that we will be needing reminders to breathe next. It would seem we are all trying too hard to do too much in too short a space of time and it all comes at the expense of the things that really matter.

Social expert Catherine Harvey looks at the way even children need reminder services in order to keep up with everyday commitments.

Speed reading can improve your life. Speed reading can also improve your ability to assimilate information at an astonishing rate, in turn, making you a more valuable employee. While the ability to read quicker may be advantageous for some, for others it is more a matter of improving their comprehension of what they have read as well as being able to hold the information.

The average rate a person will read at is about two words per second with good retention, for most that will be fast enough. Engaging the use of a speed reading course has shown to improve a persons reading speed by four to six words per second without any loss of retention to the material. Over time, with the use of a speed reading course, you will be able to increase your reading speed 10 or more words per second with better than average comprehension.

The Course

Speed reading courses are designed to help readers choose the words worth reading and which ones are not. Being able to look at a word without having to concentrate on each and every letter to visualize the word is already practiced by most readers. By using a speed reading course you will be able to eliminate more words in a sentence increasing your rate of reading.

Speed and Quality

Perhaps one the biggest challenges in speed reading is what is termed subvocalization. Children are taught early on to read to themselves causing them to sound out every word in their head as they are reading. With speed reading, the words are not silently read in their mind while going through the material and only the words that have meaning to the context of the material is retained to become part of the comprehension of the material.

Different instruction techniques are taught for speed reading and they may not all have the same desirable outcome for each person looking to improve their reading speed. Unlike repetitious physical tasks where the same movements performed with practice will enable a person to perform the task quicker, speed reading attempts to train the brain to recognize only the words that are important to the materials being read without the need to hear them in their mind. However, similar to physical tasks, practice in speed reading will increase their reading speed as time goes on.

Some belive that speed reading is a technique set aside for genius types only. Not true. Speed reading is a skill that all can acquier. There are steps that you must follow that will help to increase your reading speed and most importantly your comprehension as well.

Learning To Speed Read

There are a number of ways that you can learn the art of speed reading. The first step on your journey is to take a speed reading test so that you can gauge your current level and give you a base to see how you are progressing.

Next you will want to find some form of speed reading instruction. Some prefer audio tapes that take you though various tips and tricks of learning how to accelerate your reading. Others prefer books or a combination of book and audio.

The method you choose is up to you,the important thing is to stick with it and check your progress every step of the way.

Francis Hesse will help you find all you need to become a proficiant speed reader.

Learn More About Speed Reading Here

There is no denying in the truth of the old saying, “Time is money.”

You never seem to get enough of time. Even if given thirty hours in a day, most people still won’t be able to get enough of it. Somehow, some things will come up and you will end up wanting more time. Time is a precious commodity. Once it’s gone, it cannot be recovered.

The fact is: when you are busy, time flies swiftly. But when you are not, time seems to be at a stand still. This is true when you are killing time because there is nothing else to do under the circumstances.

How do you maximize the use of your time? It would be worth your time to consider the following strategies:

1. Check your schedule at the start of the day. Review it in its entirety. You may notice that portions of your day may be hectic, while some may not be too frenzied. Distribute your activities evenly throughout the day.

Keep note pads handy so you can keep track of your schedule. It also helps to remind you of your tasks and commitments. Note pads and schedule notebooks help you avoid overlapping of activities. In case of overlaps, determine which one is priority.

After spreading your schedule for the day and you still feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks to be accomplished, you may have to forego some of them. Re-schedule other tasks for another day.

What you are actually doing is very much like cleaning a closet. When your closet is in order, you avoid being accidentally hit on the head by falling objects upon opening its door. Also, if it is in order, you will likely find spare spaces available.

2. Request for a re-schedule in advance. This is especially true when another person will be affected. Show courtesy by doing this is advance. This leaves time for the person to adjust to the new schedule. Who knows? You may be doing the other parties a favor. They may be in the same predicament as you are, and they will not be aware unless you make it known to them.

3. Be creative. Time is an element when simple creativity can be put to practice. For example, you need to do the laundry but at the same time, you also have to rush and buy some groceries. Perhaps, what you can do is to set your washing machine to do the laundry while you step out to the grocers. Manage your time in the grocery and back home, just in time when the laundry is done.

You can even do the cooking at the same time by using a slow cooker. It cooks food by itself. You can even pick up the kids from school after shopping. Four tasks are combined to one. All it takes is scheduling and a little creativity.

4. When you have to do a certain task for the first time, it is natural for mistakes to happen. However, a first time task doesn’t have to be a blunder. If there is no clear direction on how things should be done, take time to plan it out before you take action. This saves time, energy, and money.

5. Visualize the possible outcome of your objective. Seek out alternatives. Choose the better of two or more alternatives. If there is only one option, do it just the same. Some tasks may appear difficult when you think about it, but not necessarily when put into action. The same thing is true the other way around.

Time is something you could never have enough of. You become wise when you choose to maximize it.

J Stromsteen has many years expertise in the finance, real estate, and insurance industry. She contributes to various websites such as First Time Home Buyer where you can find today’s mortgage rates as well as a wealth of information on getting a First Time Home Buyers Loan .

Time management we often hear how important it is in our life. In fact, every type of endeavor that man undertakes is said to be made easier by proper time management. Now what is time management, exactly? Well, some people define it as doing things in the least amount of time. This means they consider speed to be the definition of what time management is.

This argument does make some sense. When you do things faster, you will be able to consume less time in accomplishing a certain task. By making sure that you use the least amount of time in accomplishing the task that you have at hand, you will be wasting the least amount of time. This means that your efficiency will increase. This is the definition of what time management is that is most often used by people. However, it does not contain all the truth for it fails to account for the nature of the task at hand.

Some people answer the question of “what is time management?” by saying that it is doing what’s important first. They say that you need to pan what is considered important first before you start doing it. This theory, however, is also flawed. This is because of the fact that the importance of a task is always relative to the person who will be doing the task.

There have also been assertions that if this is the definition of what time management is, then some tasks which people consider “unimportant” would never get done.

There are also people who advocate the use of multi-tasking. These people believe that the best way to define “what is time management?” is to do many tasks at once. This definition states that in order to properly manage your time, you must try to do several tasks at once.

This is made possible today by the development of technology. However, this fails to take into account the fact that many people need concentration in order to perform a task well. This theory may allow a person to accomplish many tasks at once, but does that person do those tasks well? People sometimes say that if you cannot do a task well, then you shouldn’t have done it at all. This means that accomplishing a task with less than your best ability would be a huge waste of time.

So what do we learn from these analyses of various interpretations of what time management is? Well, we know that all these definitions have their virtues and all have their flaws. What we need to do is find the main concept of these definitions and use that. Quite simply, the question of what time management is can be answered thus: time management is the efficient use of what time you have in order to perform a set of tasks to the best of your ability.

We all know how limited our time is. Time is the only resource that a person cannot buy. Time is always running out. Answering the question of what time management is can help a person make use of that time in order to do the tasks that he needs to accomplish. Answering the question of what time management is can help a person take the first steps to actually properly managing his or her time.

Daegan Smith Is And Expert Online Marketer
“Wanna Lean The Secret To Making $85,147,717
Per Month While Quickly And Easily EXPLODING
Your Network Marketing Organization by 7,141
People Without EVER Buying Or Calling a
Single Stinking Lead?” Free CD Explains All:http://www.easymlmprofits.com

Getting into high school heaps more responsibilities for an individual. There are a lot more homework, practice schedules, additional subjects, and many others. Being in high school does not only keep you into the borders of studying but rather you also get exposed into other socializing activities.

But then, normal high school kids are not only confined into preparing your assignments since there are still the household chores that you must attend to as you reach home. These things when combined altogether will certainly bring you into a world filled with stress and pressures. The question is will you be able to manage it? How will you budget your time between all these activities?

Time management is as essential as having a concrete plan about what you want for your own life. It is significant that young ones like you already know about the essence of time management. After all, you are already a young adult and it is only proper that you begin setting things straight in your life. Get a glimpse of the following time management tips and help yourself achieve peace of mind.

Be organized at all times. At one point in time you would like to be able to spend extra time with your loved ones, friends, or even for yourself. But how will you successfully do such thing if your schedule is crowded up? You may just end up wailing out of depression. Being organized with your things, your responsibilities and appointments will save you half of the worry. If only you know when to attend to things, you will not be lacking time, running late, and ending up in misery.

Set an everyday goal. As you turn in every night, it will be best to visualize the things that you will have to accomplish for the next day. Setting up a must-be-done list will specifically do you good as it will help you meet your deadlines in attending to all of your tasks.

Learn to prioritize things. As you make your to-do lists, note which of them is of the greatest importance. You must attend to the things which rank as the most necessary. Just be sure that what you have in your list are all achievable.

Learn to do worthwhile things in your spare time. You may not know it at all but high school kids like you really have a lot of leisure times. Instead of hanging around the campus during break times, why not attend to your homework? By this, you lessen the loads of work that you will have to attend to in the nighttime.

Always find time. Don’t reason out that you have no time for this and that. If you only know how to organize your schedule, you will realize that there is always time for all your stuffs.

Jot down notes. Important discussions must be noted. Since your mind may not be able to accommodate so many reminders, it is important that you write down ideas. With this scheme, you are able to effectively memorize things as you study.

Get enough sleep. Of course there are a definite number of hours that growing kids like you need to devote for sleep. And basically, you cannot attend to your business for the next day if you feel groggy and all. Your concentration will be devoid of enough focus if you lack adequate time to sleep.

Maintain realistic goals. If your aims are nothing but out of this world, you will always end up frustrated and depressed, so to speak.

Remember that you can always get the best results in all your endeavors provided that you know of the important time management tips that can help you live a better life.

Daegan Smith Is And Expert Online Marketer
“Wanna Lean The Secret To Making $85,147,717
Per Month While Quickly And Easily EXPLODING
Your Network Marketing Organization by 7,141
People Without EVER Buying Or Calling a
Single Stinking Lead?” Free CD Explains All:http://www.easymlmprofits.com