How to Speed Read | Tim Ferriss

Summary

In this informative video, Tim Ferriss discusses proven techniques to enhance reading speed without compromising comprehension. He demonstrates how to calculate words per page, establish a baseline reading speed, and use methods like narrowing reading lines, utilizing peripheral vision, and employing a pacer to reduce fixation points. He also suggests pushing the reading pace slightly beyond comfort to reset the reading speed set point. Ferriss promises that following these steps could significantly increase one's reading speed, allowing for a more efficient exploration of the vast world of literature.

Takeaways

• 📚 Tim Ferriss discusses techniques for improving reading speed without sacrificing comprehension.
• 📈 To measure reading speed, count the words per page and establish a baseline by reading for one minute at your normal pace.
• 🔍 Use the peripheral vision to your advantage by drawing lines on the page to focus on the middle third of the text, which can potentially double reading speed.
• 👀 Understand that the eye jumps from fixation point to fixation point while reading, and use this knowledge to minimize regression and back skipping.
• 👆 Use a pacer, like your finger, to track and move through the text, which can help in maintaining a forward reading path and reducing fixation points.
• ⏫ Experiment with reading slightly faster than your normal comprehension allows to reset your comfort set point for reading speed.
• 🔄 After practicing the techniques, retest your reading speed to measure the improvement.
• 🚀 Tim suggests that following these instructions could improve reading speed by at least 50%, and some may even triple or quadruple their speed.
• 📘 The script uses 'How to Get Filthy Rich' and 'Vagabonding' as examples to demonstrate the reading speed techniques.
• 🎓 Tim Ferriss emphasizes the importance of understanding the mechanics of the eye and optical perception for optimizing reading on the printed page.
• 🎙️ The video also promotes the Tim Ferriss Show, highlighting its success and the value it provides by interviewing world-class performers across various fields.

Q & A

Who is the speaker in the video script?

The speaker in the video script is Tim Ferriss, an author known for his books such as 'The 4-Hour Workweek' and 'Tools of Titans'.

What is the main topic discussed in the video script?

The main topic discussed in the video script is how to improve reading speed without sacrificing comprehension, debunking pseudoscience around speed reading.

What are the two books used by Tim Ferriss to demonstrate reading techniques?

The two books used for demonstration are 'How to Get Filthy Rich and Rising' and 'Vagabonding'.

What is the first step suggested by Tim Ferriss to measure reading speed?

The first step suggested is to figure out the average number of words per page in the book by counting the words in ten lines and then dividing the total by ten.

How does Tim Ferriss recommend establishing a baseline reading speed?

He recommends establishing a baseline by reading for one minute at your normal speed and then calculating the words per minute (WPM) rate.

What technique does Tim Ferriss suggest to utilize peripheral vision for reading?

He suggests drawing lines on the pages, indenting one word from either side, to train the eyes to focus on the middle third of the page and read in a zigzag pattern.

How can minimizing fixation points help with reading speed according to the script?

Minimizing fixation points helps by reducing the time spent on each page, as the eyes do not need to bounce back or bounce up, maintaining a forward reading path.

What is the purpose of using a pacer while reading according to Tim Ferriss?

Using a pacer helps to maintain a consistent reading pace, prevents back skipping, and keeps the eyes from bouncing up to previously read material.

What does Tim Ferriss suggest to do to temporarily increase reading speed?

He suggests reading slightly faster than your comprehension allows for a short period to reset your comfort set point in reading speed.

How does Tim Ferriss propose to retest reading speed after applying the new techniques?

He proposes to retest by using the techniques of indenting from either side and using a pacer while ensuring full comprehension, to measure the new words per minute rate.

What are the potential outcomes of following Tim Ferriss's reading techniques?

The potential outcomes include improving reading speed by at least fifty percent for most people, with some possibly doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling their reading speed without sacrificing comprehension.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Improving Reading Speed with Comprehension

In this paragraph, Tim Ferriss discusses techniques to enhance reading speed without compromising understanding. He emphasizes the importance of measuring words per page and establishing a baseline reading speed. Tim introduces the concept of using peripheral vision to read more efficiently by drawing lines on the page to limit the reading area, which encourages a more focused and faster reading path. He also touches on the mechanics of eye movement, suggesting that reducing regression and fixation points can improve reading speed. The paragraph concludes with a demonstration of how to use a pacer to maintain a steady reading pace and prevent re-reading.

05:02

🚀 Doubling Reading Speed Through Practice and Adaptation

The second paragraph continues Tim Ferriss's exploration of reading speed enhancement. He explains the eye's natural tendency to jump from fixation point to fixation point and how using a pacer can help maintain a forward reading path, reducing unnecessary eye movements. Tim suggests an exercise where readers push their speed to the point of slight comprehension loss to reset their reading comfort zone, akin to adapting to a higher driving speed. He concludes by encouraging retesting the word per minute rate after practicing the new techniques, predicting a significant increase in reading speed for most individuals by understanding and applying the mechanics of eye movement and optical perception.

Keywords

💡Information Ingestion

Information ingestion refers to the process of absorbing and understanding information, particularly in the context of reading. In the video, Tim Ferriss discusses how to improve this process by increasing reading speed without sacrificing comprehension. The script emphasizes the importance of efficient information consumption as a key to effective learning and productivity.

💡Speed Reading

Speed reading is a technique aimed at increasing the rate at which one reads text, often with the goal of improving efficiency in information consumption. The script warns against pseudoscientific approaches to speed reading and instead offers practical methods to enhance reading speed through understanding the mechanics of eye movement and optical perception.

💡Comprehension

Comprehension in the context of reading refers to the understanding and interpretation of the material being read. The video emphasizes the importance of maintaining comprehension while attempting to increase reading speed. It suggests methods that allow for faster reading without losing the ability to understand the content, such as adjusting the visual boundaries for reading and using a pacer.

💡Baseline

In the script, establishing a baseline refers to measuring one's current reading speed as a starting point before attempting to improve it. This is done by reading for a minute at a normal pace and calculating the words per minute (WPM) rate. The baseline serves as a reference to gauge the effectiveness of the reading speed improvement techniques introduced in the video.

💡Peripheral Vision

Peripheral vision is the ability to see objects and movement outside the direct line of sight. In the video, Tim Ferriss uses the concept of peripheral vision to explain how readers can utilize the full extent of their visual field to read more efficiently. By drawing lines on the page and reading within these boundaries, readers can take advantage of their peripheral vision to read faster.

💡Zigzag Reading

Zigzag reading is a technique mentioned in the script where the reader's eyes move in a zigzag pattern down the page, rather than starting from the far left and moving horizontally to the far right. This method is suggested as a way to train the eyes to focus on the middle third of the page, which can potentially double the reading speed without losing comprehension.

💡Fixation Points

Fixation points are the specific spots where the eyes pause to focus on a word or a group of words while reading. The script discusses the idea of minimizing regression, or the tendency to look back at previously read material, by reducing the number of fixation points. This is achieved by using a pacer to guide the eyes in a smooth, forward motion.

💡Pacer

A pacer, in the context of reading, is a tool or technique used to guide the eyes along the text at a steady pace. In the video, using a finger as a pacer is suggested to help readers maintain a consistent speed and prevent the eyes from bouncing back to previously read material, thus improving reading efficiency.

💡Regression

Regression, in the context of reading, refers to the act of the eyes moving back to previously read material, which can slow down reading speed. The script suggests using a pacer to minimize regression and maintain a forward path in reading, thereby increasing reading efficiency.

💡Optical Perception

Optical perception is the process by which the eyes interpret visual information. The video script touches on the idea that understanding the mechanics of the eye and optical perception can help optimize reading speed. Techniques such as adjusting the boundaries for reading and using a pacer are based on principles of optical perception to enhance reading efficiency.

💡Reading Speed

Reading speed refers to the rate at which a person reads text, typically measured in words per minute (WPM). The main theme of the video is to increase reading speed through various techniques while ensuring that comprehension is not compromised. The script provides methods to improve reading speed, such as adjusting the visual boundaries of the text and using a pacer to guide the eyes.

Highlights

Tim Ferriss discusses methods to improve reading speed without sacrificing comprehension.

Identifies the need to avoid pseudoscience in speed reading techniques.

Suggests a method to calculate words per page for standardized formatting books.

Advises counting words in ten lines to find the average words per line and then per page.

Recommends establishing a baseline reading speed by reading for one minute and calculating words per minute (WPM).

Proposes using peripheral vision to read by drawing lines on the page and indenting the start and end of each line.

Describes how to train the eyes to focus on the middle third of the page to increase reading speed.

Explains the mechanics of eye movement and the concept of fixation points in reading.

Advocates using a pacer, like a finger, to trace lines and minimize eye regression.

Suggests reading slightly faster than comprehension allows to reset the comfort set point for reading speed.

Encourages retesting reading speed after applying the new techniques to measure improvement.

Predicts that following the instructions should improve reading speed by at least 50%, and possibly more.

Assures that no voodoo or magic is involved, just an understanding of optical perception and eye mechanics.

Recommends applying these techniques to non-fiction and using slower speeds for fiction and poetry.

Endorses the idea of having a 'Ferrari' of reading speeds to choose from a wider range.

Promotes Tim Ferriss's podcast, highlighting its success and the value it provides to listeners.

Transcripts

greetings folks tim ferriss here author

of 4-hour workweek tools of titans etc I

think a lot about ingesting information

and it sounds so sexy doesn't it

learning how do you speed up the

consumption of say text if you want to

read faster how do you do that without

succumbing to some pseudoscience

nonsense about speed reading there's a

lot of garbage out there but how can you

improve your ability to absorb written

information without sacrificing

comprehension there are some very

straightforward ways to do it I'm going

to show you that right now and I will

use these two books to demonstrate so

these are fiction and nonfiction

respectively how to get filthy rich and

rising aja one of my favorites recent

fiction books which I generally don't

try to read super quickly but these

books are the same size so I'll show and

then vagabonding which is one of my favs

has been since 2004 alright so let's

take just for the sake of simplicity and

I would recommend you do the same a book

that has fairly standardized formatting

in other words there aren't a lot of

bullet lists there aren't a lot of

graphs it's mostly text and since we can

only manage what we can measure step

number one is figuring out roughly how

many words per page are on this

particular say spread right and then

throughout the book so you're going to

go through and you're going to count say

on a page like this the number of words

in ten lines okay so you come up with

total divide it by ten that's your

average number of words per line and

then you can see here most books have a

consistent number of lines per page you

multiply that let's just say it's 30

okay you have an average of 10 words per

line that's 300 words per page great

easy enough all right what we want to do

next is establish your baseline so

you're gonna read for one minute you're

going to be focusing on reading at your

normal speed of course now you have an

experimental or observer effect so it

might be slightly off but that's alright

you're gonna read for one minute and

then you're going to do the math and

multiply it out and figure out how many

words roughly have I read that is your

words per minute rate wpm and what we do

should help double or triple that

without too much trouble right now I'll

do demo before we go into how to mess

with your book if you look at say my

nose alright in this video can you still

see my finger of course you can can you

still see my finger over here yes you

can

that is your peripheral vision even if

your fixation point if your primary

point of focus is right here when we

read most of us when we were taught to

read we read word by word so we go from

the furthermost left word to the

furthermost right word and so on seems

logical the problem with that is is

you're not using any of this space or

the margins and the way that you then

remedy that is by drawing lines on some

pages and I would suggest you indent one

word from either side okay and so what

that might look like is something like

this so now you have lines going down

either side of the page and instead of

starting all the way to the left you're

gonna start at this line and then you're

going to end at that line so much like a

say typewriter with a return carriage

going down you're now going to be

zigzagging just as you would normally

but the parameters or the boundaries

have been moved in by a word you will

you will not have any trouble reading

and you should still have full

comprehension and if you do this for say

5 to 10 pages then if you're not having

any trouble whatsoever you can indent by

another word and you can either use

lines or you can spit ball you can

estimate it and by doing this alone just

that you can train yourself to get to

the point where effectively you are very

much focusing on the middle

third of the page and you're just

dotting down the page left to right and

that in and of itself could easily

double your reading speed without

sacrificing comprehension the next

observation just mechanically that can

be very helpful is that the eye doesn't

track in a clean smooth line when you

are say glancing from left to right

right so if you want to do a test close

one eye you put a finger on that eye and

then slowly track across the wall on the

opposite side and what you'll notice is

that the eye jumps and these are I

believe owner actually heard this set

I've only read it a million times

cicada commence the I will jump from

fixation point to fixation point and you

can see this with retina scanning and

eye tracking which I've seen a fair

amount of just in Psychological studies

I've been an experimenter and the

subject both at Princeton where I did

stuff actually in the lab of Danny

Kahneman who wrote Thinking Fast and

Slow incredible incredible scientists

but I was just clicking space bars

looking at stuff on the screen and then

at UCSF in other places how do we

utilize that what that means is when

you're looking at a given page your eye

isn't moving smoothly across each line

its fixation fixation fixation so the

less that we can regress meaning bounce

back or bounce up you want to stay on

that reliable forward path and the fewer

fixation points we have it's just a math

problem the less time we're gonna spend

reading each page what does this mean

this means that thus far we've just been

looking at the page and reading what

we're gonna do now is use a pacer so you

could use your finger and now you are

actually going to track with your finger

trace underneath the line like so and

try to think of two fixation points per

line for your eye but this will keep you

from bouncing up to previously red

material we've all had the experience of

being really sleepy say and feeling like

you've read the same two lines five or

six times this is partially because your

eyes are tired

and you end up back skipping and jumping

all over the place all right so then you

use your your marker your pacer to move

down the page and the last test I would

have you run or experiment prior to re

measurement so let's say you do that for

10 minutes and you can see you've you've

moved in the in the boundaries the the

edges of the page so to speak where you

stop and go to the next line and then

you're minimizing the number of

fixations and you're preventing back

skipping by using pacer

the next thing you're gonna do is say

for five minutes is to read slightly

faster than your comprehension allows so

you want to get to the point where

you're losing maybe 10% and the effect

that we're looking for is resetting your

comfort set point in reading at full

comprehension in other words if you're

used to always driving at 30 miles an

hour and then you get to the point where

you're on a highway say I was just in

Texas and it was speed limit 80 miles an

hour oh my god does that feel fast and

suddenly you feel like you're operating

at very high speed you then dial back

when you go into say a 55 zone it feels

like 30 all right you've adapted to the

faster speed so for five minutes just

practice reading with slight

comprehension loss so a little bit

faster than it's comfortable and then

what I want you to do is retest your

word per minute rate so now you're going

to use the bumping in from either side

you're going to use the pacer and I want

you to make sure that you have full

comprehension and in doing that I would

wager that the vast majority of you

probably close to 100% if you followed

all these instructions will have at

least improved your reading speed by

fifty percent some of you will double

triple quadruple your reading speed

without sacrificing comprehension no

voodoo no magic involved it's just

understanding the mechanics of the eye a

little bit about the about optical

perception and then recognizing how you

can optimize that for the printed page

and that's it so congratulations you've

probably double or triple your reading

speed and for poetry for fiction you can

always read slower but now that you have

a Ferrari instead of a Yugo you can

choose from a wider range of speeds

so there you have it have fun reading I

recommend both how to get filthy rich

and rising Asia and vagabonding among

many many others there's a world out

there to explore so let you get to it if

you enjoyed this video I want to propose

you check out the podcast the Tim

Ferriss show why is it been number one

on iTunes across all categories in some

cases number one in business why does it

have 70 million plus downloads because I

interview world-class performers from

athletics business that includes

billionaires from everything imaginable

entertainment to tease out the routines

the habits the tools that you can use so

checking out the Tim Ferriss show