Normal Reading Speed - How Fast Do You Read?

Probably like you, I get loads of e mails from all sorts of places, many of them unwanted (the ones I delete if the SPAM filters haven't got there first), some of them expected and a few of them certainly welcome.  I would say that even the ones that I like receiving, many if not most of them are poorly written and take precious time trying to decipher.  I think there is a huge need for people to learn to get to the point so that we don't have to waste time trying to understand what they want. 

E mails written with brevity in mind, have a clear outcome for the reader and a definite call to action ("this is what is going to happen as a result of this e mail") would make life so much easier.  I definitely like the ones that start with a quick summary at the beginning, have a subject line that is pretty clear on what the e mail is about and are short and sharp, to the point messages.  The more the writer can help the reader the easier it would be for everyone who receives e mail.  Of course, that takes a little bit of effort on the part of the author and clearly the dearth of well written e mails means that:

• Some People are generally too lazy to think before they type
• Some People are too stupid to think before they type
• Some People deliberately set about to waste time for others
• Some people prefer the creativity of dumping their stream of consciousness rather than a logically constructed, ordered message

 So whenever I get an e mail that is well written and designed to help the reader it sticks out like normal well adjusted person in the Big Brother house.

Just recently I received an email from a newsletter I subscribe to that had at the very top these words:

• Length =314 words
• Time to read = 1 mins 40 sec

Now how helpful is that?  I know that this is only going to take me less than 2 minutes to read.  Well it would if I only read at 200 words per minute.  I will  save you a little time so you don't have to do the math, but 314 words at 200 words per minute will take you about 1 minute and 40 seconds.  The author of this e mail is making an assumption that my reading speed is 200 words per minute.  Now having taught people for the last 8 years how to be a much faster reader by sharing with them the secrets of speed reading I know from my own personal experience that 200 words per minute is the average reading speed of someone at the start of a course.  The range  usually varies from some at or around 100 wpm to a few at or around 350 but the majority of my people attending my courses are reading at a speed of around 200 words per minute.

Now for them they think that the rate they read is a normal reading speed.  They think it is a normal reading speed because as they grew up at school, everyone around them seemed to be reading at or around the same sort of speed that they did.  This is because that is what the school system taught them.  And that is the way it is.  Most people have a normal reading speed at or around 200 words per minute.

But here is the kicker - normal is not natural.  Just because you were taught to have a normal reading speed of 200 wpm does not mean that is your natural ability.  You are capable of reading much much faster than that.  Speeds of 1000 words per minute plus are easily attainable with just a few very simple techniques.  Now you probably think that might be unatainable for you but after working with over 70,000 people I can tell you that it is definitely attainable for you.

But do you know what your reading speed is?  How fast do you read?

Well it is quite easy to work out and all you need is a stop watch (if someone else can time you) or a kitchen timer (if you are doing this on your own) and a novel (novels are better than non-fiction books because of text uninterrupted by headings or diagrams).

Start at a fresh page and then read as you would normally do for exactly one minute.  At the end of the minute make a note of where you finished reading and then count the words.  You can either cound every word you have read or work out the average number of words on a line and then multiply that number by the number of lines you have read.  The number that you come up with is you reading speed in words per minute for the type of material you have just read (reading speeds will vary depending upon the nature and difficulty of the material and as the material gets more difficult some of the time taken is on understanding rather than reading - but that's another topic for another day).

Now look at your number.  Assuming that you have not done a speed reading course, I would bet money that your number is certainly less than 400wpm, likely to be less than 300wpm and probably somewhere in the 200wpm range.

Now just think how much time you spend reading, look at your reading speed and if it is, as I suspect less than 400wpm, I can tell you that within a couple of hours I could show you how you could at the very least double your reading speed - which means halving the time you spend reading.

So 200 wpm whilst "normal" is not natural, you can read faster.

Naysayers at this time come up with all sorts of excuses about "won't be able to understand it if I read faster" or "I won't enjoy it if I read faster" or simply "It is not possible for me to read any quicker".  Well with the right instructor to explain why it is you read so slow (because of bad habits taught you at school), how you can change what you do when you read to counter the 4 things that slow you down and then some advanced strategies to take your new reading style to even greater levels, doubling and even trebling your reading speed is a certainty.  A 314 word email would then only take you 31 seconds!