I am working with a client in a couple of weeks time helping their key management team deal with the vast amount of data and information they have to process in the course of their activities.

As usual when I work with an organisation I asked the client to poll the team members for their reading challenges.

This does two things for me.

Firstly it allows me to identify specific challenges that I can target at the time of the course.

Secondly it reminds me just how "normal" these people are likely to be.

When you have been helping people become more effective readers for a while, you start to understand that, notwithstanding any medical condition, people’s challenges are pretty much the same.

First of all there is the general feeling of overwhelm from having so much stuff to deal with and never feeling like there is sufficient time to process it all.

This is very easy to deal with and is so simple, many people kick themselves when they discover the solutions.

Then there is the very slow rate that most people read at – usually between 250 and 350 words per minute.

Most people don’t realise they read slow at all because they are usually unaware they are capable of going any faster – I mean if they could they would already be doing it – surely….

Again this is quite easy to deal with and in just a couple of hours you can double or even triple someone’s reading speed (whilst maintaining or even improving comprehension) with some very basic strategies.

Then there are a host of minor problems that are typical because the way we have been taught to read sets up a series of bad habits.

These are also quite simple to address.

Anyway back to my client with whom I am working in a couple of weeks…..here is an extract of some of the challenges these people are facing….:

• "If I am reading a book I feel as though I have to read every single word, including ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘end’, etc. this makes my reading pace slow, taking considerable time to read a book"
• "I have a tendency to scan emails and some documents, which potentially results in a misunderstanding or not remembering the content/context" 
• "Well I find I get myself caught and stuck on words.  Like I can’t read past them until I have gone back to read it again".
• "I find that if I feel the content is not relevant, or boring if I am reading a book, I scan or gloss over the page and pick up maybe one or two words in a line. Perhaps I am missing out on vital information but I tend to pick it up again and start reading properly when I think it is relevant"
• "If it is learning reading, I will take time, perhaps too much time to assimilate but if my mind wanders, or if I am distracted in any way, I know I have not taken in what I have read and have to read it again. This is an annoying waste of time. I would like to speed that up"

Do any of those ring true for you?

If they do then understand you are normal and all that is missing is a little bit of knowledge and some practice and these can be banished forever.

If you download my Speed Reading Secrets audio at the top right hand side of the site you can get some ideas on how you can deal with these problems.

So what reading problems do you have?

Is it comprehension, speed, volume or remembering what it is you have read?

Drop me a comment below to let me know and in particular I would like to know the impact they have on your professional (and personal) lives.