Aivaras, speed reader: “The traditional way of reading is like driving slowly in a traffic jam” | Lifetime

A. Pranarauskas, who organizes speed-reading trainings and seminars, says the idea for such trainings came about in 2006.

“So we started organizing a memory training seminar. I was a bit interested in speed reading, but it was more fragmented. And since 2008 training has started. Then I published a book about it, a video seminar appeared ”, said the interlocutor.

– Aivarai, you say that the traditional way of reading is like a slow trip in a traffic jam. It’s true?

– Yes. Everyone has the potential to read faster. But if you haven’t been on the highway, then this traffic jam seems natural – it seems to be so. You live in that traffic jam for many years.

With exercises and techniques to read faster, you cannot discover intuitively.

The point with speed reading is this: with exercises and techniques to read faster, you can’t figure out intuitively. For example, time management. There are many people who have not read any books on the subject but can do it intuitively. When there are many things, people discover for themselves what and how to make more efficient use of time, observing themselves, reflecting.

– For example?

– For example, people speed up their reading a bit by sliding their finger. Maybe you had to see? The situation in school, say, when there is noise around, teachers need to focus, so reading the text guides you with your finger. And help. The man thus visualizes his attention.

If you read a book normally, you don’t notice when your concentration slows down, when it’s normal, and when it’s fast. But if you point your finger, notice. You become aware of your finger if it starts to move slowly. So this arrow principle visualizes the rhythm.

It is the only intuitive thing that can be discovered. All the other things are so specific that you need to learn them; if you don’t read them, you don’t know them, you won’t know them.

Since this is a niche topic, it is also not on educational shows. Therefore, people read as if they were in a traffic jam.

– In terms of methods of learning to read fast? Is it true that one of the exercises is to read every other word?

– Say every second in your mind and try to see one with your eyes and don’t say it. Why? Because we naturally have this ability. When you see a number, a symbol, a word, you don’t have to read it to understand it. After all, we don’t read brand names and we recognize them immediately when we see them. When the bus arrives, you don’t say in your mind: forty seconds. You have seen the number and it is clear to you, you do not have to say it in your mind.

The word Sun. You do not need to read it, you will recognize it immediately.

I mean words that are simple, very commonly used, real nouns. The word Sun. You do not need to read it, you will recognize it immediately. Like what brand. Because it is a word that you have seen many times when it has the basis and clarity.

So we have this ability: we can recognize many words without saying them in our mind. This exercise is the simplest thing a person can do as an experiment.

The reading situations are varied. There are texts in which, unfortunately, you will have to pronounce every word; when the text is complex, it does not contain many real nouns. This text has no images. Politics, for example. Saying this word does not create an image.

– How long do we read the page of a book? I guess maybe four minutes? In fact, such a question has never arisen, so it is a momentary guess.

– Faster. If the average page of a book is about 200-250 words, we read in about a minute and a half. Human reading speed ranges from 150 to 250 words per minute. If you read that page very carefully, you will want to memorize it so you can retell it; it may take up to two minutes. And the minutes to read a page of a book are enough for someone who reads faster.

– What about learning to speed read?

– Generally speaking, divide by two. We have measured the effectiveness of our courses. Not just an increase in speed, but also an increase in productivity. When assessing speed and comprehension, the result is a 3-4x increase in productivity if one person not only completed the training but also did the task.

It is not a small workload, it is a month of work. If you train hard enough for a month, you can achieve the result.

– Don’t you lose the pleasure of reading quickly?

– Each text has its own purpose. When you start reading, you also have your goal. In other words, the text has a purpose and its purpose. They are two very important things.

If you take a piece of fiction, its purpose is to convey your mood, spirit, and the like. For example, a historical novel. For what purpose is it written, what does the author expect? Conveying the spirit of that time, the political situations, will help the person to better know that period of history, to feel that the time machine goes back and goes through it.

If you read a romance novel, the purpose of that novel is to irritate your emotions.

And what is the purpose of the reader?

And what is the purpose of the reader? I can take a love novel and it does not matter that its author wants to irritate my emotions, but I want to discover other things in it. Let’s say the psychological nuances of communication between man and woman. So I’ll find them by breaking them down with a quick read, and where I find them, I’ll read those places more slowly, maybe summarize and things like that. Because that was my goal.

Another person’s goal when reading a love novel is to experience emotions, to relax while reading. Therefore, you may not need a quick read. In some places, speed reading works and in others it doesn’t.

I’d like to say something else because you keep asking. There is eye hygiene. It is the science of keeping your eyes strong and healthy. If a person has the basic principles of speed reading and is familiar with the exercises, these exercises strengthen the eye muscles and the person knows how to allow the eyes to rest, to read at certain intervals. Because and attention we cannot hold more than an hour. The attention curve begins to decline after 40 minutes.

Knowing how to read, a person does not experience fatigue, the eyes do not turn red, they do not stretch. Take a sports reading form. The reading process becomes smoother and more enjoyable.

– How is speed reading related to memory? If I read fast, won’t I forget what I read?

– When you read, basically everything travels to short-term memory. And with a short-term memory, that’s the way it is: read a book, close it, and think about what you read there?

Meanwhile, speed reading requires deeper concentration and higher concentration. Concentration we learn. This strengthens the skill and responds to memory. You won’t read faster without being able to concentrate.

Imagine that your concentration or concentration is measured on a scale of ten points. You have four to focus. By reading this, the result will be relevant. But if you work with concentration and cultivate it at 6, 7 or 8, you are very attracted to the productivity of reading. Eight for concentration also feels very strong for your ability to remember, remember what you read.

On speed reading, you use your potential, maybe not all 100 percent, but 80-90 percent. Traditional reading uses a much smaller proportion of this resource, perhaps only 30 to 40 percent, because the pace is slower. As you read this, the remaining 60 percent of your mental potential is boring. And boredom leads to the appearance of a space for the thoughts of others.

A person reads and at the same time manages to think about what to prepare for dinner, what to wear to work or what to buy in the store. The load is not maximum, so the mind of the person who reads can still perform strange work. So remember that what you read is more difficult. After all, the reader uses only 40 percent of your resources.

Reading quickly increases participation in the reading process, leaves no time for strange thoughts, and improves memorization. Also, the higher the rate, the greater the amount of information at one time, making it easier to summarize.

If a person wants to read a book and memorize information, we use a memory training technique: mnemonics. But this must be learned, and then it is no longer about short-term memory, but associative memory, long-term memory.

But if your question were whether it improves memory, then the answer would be yes. Improvement due to increased concentration. And visual memory is improved.