It’s Not About How Fast You Read. It’s About When You Read
The goal is retention. Retention requires the following ingredients.
There are a lot of theories about how one should read for best retention.
The brain coach Jim Kwik would have you speed-read. Let your finger glide from word to word and boost your WPM to 750. If you concentrate on speed, then you will concentrate on what you’re reading.
“Fast readers have the best comprehension because they have the best focus.” — Jim Kwik
The writer Ryan Holiday says speed reading is a myth.
My opinion?
How you read isn’t important. Matthew McConaughey will spend an hour reading a few pages and spend another hour reflecting on what he just read.
What I do think matters is WHEN you read.
The goal is retention. Retention requires the following ingredients.
1.) Large swaths of uninterrupted time.
2.) Focus.
3.) Coffee.
That combination gets you a better shot at reaching flow — that feeling when everything else in the world disappears. When you visualize what you’re reading and the lessons between the words.
I read in the morning, and so should you. I don’t care if you’re a night owl. Odds are, your brain is most alert 15 minutes after you wake and taste your morning coffee.
Read then.
I read at 4:30 am each morning. Before the Cesar Chavez in Austin fills with traffic. I read before the light, just like Toni Morrison. I read before others’ feet have even touched the ground.
I could read after work or maybe before bed, but I’m the sharpest in the morning.
It’s not even close.