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Many people think that speed reading is meant for reading books. Of course, when speed reading was invented then there was no internet or PCs so the only way to read texts was from paper. However, things have changed a lot from that time. At present many of us read more texts from the web pages than they do from paper.

How to speed read texts from the web? Basically, there is not much difference between reading text from paper and from the computer screen. Still, there exist some additional options for increasing your reading speed from computer screen such as the possibility to change the font size.

There are different types of texts, which we read from computer. Some of them are very similar to the written documents. For example, ebooks, newspaper articles, manuals, product reviews etc. are appear usually in exactly the same wording as in the printed versions. On the other hand there are some texts on the web, which are different form printed texts. Blog posts and social media text have somewhat different structure and content. Even the articles published in places such as Ezinearticles.com are not very similar to the ones in printed media.

The amount of blog and social media texts has increased explosively during the recent year or two. This has created a huge information overload, which results in the fact that many people spend far too much time on reading that kind of texts from the web. Many people waste much of their working time on it and often it is not work-related reading. Browsing web and reading blogs is a form of procrastination for some office workers.

While I could just recommend not reading those kinds of texts in order to get more work done then this would not be the best solution. These texts can be a valuable source of information. For example, I get many of new ideas from reading blog posts. You have to be wise on reading them.

You have to be selective when reading on the web. There is a huge amount of low quality content on the web. Read only those sources which provide you something valuable. Therefore following only a limited number of blogs is a good idea. If you are searching for information and find some an interesting article of blog post then you should bookmark it before reading it. If you want to get an overview of some topic then it is better if you search for articles about it then select only the best of them for further reading and later you will read bookmarked pages. It helps you to save time as you will far often end up reading low quality texts.

There is also not too much genuine content in the blogs. Many of the posts are written about common topics and provide the reader too little new knowledge. For example if you read about how to make gifts to your girlfriend or how to loose weight or save money then you can find similar tips for it on thousands of articles or posts. You should actually read only these texts, which provide you new information, which you have not heard before.

How can you find out, which texts are worth reading? For that you have to make a quick preview of the text. It means that you will look through it at fast pace, virtually you will just let the eyes fly over it. When doing it, then focus on the following items:

• Title. Usually the title says much about the main idea of the text. If you have a feeling that the text is not right for you then you can stop reading it after the title.
• Subtitles. Blog posts and web articles have usually many subtitles, which summarize the blocks of texts. Read all of them quickly and you get a good overview of the content. Again, if you find that the text is not right for you then do not waste more time on reading it.
• First paragraph. The first 2-3 sentences usually point out the main idea of the text.

And only if you have found the content worth reading then you can read it. Read less, but more quality texts.

kristjan Speed Reading blogs, computer screen, procrastination, reading books, speed reading, web pages, working time

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Reading books is most important source of information for many of us. No matter if we read books, magazines, journals or texts from the web it is reading. During the recent years there has risen up an alternative to reading texts, which is listening to audio books. Audio books are recordings of the contents of a book provided either on tape, CD or in digital format.

As the popularity of listening to audio books is increasing then it leads to a question, is it better to read a book or listen to an audio book. Although there may be several arguments for and against both of these, here I will approach his question from the viewpoint of efficiency.

What is the better way of obtaining information? Which one is faster and allows you to remember the text better?

If talk about reading speeds, then the average reading speed for books is about 200-250 words per minute for an average reader. For audio books the listening speed is about 120-140 words per minute. It is almost two times slower. In addition, there are more possibilities for increasing your reading speed than your listening speed. By learning to speed read you may be able to read at 500 or 700 words per minute. In case of audio books you can speed the listening speed up if you have software for doing it, but you cannot increase it that much in comparison to reading if you want to follow the text. Think about the auctioneers, who speak roughly at 250 words per minute. You cannot follow the speech if it is much faster.

In case of books, you can look them through at fast pace. You can scan the text for searching the keywords and headlines. It is also easier to read text selectively. For example, for some texts you would want to read only the introduction and conclusion of it. Or you may want to read only some chapters. In case of audio books it far more difficult to listen to them selectively.

While reading is faster than listening to audio books, except for very slow readers, then in case on comprehension the picture is not so clear. It depends on the type of memory. If you have visual type of memory then you will comprehend better while reading. If you have auditive type of memory then you remember better the texts you will listen.

But the comprehension will also depend on your concentration. On the general it is easier to concentrate on reading as it is more active process than listening. Although there can be some individual differences, the possibility that you thoughts will wander away is greater for listening to audio books.

The benefit of listening to audio books is that they will allow multi tasking. In case of reading I would not recommend dealing with other things simultaneously, but for listening as a less active and slower process this can be done. You can listen to audio books while driving, jogging, cleaning your apartment etc. The concentration can be a problem, but if you get more experience in listening audio books, then it will improve.

I personally prefer reading to listening in most cases as it is much faster and I have visual type of memory. Still, I would not count out audio books as the will allow to save time through multi-tasking. I listen to audio books while driving longer distances.

kristjan Speed Reading audio books, comprehension, efficiency, reading books, reading speed