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Speed reading will help you save time on reading as it will allow you to increase your reading speed. On the average, after completion of a speed reading course and sufficient individual training most people are capable of doubling their initial reading speed. Speed reading skills are useful in many professions, especially for office work. In addition, you will benefit from these skills when reading for studying or leisure.

If you want to increase you reading speed then you have to learn new reading techniques. It can be achieved though participation in a speed reading course, which can be either a classroom or on-line course. Alternatively you may study on your own from a book or using computer software for that. These new skills have to be hardened, so you have to practice speed reading for at least one month.

Some people think that speed reading does not work, because they have hoped that it is possible to become a super fast reader just in one day (or even faster). It is not true. At the same time, exercises you have to perform for increasing you reading speed are not so difficult. And 45 minutes a day is enough. So it takes patience and consistence, but practically everyone can do it.

But what happens afterwards? You have become a fast reader and what next. Will you forget these skills? Could it be that after six month you are slow as you were before?

If you have practiced enough and acquired correct techniques for speed reading then you will not forget it. In that sense speed reading is a life time skill. It can be compared to learning to ride a bicycle or learning to swim. You can’t forget it.

But at the same time if you do not apply these skills regularly then your reading speed will decrease to some extent. For example, if you have managed to increase you reading speed from 250 words per minute to 550, then it can be that you can manage to read only at 425 words per minute six month after completing the course if you have not worked on yourself later. It is like practicing sports, you will not forget the basics, but in order to achieve a good result you have to be in top form.

Fortunately, it is not so difficult to apply speed reading techniques everyday. For example, reading with out moving your eyes backwards is something you can always follow. Or the principle, that you have to concentrate while reading and avoid distractions.

If you have learned techniques for fast reading then you can always take it up and practice in order to increase you reading speed. But actually you do not have to be a superfast reader. It is beneficial if you can read 2 or 3 time faster then average person does, but reaching speeds 1000 words per minute and above, will not give you so much additional advantage. If you want to work efficiently, then your ability to prioritize texts and select your reading material is more important. You have to read wisely not just fast.

In the speed reading courses you will learn how to preview texts, set goals for reading, read selectively and improve your comprehension. You will benefit from these techniques even if you do not actually read at very fast speed. And you will not forget these skills even if you reading speed drops to some extent.

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Dr. Frey with Micro Fa micro chip, which protects against radiation from mobile phones

Every day I am getting more and more involved in business activities. Besides this blog and speed reading course, I run two companies. One of them Dream Capital Ltd. is an investment and insurance broker company and MICRIM  is selling health products.

In a previous post I have discussed how speed reading has helped me to defend my PhD thesis. Today I am going to share my thoughts about how does it help me to do business better.

First of all I would point out that if I had not taken up speed reading then I would probably had not got involved in business. I was a 100% academic and working at the university provided a nice and stable career with decent income. Learning to speed read somehow opened my eyes and showed me that there is more inside me. While I was quite a bright student in high school then at the university I was really not giving my best. I studied economics, but I did not aim at the business career. I wanted to be a politician instead. But soon I realized that I did not like politics and after I graduated MA studies I was out of ideas what to do with my life. Then I was offered a position at the university and at the same time I entered a PhD program. From that on I saw my life as a scientist and I did not believe that I was capable of having a business career.

But after I learned to speed read I started seeing the academic life slow and unproductive. Suddenly I wanted to do something more practical, efficient and I wanted to make more money too. Then I started teaching speed reading classes as self-employed in addition to holding a position at the university. From that point on I was doing business and afterwards I started my other projects.

Besides giving me the attitude of being fast and efficient speed reading itself allows me to save a lot of time on reading. In business you have less time for making decisions than in academic career and you need to find and work through right information fast. The number of emails I receive every day must have at least tripled in last 2 years. I need to read more reports, internal documents than before. If I were a slow reader then it would be very difficult to handle this.

I use a lot more internet resources due to my business activities. I browse more websites, read more blogs and company resources. For doing business you have to know what is going around at the market and what are you competitors doing.

Being an entrepreneur means that you have to continuously educate yourself. The world is changing fast and you just have to keep up with it. Therefore you have to read a lot. It is especially important for me as a beginner entrepreneur as I have to gain knowledge in management and marketing. In my academic career I was oriented towards economic theory and therefore I did not have much interest in management or marketing. But for being a practical businessman you have to be familiar with these subjects So I think I have to read even more than an ordinary businessman as I have to work more on my weaknesses.

While I have to read a lot for business, reading texts alone will earn no money. There are many other activities which take up my time. If I were a slow reader I would end up with working for 12 or 14 hours a day. It would generate lots of stress and I would burn out sooner or later. I definitely do not want that. So I just have to read faster to save time. Speed reading gives me a possibility to have time for resting and leisure activities.

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I defended my PhD thesis in economics a little more than a year ago and I was 28 then. It took me four years to complete my doctoral studies. Although four years is nominal duration of studies for PhD, no one had been able to finish it within this period in my faculty (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu) before. It was usual that it took at least one or too extra years and for many students even longer.

I discovered speed reading for myself at the beginning of my final PhD year and by that time I had already completed all the courses, but I had to still write my thesis. Writing the PhD thesis is a complex task and it takes a lot of time for ordinary students. Most of students reduce their workload while writing the thesis. For me there were many offers for new research projects, which offered a possibility of earning good extra income. And you may guess that I could not resist these offers.

After I had participated on a speed reading course, I began to train my reading skills regularly. I must say that after one month I had made huge progress and I was able to apply my new reading methods to my academic reading.

For writing a good PhD thesis you must have a good knowledge of the latest research results in your field. I was writing my thesis on labor economics, so I had to know what was going on there. Actually you do not have to know so much details of other authors work, but instead you have to know what their contribution to that field is and what their main results are. Therefore you have to read a huge load of material, but you do not have to go deep with most of them. I have seen many other students to spend lots of time for reading a single article or chapter, which definitely is a reason why it takes a lot of time for them to write the thesis.

The main benefits from speed reading for my PhD were that I was able to quickly find which texts were worth reading and I was able to read these texts much faster. For many articles I only read the introduction and summary or even only abstract and so I was able to work through more than 10 (sometime even 20) articles in one hour.

My speed reading skills gave me confidence that I was able to get it done and this helped me a lot. 11 years ago when I finished high school then I had excellent results on the final exams and I had strong self-confidence. But as an undergraduate student I was a bit too lazy and my results were not so good. When I started working at the university, then the first years on that job were also not so successful. My salary was relatively low and all these decreased my self confidence. When I started dealing with speed reading then it changed my life as I started to believe in myself again.

Many other students and professors have been astonished how I was able to write academic texts so fast and I still had time for all other projects. But the point was that speed reading made me very productive. What took days for other people, took only some hours for me to do. Some people wanted to stop me for taking so many work commitments as they were worried that I was working too much.

But in fact I was not working that much. I was able to finish writing the thesis quickly so I good devote time to some other projects. At the same time I was able to find time for my hobbies and friends. I did not have to miss a football match or a party due to my studies.

Speed reading has made my life much easier and therefore I have started to share my experiences to other people. I have given my speed reading trainings to different people such as managers, professors, students, doctors, military officers etc. It seems to be that everyone can learn it. And it is so enjoyable to see how these skills make people happy.

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