Speed Reading

Speed Reading Facts

• The average person in business reads no faster than people did 100 years ago.
• The average reading speed is 200 to 250 words a minute in non-technical material roughly 2 minutes per page. If you doubt this, test your reading speed - there is a reading speed test elsewhere in this site.
• In technical material, the average reading rate is approx 50 to 75 words a minute roughly 5 to 6 minutes per page.
• Total information is doubling every 9 months.
• Therefore we have to process information faster and faster just to maintain our existing knowledge level.
• 500 000 new titles are published each year in the English language alone.
• However, the average American college graduate only reads 5 books in his/her post-college lifetime.
• We therefore end up knowing more and more about less, and less and less about just about everything else.

• In business, the average person spends 2 hours a day on work-related information management.
• 90% of this information will be acquired through reading.
• 2 hours per day spent reading is 25% of a workday, 25% of a work-year. On a wage package of $100K including benefits, leave, office overheads, this is a $25K a year cost to the company, PER WORKER.
• To expand a business, you either need more resources (increased overheads) or better utilization of existing resources (increased profits).
• By simply DOUBLING the knowledge management reading rate, you free up at least 1 hour a day. 
• These additional man-hours are an asset and can be re-invested in acquiring new skills, investigating new opportunities or in overhead cost management.
• In an hourly-billing organization, 100 additional billable hours per week has a profit-potential of $10 000 per week.
• To train 20 people to DOUBLE their knowledge management reading rate, requires a once-only investment of as little as $7,500.
• In the first year alone, this investment will 'create' an additional 5200 man-hours, a 'saving' of $250 000 in knowledge management time and giving you a very substantial return on your investment.

• In the Military, lives depend on the speed and accuracy of the intelligence cycle - from the analysis of collected intel data to the  risk assessment to the risk product report. 
• Too many intel analysts results in fragmentation of the "big picture". The key is empowering fewer analysts to process larger volumes in intel data.

• At college or university, the average student spends 4 to 5 hours a day reading and studying.
• The cost of a 3-year in-state college degree is approx $40 000.
• The cost of an MBA degree is approx $40 000.
• The cost of failure plus the cost of missed opportunities over a working life-time is considerable.

• For the individual, you ARE what you READ.
• Reading creates knowledge both specialist and general knowledge.
• Knowledge is wisdom the ability to consider and evaluate new information relative to what is already known.
• Reading creates vocabulary and an increased ability to communicate.
• Reading has been described as "vicariously experiencing life through the eyes of another."
• Reading improves writing skills.