Read More Books: Resist Regression
By: Trishna Patnaik
Tags: Comprehension, Distraction, Regression, Daily Routine, Productivity

Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean. — Charlie Munger

Want to Read More Books Without Losing Comprehension? Do Learn to Resist Regression

Please note your ability to read faster can speed up how fast you learn. Reading is not a human ability hardwired into our brains. It is a skill that takes practice. However, rapid reading is not a difficult skill to learn. Reading can transform your health, wealth, and more so productivity. Comprehension has always been more important than just reading. Without comprehension, reading is just a wasted effort.

You read because you want to learn something new, improve a specific skill or enjoy a great narrative or a novel. Comprehension is the core of reading any material. It is also the reason many people spend a lot of time on a single book. The one habit that may be hindering your progress when you choose to read is called regression. However, you can eliminate your reading inefficiencies and increase your reading speed while improving the retention.

Regression (backtracking)

One of the biggest obstacles and debacles to speed reading is regression. It is the habit of re-reading something you have already read in order to be sure you really understood the message you read.

When regression is totally compulsive, the habit can be harder to break.

When you regress like this, you lose the flow and structure of the text, and your overall understanding of the subject can then decrease. Be very conscious of regression, and do not allow yourself to re-read material unless you absolutely have to.

Please note the lack of confidence in your reading skills can cause regression. If you do not fully trust yourself to have completely understood what you have just read, you will regress all the time.

For many readers, this can totally happen over and over again.

Instead of improving their reading habits, many people use this habit to refocus when they feel they are being constantly distracted. In a way as much as you think regression is helping you, it actually slows you down more than you think.

Please note: Regression probably wastes about a third of every hour you spend reading.

It is like taking two steps forward with your eyes and one step back, and for many people, a lot more than one step back. Sometimes, but not very often regression becomes necessary, especially if you are reading about a technical subject and want to understand better. Or say when the author is not engaging better and you have to figure out the message yourself.

More often than not, people regress because it is a habit they have developed over time. If you are aiming to read faster and get the most important ideas in any book that you pick up, you have to quit the habit of going back to the chapters you have already read.

Instead of revisiting pages, what you can could do is to focus better, remove distractions and aim to read a particular number of pages every time you do start reading again. Improve your concentration habit, and you will not have to regress so many times before you actually finish that book.

When your brain develops the habit of re-reading at any time, it does relax and does not concentrate properly because it knows it will go back at some point.

It stops you from immersing yourself deeply in any book. When that happens, you will not fully grasp all the ideas in the book.

How to quit regressing

The simplest approach to stop re-reading over and over again is to choose books or topics you deeply care about. Reading a book must be an experience that provides you joy and even value, not something to labour its way through. If reading takes more effort and it i a struggle, you are going to want to do less of it.

Before you even start reading any book, ask yourself if you are completely curious enough about the topic to give it your full attention or concentration. Passive readers hardly finish any book because they are not curious enough. They read because they have enough time to spend instead of investing in a topic.

So, do get curious before you even start reading.

What do you look for in any book you do choose to read? Let that be your guide and you will focus better on it when you read. Schedule you reading and stick to your allocated time.

Example, you can even set aside half an hour of your time to read your favourite book without any distraction. Start by eliminating all the possible distractions that may prevent you from reading (social media, email notifications, news notifications, background music, etc.).

You can then disable all notifications on your phone.

You will be more focused when it is only you and the book you are reading.

Aim to totally concentrate the whole half an hour.

Do not hurry the process.

Just enjoy the book and the ideas the author is conveying during that time.

To retain and sustain the information better, you can take notes after every reading sprint.

Use the 50/50 principle to retain better and remember the core ideas of any book. You will not have to regress if you are not distracted and intervened.

To reduce the number of times you do backtrack, you can run a pointer (a finger, a pen, or the cursor) along the line that you read.

Your eyes will follow the tip of your pointer, helping you avoid skipping back. The speed at which you read using this method will largely depend on the speed at which you move the pointer. It is important to note that you do not have to finish every book to fully embrace better reading habits.

Closing thoughts (The Bottom Line)

Regression seriously slows down your reading speed. The good news is, you can easily replace it with a better habit, but it takes absolute concentration and practice. Start slow and aim to make total progress instead of trying to change the habit as soon as possible, especially if your brain is already used to re-reading all the time.

Quitting regression can even increase your reading speed and help you read more books every month or year. As you invest more time reading, it will get way easier and you will know what habits are helping you read more books.

The path of least resistance is the path of a loser. — H.G. Wells

About the Author:

Trishna Patnaik, a BSc (in Life Sciences) and MBA (in Marketing) by qualification but an artist by choice. A self-taught artist based in Mumbai, Trishna has been practising art for over 14 years. After she had a professional stint in various reputed corporates, she realised that she wanted to do something more meaningful. She found her true calling in her passion that is painting. Trishna is now a full-time professional painter pursuing her passion to create and explore to the fullest. She says, “It’s a road less travelled but a journey that I look forward to everyday.” Trishna also conducts painting workshops across Mumbai and other metropolitan cities of India.

Trishna is an art therapist and healer. She works with clients on a one on one basis in Mumbai.

Trishna fancies the art of creative writing and is dappling her hands in that too, to soak in the experience and have an engagement with readers, wanderers and thinkers.