Speed reading is an awesome way to save time by learning and understanding things quickly. In the long run, this will free up a lot of time to allow you to concentrate on other things.

Below, you will find a few helpful tips to speed read effectively. It is not a comprehensive list, but a start to allow you to get to grip with the basics.

1. The first sentence of every paragraph is the most important one to read.

The first sentence lets you know what you are going to read. So if you want to skim through very quickly, read the first sentence only. Also, when doing this, look out for key words in that first sentence because that will let you know what the paragraph is all about. As a side note, if the paragraphs in the book aren't arranged with the important sentences first, then the book is probably not optimised for speed reading in the first place.

2. When reading sentences, look out for the key words that tell you what the sentence is about.

You don't have to read the whole sentence, because you will be able to tell what the sentence is about by looking at the key words in it. This is easier to do when you are looking at the page from a comfortable distance, to be able to see most of the sentence without actually reading every single word in it.

3. For extra quick reading, you can read down the middle of the page only

When you read down the middle of the page, your eyes can take in all the key words, phrases and themes of the page very quickly. What you must do is read the page fast or slow enough, so that you are taking in all the key words.

4. Pay attention to all the highlighted text on the page.

If anything is highlighted on a page, that highlighted part is obviously important and will make it easier to understand what the page is all about. Highlighted things to look out for include titles, subheadings, captions and key points being made.  

5. Understand what you are reading, instead of just reading the words.

The whole point of reading is to understand what you are reading. If you're just skimming and reading the words without understanding, you're basically wasting your time so you need to always make sure you're understanding it. The other thing to mention is that the speed of thought is much quicker than the speed at which you can read and say words. Therefore try to understand what you are reading and make it a habit, and your reading ability will naturally increase.