In this digital age, the importance of being able to absorb information quickly and efficiently is more pronounced than ever. For me, I get tonnes of information every single day. It used to be just the simple newspapers.

Now I get an inbox full of mail, newsletters and every kind of news and information. Websites are publishing new articles and content every day. And it does not help that my newspaper has grown so much that it now comes in 3 sections, or 4 depending on the day.

With such a flood of information coming to you every day, you need to be able to sift through the lot, and absorb only whatever is necessary. And you have to absorb it fast as well.

As such, speed reading is a skill that you should definitely pick up. You need to learn to read at lightning quick speeds. What you learnt in school? Throw it out. As students, we were taught to go through text slowly to understand the words and sentence structure. Yes, that is great if you are learning the language, but most of us are already proficient in English, so why are we still reading like students?

The focus now should be on absorbing knowledge, not improving language. So instead of going through text word-by-word, sometimes just making a fast sweep through the text, and grasping its overall content is all that is required.

As you read, urge yourself to go faster and faster. This takes time and practice, so be patient.

Good readers can