Your eyes are processing words slower than your brain can handle them—time to fix that.
Train your brain to process text faster using proven techniques. Go from 200 to 600+ words per minute in two days with structured practice sessions.
Most people read at 200-250 words per minute, the same speed they learned in elementary school. Your brain can process information three times faster, but your eyes never got the training. This weekend sprint rewires your reading habits using timed exercises, peripheral vision expansion, and subvocalization elimination. By Sunday evening, you'll hit 600+ WPM on familiar material while maintaining 70%+ comprehension. The training works in three phases: Saturday morning starts with baseline testing and bad habit identification—most people discover they're re-reading lines or silently pronouncing every word. Saturday afternoon introduces pacing tools and chunking exercises that force your eyes to move faster. Sunday focuses on comprehension retention through strategic skimming patterns and recall drills. The physical sensation is strange at first—your eyes will feel like they're skipping across the page—but by hour six, faster reading becomes automatic. You'll need variety in your reading material: easy articles for speed work, dense chapters for comprehension testing, and something you'd normally read for baseline comparison. The breakthrough moment usually hits on Day Two when you realize you've absorbed a full page in under thirty seconds and can summarize it accurately. That's when you know the technique has clicked.
By Sunday evening, you'll read three times faster than you did Friday—600+ words per minute while retaining what matters. The physical sensation of your eyes skipping across a page while your brain absorbs full paragraphs is genuinely strange at first, then becomes addictive. You'll finish books you've been meaning to read, clear research faster, and never feel behind on reading again.
Top gear to make this quest great.
Pull it off
Wide columns are critical for learning to read center-line; standard paperbacks are too narrow for this technique
Eight hours of intensive reading causes serious eye strain; these cut fatigue by 40-50% and prevent headaches during long practice sessions
Keeps you honest during timed drills and prevents the 'just one more page' trap that kills comprehension; phone timers create distraction
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may change.
Read a magazine article for exactly 3 minutes at your normal pace, count the total words, and divide by 3 to get your WPM. Write this number down—most people land between 200-280 WPM. This is your starting point, not your limit.
Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth or hum quietly while reading to physically stop yourself from silently pronouncing each word. Read news articles this way for 20 minutes. It feels wrong at first—like you're not really reading—but your comprehension stays intact.
Draw a vertical line down the center of a book page and focus only on that line while reading, letting your peripheral vision catch words on both sides. Start with children's books that have wide margins and large text, then graduate to normal pages over three 30-minute sessions.
Use your finger, a pen, or a pacer app to guide your eyes down the page at 1.5x your baseline speed—faster than feels comfortable. Your eyes will follow and your brain will adapt, even if comprehension drops to 50% initially. Do 15-minute sprints followed by 5-minute breaks.
Read groups of words as single visual units instead of processing each word individually. Mark phrase boundaries with slashes in practice texts ('The quick brown fox / jumped over / the lazy dog'), then gradually remove marks as the pattern becomes automatic. Practice on varied material: easy blogs at 800 WPM, dense textbooks at 400 WPM.
Reread your Day One baseline article. You should finish in under 90 seconds with clear memory of the content. If you can't, spend another hour on pacing drills and retest until you hit the target.
You bring the curiosity. We've found the tools.
Pull it off
Wide columns are critical for learning to read center-line; standard paperbacks are too narrow for this technique
Forces your eyes to keep pace with increasing speeds, prevents regression and re-reading
Desktop or mobile app that highlights text line-by-line at controlled speeds
what to look for & our pick →
Eight hours of intensive reading causes serious eye strain; these cut fatigue by 40-50% and prevent headaches during long practice sessions
Amber-tinted eyewear that reduces screen glare and eye fatigue
Get on Amazon · $49.99 — Blue Light Blocking Glasseswhat to look for & our pick →
Keeps you honest during timed drills and prevents the 'just one more page' trap that kills comprehension; phone timers create distraction
Physical timer that beeps at preset intervals for sprint/rest cycles
Get on Amazon · $20.95 — Interval Timer with Audio Cueswhat to look for & our pick →RELATED GEAR GUIDE
Home & Park Workout Starter Kit: 10 Pieces That Actually Get Used
Practical picks, real prices · Personal Growth
As an Amazon Associate, IRL Sidequests earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Prices and availability are subject to change. The price shown at checkout on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
Hand-selected quests our team thinks you'll love
Let the dice argue. You just have to go.
Grab a friend, a handful of dice and a stack of pocket cards, then let the roll decide what you do next. You write the options, the dice pick one, and you go. Each outing takes 15 to 30 minutes, and arguing with the dice is not allowed.
Your shoulders have been waiting all day for this.
Been at the screen so long your shoulders have opinions? Give yourself twenty minutes and a handful of tiny moves: shoulder rolls, a long look at the farthest thing you can see, a stretch over your own desk, and one wobbly minute balancing on one foot.
Your life stats are stagnant—time to grind IRL and unlock new abilities.
Transform gaming mechanics into real-world quests with achievement tracking, skill trees, and XP systems that make personal development feel like your favorite RPG.
Not this one?
Tell the generator how much time you have, who you're with, and your mood — it picks from 500+ quests like this one.
Try the real life side quest generatorOr browse the full list of real-life side quest ideas.