The third part is the techniques you use to read faster whilst still enjoying it, by understanding better and focusing clearly.

I'm aware that this is the juicy part of this post, so keep in mind that the first two points are far more important. These techniques will help you to read faster and remember more, though they will not create more time in the day. Here are some I use and have done for years.

1 - Practice honing your focus in general. No one can expect themselves to jump from reading 150 character tweets and 9-second videos to full-length books. Reading requires intense focus, especially for dense, lengthy or challenging books.

There are many other ways to do this. Meditation, writing essays and memorizing vocabulary are all useful. The practice of reading can be somewhat meditative. Whenever I first sit down with a book, my mind initially wanders every few seconds. I keep pulling it back and after a while, I become fully focused. The longer I read for in one sitting, the more focused I am on it.

We cannot control how much time we have, but we can control our focus. I recommend two books for this. Deep Work by Cal Newport transformed the way I work and I cannot recommend it enough. The Productivity Project by Christ Bailey taught me a lot about the value of attention management over time management. Both should be mandatory reading for every human who wants to do anything meaningful. If you only take one thing from this post, it's to read both of these. They have made me a better reader, as well as improving many other areas of my life. If you don't have much time to read, improving your focus is the perfect way to finish more pages in less time.

2 - Cultivate a set of relevant mental models. This is an ongoing process for me and always will be. Mental models are tools for rapid cognition, understanding and decision making. Farnham street is an excellent resource for understanding them.

It takes very little time to get a grasp of these and the understanding is there for life. When I read, I apply these to anything I am struggling to process. A small number of fundamental models underly everything. Learn them and you'll start seeing them everywhere.

3 - Develop a broad understanding of key theoretical perspectives. Every time I learn a new one, I am amazed by how useful it is while I read. Picture these as lenses to view what you read through. A good way to practice this is to take a walk, pick out random sights and apply a chosen to theory to it. If your understanding is deep and broad enough, this should be possible in almost all situations.

For example, the first time I read The Palm Wine Drinkard, I was confused and had no idea what was going on. So I switched my perspective and looked at it as a post colonial text. Immediately, the book made sense and was enjoyable. This has worked for many others. It's important, however, to avoid fitting a book into an inappropriate perspective or mental model.

4 - Stop overloading your brain with information at other times. Treat your ability to focus on something vital and sacred - because it is. For me, this means not watching TV, never playing games and spending minimum time on social media newsfeeds. Of course, this also means more time for reading too. I take reading seriously as it is a form of training for my central work (writing.) Most people spend hours a day watching TV. If you actually want to read more, cut it out.

5 - Allow time after reading for processing the information. I suspect this is one of the reasons I can digest books at such a fast rate. I think about the contents afterward, not while I am reading. I take frequent breaks, rarely reading for more than an hour at a time. After finishing a book, I go through it again to make notes, draw diagrams and transcribe key parts.

6 - Prepare yourself with some general contextual knowledge before reading. This need not be more than reading the introduction or Wikipedia entry. If I want to dive deep into a book, I read some academic papers and reviews. Interviews with the author are also useful. Avoid resources for students- they are not fact checked and are often opinion based. Building an understanding of the content speeds up your comprehension and therefore speed up your reading. Context is vital for comprehension. This is even more important for books which come from cultures you are unfamiliar with, or older books.

7 - Enjoy it. Reading is not a chore. It's one of the most exciting and enjoyable things anyone can do in life. To fall in love with books, try reading Walden by Thoreau. The chapter 'reading' is paradigm altering when it comes to loving books. In it, Thoreau writes that 'books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.' He also asks 'how many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book?' Also, read On the Shortness of Life by Seneca. Yes, I recommend that book in every post and there is a reason for that. Remember that it is not necessary to read at a crazy speed or get through insane numbers of books. Committing to as much as you can is what matters.