How Wade Works – Spreed

A great deal of time across Safety roles is spent reading various management plans, codes of practice, Australian Standards, SWMS and other management system documentation.

I was very fortunate to have a primary school teacher as a mother and developed a love of reading early on. She challenged me to read and how I could read faster. Through trial and error, I taught myself speeding reading with her assistance and it’s been a boon ever since. As I have found, however, not everyone is able to speed read or takes in content in an equal manner.

So how to help everyone read faster? Enter Spreed – Spreed works by utilising a visual technique called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, or RSVP, used by the fastest speed readers in the world.

Speed reading hinges on the reader’s ability to silence his or her inner voice sounding each word out as he or she reads. Spreed is an extension that trains you to read faster while eliminating this subvocalization. The average person reads at 200 words per minute; using Spreed, you can easily train yourself to read at 400 words per minute–that’s one hour of time saved if you usually spend two hours a day reading online content.

Spreed takes the web page or text you have pasted into the Chrome extension and rapidly flashes it at you one word at a time. It keeps a centre point so your eyes don’t have to move when reading the text. Who would have thought it’s our eyes slowing us down or us mouthing the words and not our brains when reading

You are able to modify the speed that the words are flashing at you to a level which you find comfortable. My tip, turn it up 200 words a minute faster than you are comfortable at random times to juxtaposition the slower speed and give your cognition a short workout at the same time.

I don’t advocate using Spreed for all reading tasks. See below for tasks that you should stay with your normal method:

• Editing your own work. You will find that your mind will make sense of it regardless on whether it does on paper. You will miss key errors (including spelling and punctuation if you do this)
• Reading crucial documents the last time before a decision. Use Spreed to get a quick overview of a document but don’t rely on it if you need to know the text (like a contract) inside out. Brief restrictions can cause you to miss whole lines or paragraphs to your future detriment
• Using it when you have a headache. Or you have been in front of a computer for a long time. Spreed’s use will slow your normal blinking rate and cause further irritation to dry eyes or if you have a headache.
• Content heavy with new or intellectually dense topics you don’t understand thoroughly
• If you have an important task scheduled after more than 20 minutes using spreed. Ive found that at high speeds it dries my brain for a while and I need to shift to creative or non-detail work after using spreed for an extended period of time.

The best uses I and other have found for it so far:

• Management plans and Subcontractor / Client document reviews with your criteria firmly in mind
• Literature reviews for assignments at uni
• Reviewing information or docs you have already have a strong understanding of and need a brief review of key concepts.
• Further proffessional development papers with only one or two new concepts
• On you breaks, reading social content and news websites

If nothing else it will freak your colleagues out when they first see it in action! It’s not for everyone and keep in mind it’s not a race to get to the end but appreciate, understand and be able to apply the content you are reading.

Dial up or down the speed to suit! Go now and Spreed!