Vishen LakhianiFounder of Mindvalley | NYT Bestselling Author | Transforming Lives Globally

3 Questions to ask for speed reading comprehension

17 Feb 2022 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:51

Short transcript of a spoken micro-lesson advising readers to improve comprehension by actively asking three questions while reading: (1) How can I use this? (2) Why must I use this? (3) When will I use this? The speaker argues that without these questions reading yields little behavioral change despite time invested.

Chapters

How many of you have been the opposite? You read something, you get to the end of the page, and then you forgot what you just read. The key to reading comprehension is asking more questions. If you read a page in a book, get to the end and not get anything out of it, it's because you're not asking questions, because questions are the answer. Now, there are three magical questions you want to ask yourself. Ask myself, how can I use this? The second question I obsess about, why must I use this? Because if it's not a must, you're not going to do it, because you have plenty of other things to do. The third question I, when I'm reading something, is, when will I use this? So when I'm taking notes, when I'm reading, I'm thinking those three questions. Otherwise you'll just read a page and you're like, okay, three, five pages. Great. Nothing happens. Nothing's different in the world because of that. All you did was invest time, and so you're no better off than somebody who's illiterate.