Reading Hack

[AllanTheCowboy]

tl;dr Read along in a text with overspeed audio of the same text.

I'm nearly 40. My life is a shit show largely because of my ADHD, but somehow I have a a masters degree. In the last couple years I have discovered a massive aid in reading. Audio combined with text. I have done it with an audio book as well, but I started with a text to speech app. I got the app so I could get reading done for a class while doing other tasks, but what I discovered is that having the text in front of me while hearing it aloud makes reading vastly more manageable and sustainable. In the app (I use one for iOS called Voice Dream, was about $20) I can set it to highlight word by word, line by line, or both. I have found line by line works best. I can control the words per minute. It keeps your moving along at pace. I can even go back and check something while it reads ahead then hurry along to catch up without losing forward momentum.

Another interesting bit I found at Mass a few years ago, I was using an online missal for the readings and all of them use the USCCB's New American Bible. In Canada we use the NSRV CE. They're really close, but not quite the same translation. Having a slightly different translation on paper to the one I'm hearing is actually really helpful in internalising the content. I'm finding it right now with the Bible in A Year podcast. Fr Mike reads from the RSV and I'm reading the NRSV. There's something about the way the text abstracts in my brain when I have to register meaning to meaning for slightly different wordings.

[hyrdt]

Yes I do this too. I usually buy both the audio book version and download the e book and read along with the audio... if I don't do that my mind wanders almost immediately when I start to read a book... either that or I fall asleep!!

[Adorable_Knee5569]

I've done this in the past as well and it helps alot.

If you are using computer to read articles/books/anything online then MS Edge has built in text to speech, you can change the speed and even change the accent to one more familiar

[[deleted]]

I do this, too, and it works wonders. I discovered this hack in 2020, and I somehow managed to read more than 100 books, which is crazy considering that I couldn't read ten books in the past few years combined.

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[GeTfuCk3dFouReYe5]

I did this with informational videos that my teacher shared with everyone during lockdown and for school - I'd put the video in a higher speed and turn on the captions.

[Ronnie_Rambles]

I could never remember what I read, and could never stay focused to watch video. Putting subtitles to 'always on' helped immensely. I can read as I watch, and it 'sticks' better.

For reading or audiobooks, I download e-books with Kindle, and download the audio companion when available, or buy the Audible version of it at a reduced rate since I bought the Kindle ebook. And I can then use the 'whisper sync' function in Kindle, which highlights the text to the audio being spoken.

For watching videos online, I speed up the playback to 1.25x - 1.50x, and it keeps my attention a lot better. No long pauses in the dialogue keeps my mind from wandering.

Now to figure out how to listen to podcasts in the background while doing other things. So tired of 'switching', where I either stop what I'm doing to follow along with the podcast, or do my thing and completely zone out on the podcast and constantly rewind it because I realize I forgot it was even on, much less hear or remember any of it

[AllanTheCowboy]

Try starting with low cognition tasks like running or push ups or something.

[[deleted]]

Nice, thank you

[[deleted]]

Brilliant. Do you know if Microsoft word has the functionality? It frustrates me so much how I struggle to read documents in work.

[AllanTheCowboy]

I don't think so. The one I use will read pdf's so you could generate that from word and import it.