Marketers Toolbox: Squirt
Note: The Marketers Toolbox series teaches our readers about new technology we’re using (or experimenting with) that proves to be useful, productive, or just plain entertaining. As a marketer's secret weapon, Setup believes that the tools we use are vital to our success, thus, a marketer's toolbox is truly one of our most important resources.
Author, health nut, and ultimate life hacker Tim Ferriss (of Four Hour Work Week fame) published a blog post nearly seven years ago entitled Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes.
About five years later, in March 2014, a simple Javascript bookmarklet leveled the playing field for less-than-speedy readers with its alternative to DIY speed reading techniques like chunking, reducing subvocalization (saying words in your head as you read,) and Ferriss' aforementioned PX Project method.
Fulfilling every wannabe-speed-reader's fantasy, Squirt pulls text from (almost) any web page, and regurgitates it word-by-word in one centralized spot on the screen at a designated speed.
This scientifically proven method works like this:
Instead of scanning complete sentences from left to right (and exhausting your eyeballs), viewing only one word at a time in the same exact spot redirects that energy and helps you read more, faster.
Squirt allows you to choose your reading speed –– anywhere from 250 (average) to 950 words per minute (excellent).
Here's a chart that outlines reader profiles, for reference:
Data c/o ReadingSoft.com
Here's a quick video tutorial from Squirt:
Now, get ready to read fast!
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