Did you know you can read emails faster just by changing the background colour?

Do you have Dyslexia or ADHD and find yourself constantly overwhelmed with email?

If you’re someone like me that struggles to read long, daunting emails because of your ADHD or Dyslexia, chances are you wake up most mornings feeling like you’re going to war with your inbox! 😬

Most ways to boost your reading speed take lots of effort!

You can do many things to improve your reading speed, like speed reading courses and productivity hacks and mindfulness for focus, but the problem is that many of these require a lot of effort, time and practice. In addition, if you don’t keep up many of these practices, your reading speed and productivity can really fall apart.

Background colours can improve reading speeds for people with ADHD & Dyslexia. 

The good news is several studies indicate background colours can improve reading speeds (and reduce reading effort - more on that later) for both neurodiverse and neurotypical readers alike. 

Some of these studies indicate that, on average, some colours, like peach and warm off-white, are more likely to improve reading speeds. The problem is that what works for the average person isn’t helpful if you aren’t average! 

I, for example, prefer a very light blue-grey background and my co-founder Niket prefers a pale greeny-yellow colour.

Sumrise’s custom background colours for Gmail help you find what’s best for your unique needs - we don’t prescribe averages.

At Sumrise, we embrace that everyone is unique and has their own needs. So instead of a ‘silver bullet’, one size fits all approach, we believe in individualising the tools to the person.

That’s why our new feature, ‘custom background colours,’ includes 12 unique colours you can pick, to customise Gmail’s background and find what makes reading easiest for you.

Reading effort is also important.

In addition, it’s worth mentioning that reading speed isn’t always the most important factor to optimise when it comes to tackling email overload. Reading effort is an often overlooked metric that matters just as much.

If you are Dyslexic, you might have to expend a huge amount of effort to read at a certain speed. If you have ADHD, you might have to spend a lot of effort to stay focussed on the email you are reading.

That’s not a big deal if you spend a tiny amount of time reading your email - many of us can sprint for a few seconds.

However, reading effort becomes much more significant when you spend a lot of time reading an email (some studies indicate over 20% of a working day can be spent reading emails)!

This is why the art of tackling that overflowing inbox is just as much about lowering reading effort as it is about speed.

For me, with custom background colours enabled, reading feels easier, and I have much more energy for all the other things the day brings 🙂

So what colour makes reading easiest for you?

To customise your background - get Sumrise free.

Watch custom background colours for Gmail in action 👇🏽