subvocalizing and talking to myself slows me down

[pat44]

I know I am not going to be a super-speed-solver. I'm happy just to complete the puzzles without hints and without errors.

But I really notice that I am speaking to myself while solving. As if I were reminding myself of how to solve puzzles, which steps to do, etc. It's not just sub-vocalizing (reading the clues with an inner voice), it's also somehow as if I am coaching myself. For example, "OK, so now we check to see both sides of this clue, we expect this...and here's an extra value" or whatever.

When the clues are simple ones, I go much faster because there are fewer syllables.

I'm guessing that speed-solvers don't have these habits!

[ella]

Hmm - interesting. I wonder about this a lot. I don't necessarily talk myself through exactly like you mention, but I do say the names (especially in the newer puzzles I'm noting - I actually often call them a slightly wrong name on purpose so I can remember.) I do find myself noting aloud things like " redwood fewer than spruce." I am going to investigate more, but I do know that I talk to myself more than I'm comfortable with, given my advanced age. I don't want to be talking to myself too much!

[JoshGrams]

Yeah, I definitely talk to myself. Abbreviating the part of the clue that I'm using, strategizing about what I might be looking for next, making a verbal note of same-step-distance clues because I still suck at those...

[tviolet]

I don't generally talk to myself on my fastest puzzles but if I get stuck, I find it helps to talk thru what I'm doing out loud. My tricks to get unstuck are 1) talk thru the clues, 2) kinda phantom use the bottom grids - visually picture where I would mark out squares but not actually cross them out, and 3) last resort: use the bottom rows.

[LLapp]

Pat44, thank you for this sanity check. I definitely talk to myself in my head (not out loud), and I also like to physically touch the screen next to each clue as I go through them, so I don't lose my place as I look back and forth between the clues and the grid. Between the inner talk and my finger on the screen, it feels like I'm holding my brain together as I move through the clues. No, I will never be a speed solver either.