Let me start with a claim that focusing on reading as many educational books as possible is a bad idea. Unless you have a photographic memory. We, common mortals, have to do things differently if we are to succeed.
To explain my reasoning, I have to go a bit deeper and explain how things work with humans and information retention. In other words, how much can we remember from what we have learned after some time?
Photo courtesy of the author
Books are the most traditional source of knowledge. At least when speaking of self-gained knowledge. You can find in them the condensed life-long experience of many great people.
Yet when reading books, we remember only about 10% of the text. That sounds quite inefficient, does it not?
You read a book and after some time you have only 10% of the knowledge you should possess. That does not sound very fair given the time and effort you put into reading the book. Especially if the book contains great information but is written in a hard-to-read or boring way.
Worry not, there are ways to increase how much you can retain. To start, you can read the book aloud. Not only do you put more effort into it, but at the same time, you activate more senses.
This also means that you retain more from audiobooks than from plain books (or e-books). Yet, some books heavily rely on visual help, making them tough to listen to. Also, it is easier to lose focus when listening to an audiobook, compared to reading a book. At least for most people.
A small adjustment and already you can remember double what you used to before. Eureka! Everything is solved! Sadly, no. If you multiply 10% by 2, you get a whopping 20%. That does not sound so thrilling, does it?
Sadly, it is not possible to read aloud at all times. If you are a student, I presume your roommates will not appreciate you reading aloud the latest book on negotiating tactics at 1 AM. But then again, you would get to use them right away, which leads to you retaining about 75% of what you have just read.
That is right. One of the most efficient ways how to remember what you have just read is to use what you just learned. No surprise there.
Then again, you are unable to put everything into practice right away.
How to tackle that?
Another great way to remember more is to discuss what you learned with others. This is great when you are learning the same topic with your friends. If you are still in a university, you can use this method to improve your information retention and that of your friends and at the same time, you can figure out if you misunderstood or missed something important.
Discussing what you have read with others, provided that they read it, too, results in 50% information retention. That is a significant improvement compared to the low 10% from just reading.
Yet what to do when there is no one with whom you could discuss it? Or, like to.
Of course, do not just write down word-by-word what you have just read. Write it down in your own words. This way you force yourself to think about the meaning of what you have just learned instead of just absorbing the information.
This forces you to think about it and process it. After that, it is followed by an action, which, in an ideal case, is handwriting (the more effort you put into it, the better retention you get — after all, for most people reading this blog post it is easier to type on a computer than to write on a paper).
Note-taking is my favorite way how to remember the most out of the book I have just read if it is not possible to put the knowledge into practice right away. Not only that you remember more, but in case you forget, you know exactly where to look for the information.
I try to avoid causing any damage to books. This also means that I will never highlight anything in my books to keep them clean and as close to their original state as possible. Alternatively, if the book is just borrowed, you will not be able to get back to it later and if you take notes, you will keep the most important knowledge with you forever. If you do not lose your notebook.
I like to take my notes after I finish the book. This means I read the book twice. On the first take, I am making mental notes whenever I find something important for me. On the second take, I look for important parts and take down notes.
Practicing with a retention of 75% is not the best way to retain information. You can remember way more when you teach others the obtained knowledge. With that, you can get to 90%, but there is a big “BUT.”
To get this desired effect, you have to spend a lot of your time preparing to share the information efficiently. Imagine what it would look like if you read a book once, and after you finish it, you would just go to your students and tried to teach them on that topic. It would not go that well, would it?
If you share with them bogus information, that is what you will remember. To get the most out of it, you have to prepare in advance. That takes time. Plenty of time.
To sum it up:
By reading, you remember up to 10%
By reading aloud, you remember up to 20%
By discussing or taking notes, you remember up to 50%
By putting what you learned into practice, you remember up to 75%
By properly teaching others, you remember up to 90%
The most cost-efficient way is to take notes. It does not take that much extra time to write down notes after reading.
What do you do to remember the most from what you have just read?
Let me know how you feel about what you have just read. I am looking forward to hearing more from you! If you liked what you just read, try to see how many times can you hit 👏 in five seconds — not only that you get a little bit of extra movement (burn that one calorie), but you also help me to reach more people with my writing. Keep tuned in for posts that are yet to see the light of the world, follow to not miss out.
Let me start with a claim that focusing on reading as many educational books as possible is a bad idea. Unless you have a photographic memory. We, common mortals, have to do things differently if we are to succeed.
To explain my reasoning, I have to go a bit deeper and explain how things work with humans and information retention. In other words, how much can we remember from what we have learned after some time?
Photo courtesy of the author
Books are the most traditional source of knowledge. At least when speaking of self-gained knowledge. You can find in them the condensed life-long experience of many great people.
Yet when reading books, we remember only about 10% of the text. That sounds quite inefficient, does it not?
You read a book and after some time you have only 10% of the knowledge you should possess. That does not sound very fair given the time and effort you put into reading the book. Especially if the book contains great information but is written in a hard-to-read or boring way.
Worry not, there are ways to increase how much you can retain. To start, you can read the book aloud. Not only do you put more effort into it, but at the same time, you activate more senses.
This also means that you retain more from audiobooks than from plain books (or e-books). Yet, some books heavily rely on visual help, making them tough to listen to. Also, it is easier to lose focus when listening to an audiobook, compared to reading a book. At least for most people.
A small adjustment and already you can remember double what you used to before. Eureka! Everything is solved! Sadly, no. If you multiply 10% by 2, you get a whopping 20%. That does not sound so thrilling, does it?
Sadly, it is not possible to read aloud at all times. If you are a student, I presume your roommates will not appreciate you reading aloud the latest book on negotiating tactics at 1 AM. But then again, you would get to use them right away, which leads to you retaining about 75% of what you have just read.
That is right. One of the most efficient ways how to remember what you have just read is to use what you just learned. No surprise there.
Then again, you are unable to put everything into practice right away.
How to tackle that?
Another great way to remember more is to discuss what you learned with others. This is great when you are learning the same topic with your friends. If you are still in a university, you can use this method to improve your information retention and that of your friends and at the same time, you can figure out if you misunderstood or missed something important.
Discussing what you have read with others, provided that they read it, too, results in 50% information retention. That is a significant improvement compared to the low 10% from just reading.
Yet what to do when there is no one with whom you could discuss it? Or, like to.
Of course, do not just write down word-by-word what you have just read. Write it down in your own words. This way you force yourself to think about the meaning of what you have just learned instead of just absorbing the information.
This forces you to think about it and process it. After that, it is followed by an action, which, in an ideal case, is handwriting (the more effort you put into it, the better retention you get — after all, for most people reading this blog post it is easier to type on a computer than to write on a paper).
Note-taking is my favorite way how to remember the most out of the book I have just read if it is not possible to put the knowledge into practice right away. Not only that you remember more, but in case you forget, you know exactly where to look for the information.
I try to avoid causing any damage to books. This also means that I will never highlight anything in my books to keep them clean and as close to their original state as possible. Alternatively, if the book is just borrowed, you will not be able to get back to it later and if you take notes, you will keep the most important knowledge with you forever. If you do not lose your notebook.
I like to take my notes after I finish the book. This means I read the book twice. On the first take, I am making mental notes whenever I find something important for me. On the second take, I look for important parts and take down notes.
Practicing with a retention of 75% is not the best way to retain information. You can remember way more when you teach others the obtained knowledge. With that, you can get to 90%, but there is a big “BUT.”
To get this desired effect, you have to spend a lot of your time preparing to share the information efficiently. Imagine what it would look like if you read a book once, and after you finish it, you would just go to your students and tried to teach them on that topic. It would not go that well, would it?
If you share with them bogus information, that is what you will remember. To get the most out of it, you have to prepare in advance. That takes time. Plenty of time.
To sum it up:
By reading, you remember up to 10%
By reading aloud, you remember up to 20%
By discussing or taking notes, you remember up to 50%
By putting what you learned into practice, you remember up to 75%
By properly teaching others, you remember up to 90%
The most cost-efficient way is to take notes. It does not take that much extra time to write down notes after reading.
What do you do to remember the most from what you have just read?
Let me know how you feel about what you have just read. I am looking forward to hearing more from you! If you liked what you just read, try to see how many times can you hit 👏 in five seconds — not only that you get a little bit of extra movement (burn that one calorie), but you also help me to reach more people with my writing. Keep tuned in for posts that are yet to see the light of the world, follow to not miss out.
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