5 techniques to retain more of every book you read
Psychological techniques to enhance your memory
🏷️ Categories: Literature, Memory, Learning
Reading does in your brain what updates do in software.
Reading gives you new ideas, skills and more refined mental models to understand reality. Reading is improving your view of the past and improving your construction of the future. However, as Nassim Taleb said, “A good book improves on the second reading. A great book on the third. What matters is how much you retain.
Effective retention is crucial to maximizing the value of knowledge.
Let's look at 5 ways not to waste these treasures we find between the lines.
1. Feynman's technique
If you can't explain it with your words, you haven't understood it (Feynman, 2014).
It's as simple as that.
The Nobel Prize winner in Physics Richard Feynman used to say that the best way to learn is to teach. It is very simple: write on a sheet of paper the name of the book and start writing in your own words the most important concepts. You can do this in outline form if you prefer. After writing your summary with key ideas, compare it with the book. If you detect gaps in your summary with key information, reread and try to better understand those parts that were missing in your summary.
Keep writing and re-reading the parts you missed until you understand everything and are confident about what you have explained in your summary.
This technique reveals gaps in your memory and will make you truly understand what you read (Brown et al., 2014).
2. Take notes and take advantage of them
Those who read 10 pages and then jot down ideas remember 50% more of what they read in the long run than those who read 10 pages four times in a row and try to remember them (Coyle, 2012). Taking notes while reading is crucial for memorizing (Kiewra, 2005), but you can get even more out of it, write it down in a way that makes it easy to look up the ideas later.
You don't have to use something complex, use an app or do it in physical form.
If you want my honest opinion, I think the best way is to make a Zettelkasten, although you can experiment with other ways and see what works best for you. The only thing that matters is to write it down as you read, make it easy to look it up later and reflect on each idea to relate it to previous ideas.
3. Use spaced repetition
Most information is forgotten soon after it is learned, but the rate at which we forget progressively decreases over time (Ebbinghaus, 2013).
This phenomenon is known as the forgetting curve and has an easy solution: Spaced repetition. You should trigger the recall when the information begins to fade from your memory. Repeating the process strengthens the neural connections that maintain the memory.
Each new repetition makes you forget the information more slowly.
To take advantage of this technique I like to go to previous readings and read all the notes I made on the book, then I write down the date of the review. That way I always know when to review it again.
4. Put the book in context
The less you read, the more what you read hurts you.
Thomas Aquinas said “I fear him who has read only 1 book”. How broad can your knowledge and perspective be if you have only read 1 book on a subject? Put that book in context by reading related works, and if they are of opposing positions, so much the better. You need to put ideas in proportion to others and get away from confirmation bias.
Your personal experience represents hopefully 0.00000001% of what has happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works (Housel, 2022).
Reflect on new ideas and look for connections to old ones to boost your memory and broaden your perspective (Schroeder et al., 2017).
Knowledge should form a network and not be isolated elements.
5. Put it into practice
A very easy way to remember is to practice (Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014).
Put your ideas to the test, learn from your own experience and complete the theoretical point of view you had. Reading a book that you know you can apply is a very powerful incentive if it relates to your interests. For example, if you write, you have an incentive to read about how to write and learn about the lives of great writers, as has happened to me with Isaac Asimov or Dr. Seuss.
That's the difference between passive and active learning (Sterner, 2012).
I know, you can't put an astrophysics book into practice, but if you can, don't settle for accumulating knowledge. Put your ideas to the test, observe the outcome, and learn empirically. Sometimes, you will notice a drastic change in your life, other times experience will make you realize that the idea was not really a good one.
Learn from experience as a scientist does.
✍️ Your turn: What techniques do you use? Do you use any that are not here?
💭 Quote of the day: “Whatever I found in books that I liked I retained in my memory, consciously or unconsciously, and adapted.” Helen Keller, The Story of My Life.
See you soon, I'm off to read! 👋
References 📚
Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Harvard University Press.
Coyle, D. (2012). The Little Book of Talent. Random House.
Ebbinghaus, H. (2013). Memory: a contribution to experimental psychology. Annals of Neurosciences, 20(4), 155-156. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4117135/
Feynman, R. P. (2014). Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character. Random House.
Housel, M. (2022, 7 diciembre). Ideas that changed my life. Collab Fund. https://collabfund.com/blog/ideas-that-changed-my-life/
Kiewra, K. A. (2005). Learn how to Study and SOAR to Success. Prentice Hall.
Pastötter, B., & Bäuml, K. T. (2014). Retrieval practice enhances new learning: the forward effect of testing. Frontiers In Psychology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00286
Schroeder, N. L., Nesbit, J. C., Anguiano, C. J., & Adesope, O. O. (2017). Studying and Constructing Concept Maps: a Meta-Analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 30(2), 431-455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-017-9403-9
Sterner, T. M. (2012). The practicing mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life : Master Any Skill Or Challenge by Learning to Love the Process. New World Library.
Taleb, N. N. (2012). Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. Random House.