How To Remember Everything You Read

Why you don’t remember anything after you finished a book?

Reading the book by itself is not enough. Our goal is to remember and use the acquired information for the future, not memorize it. In this case, we should use practical and scientific approaches in order to make the knowledge stick.

Here are the tips I personally use to help me remember everything I read from books —

Tip #1: Make Highlights

The easiest tip.

When coming back to a book, instead of rereading the whole book you can just look at all the highlights from different passages. If you are like me, lazy, and you find the process daunting, going back and forth checking all the highlights, I got a solution for you.

Use Readwise to pull in all your Kindle highlights and then, every morning, it will email you 5 different highlights.

Tip #2: Summarize & Discuss

The most important foundation.

Expressing in your own words, both written and oral, what you have learned or found interesting from a book will increase considerably the process of remembering. That’s because you associate the information you are telling with your own point of view or points of view you find similar to the author.

Now, you are the one who owns the knowledge.

I use this Notion template to both optimize my reading list and write down summaries of books.

Tip #3: Impress Yourself

The tactic I used to do in school.

Lie to yourself that you find the information in front of you super interesting.

Sounds funny but, it works amazingly.

Often times we reach a point in our book that we don’t find particularly engaging. When such moments come, lie to yourself and act as if it is indeed engaging. Both your interest and alertness will spark, which will lead to remembering what you read that day.

That’s neuroscience baby.

Tip #4: Associate The Information

Link the text to something you already know.

If there is a particular insight or principle you wish to remember, think back to a time when you were part of a specific example involving the principle. You will understand the lesson better because you have already experienced or seen it in the past but, in a different way.

You will rarely remember the author’s point of you but, you will always remember yours.

You are the main character in it.

Tip #5: Use Adrenaline

The strangest but most effective tip.

Try to raise your adrenaline and epinephrine levels after you did or read something you want to remember.

Think about it.

I’m sure you remember a time when something very exciting or something traumatic happened to you. You can picture that moment clearly because you were in a state of high alertness. The emotional state AFTER you experience something will dictate whether you will learn it quickly or not.

Taking a cold shower or drinking coffee should be done after the end of the studying period.

Tip #6: Focus On Having Fun

Read what you enjoy.

Yes, I have mentioned that you can enjoy and remember what to read by lying to yourself, however, not the entire book. Sometimes the books are actually bad or maybe you find the boring because the information is repetitive or it doesn’t interest you.

We all know that consuming information that makes us excited will stick the most.

I personally use these tips and that’s why I recommend you to use them as well!

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Thanks for reading :)