People consume lots of books throughout their life. We either read them for education, something to occupy ourselves or for our enjoyment. At times, there are moments when we’ve read so many books that we have a hard time retaining their contents. This results in information overload, which could be a real issue. Without trying out a few solutions, you might risk not retaining the knowledge you wanted. Here are five ways to retain more information from each book you read:
Read when you are most alert
Some readers prefer tailing off the night with a good book, and for others, they like reading in the morning. When reading, you can try to consider doing it during the time you are most alert.
Some people prefer are more alert and can retain more information in the morning. If you are one of them, you can make time to read in the morning instead of doing it at night. You can try including it in your morning routine if you have the time for it. Reading is also great after or while having a cup of your coffee.
For those who are more alert during the night, a study revealed in Psychological Science discovered that sleeping in between reading sessions increases a person’s long-term retention of information.
The study suggests that by sleeping between reading sessions, the learner can significantly boost their memory and reading comprehension.
The best way to do this is to read your book just before going to bed and getting a good night’s sleep after.
Skim the material
Skimming a book prepares your memory and steers your mind into focusing on valuable information. Before reading a book, try to note the headings, tables, pictures, charts, and opening paragraphs that you see. Focus your mind on the essential information that satisfies your purpose for reading the book. Doing this can help you develop a bigger picture of the book’s content and makes remembering important information easier.
Highlight Information & Make Mental Connections
Taking notes and highlighting information helps your brain in creating more connections between pieces of information it acquires. The more links your brain makes, the better you remember them.
Don’t hesitate to highlight and write on your books; these will help you retain a lot of information from them. It’s practical and simple to highlight texts, make some notes, and fold book pages.
That’s why you should always keep your pen and highlighter with you. If you are doing digital readings, you can use your finger to highlight important passages.
Often when you highlight things, you forget why you did so. To remember why you highlighted a passage, don’t forget to write down why you did it. It doesn’t have to be done for every highlight. Just do it where you have an immediate application.
Immediately Apply What You Have Read
What is the use of all that knowledge if you can’t apply it? One of the best ways to retain what you have read is to find ways to use it. Find an opportunity to talk to other people and share your thoughts with them about it. You can also discuss your knowledge with those who don’t know the book. Any type of application can help turn your ideas into memories.
Try to ask yourself what can help your personal, spiritual, mental, or financial growth. Always keep in mind that growth doesn’t just happen by itself. For you to grow, you must learn how to put in hard work. Hard work is needed to learn new skills, have great relationships, and earn money.
Applying the knowledge you have learned through reading books can make your growth a lot easier.
Living with just knowledge alone is utterly useless. You should put yourselves out there and apply what you have learned.
When you start doing that, you will grow.
After all, it’s not about how much knowledge you have; it’s about what you do with all that knowledge.
By seeing your growth, you will always be reminded of the knowledge that helped you with it.
See Yourself As A Teacher
It’s great to apply what knowledge you have. Here’s one way to apply your knowledge that many people should consider: You can do it by sharing it with others. You might not be a professional at teaching, but if you see yourself as a teacher, then you’re already applying your knowledge. All you need is to shift your mindset.
You shouldn’t just ‘read’ the book. Consume all its content and discuss it with other people.
Remind yourself to focus on the book that you’re reading so that you can share every information you learned from it with other people.
Knowledge is powerful, especially when you apply it. So don’t forget to share what knowledge you have learned from reading. Teaching is a great application of knowledge.