7 Ways to Retain More of Every Book You Read

~~Table Of Content(toc)~~

1. Introduction

A good book can give you a new way to interpret your past experiences.

Whenever you learn a new mental model or idea, it’s like the “software” in your brain gets updated. Suddenly, you can run all of your old data point

2. The Importance of Reading

It’s rare for me to read a textbook, but I do a lot of self-education. It’s one of the things that I want to read more about. For example, I really enjoyed this book:

A Mindful World:

The Art and Practice of Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn

There are many benefits to reading more books, but perhaps my favorite is this: A good book can give you a new way to interpret your past experiences., a way to see yourself from another perspective.

We all live in our own minds, and the same question applies for each of us: are we our own reflections? Or are we just like other people?

It’s not just the physical act of reading that makes studying easier — it’s also the mental change in thinking that takes place. It’s an incredibly powerful thing which can make learning easier, more effective, and more enjoyable. It isn’t just something you can do while on holiday or at work — it’s something you can do all day long every day. You need to be able to make time for it!

Don’t get me wrong: sometimes reading will be very time-consuming (I have several massive books on my shelf). Sometimes it will be very enjoyable (I don’t mind spending hours stuck in front of the TV after football or basketball games). But the important thing is “reading” — not “watching” or “listening” or “listening to” TV shows, reading blogs etc. Your brain needs some down time, and if you’re working hard at school or work then that down time should include some reading!

3. What Makes a Great Book?

I’m a big fan of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”. I know that Allen himself has said the book isn’t for everyone, but I find his approach to be valuable in making sense of my own life, and the books I read.

We often talk about “living your values” or “doing your best work” as if they are mutually exclusive, but they aren’t. In fact, there is no perfect way to do any of these things; they are all interrelated and ultimately depend on some combination of time management, creativity and a healthy dose of perseverance — all three overlapping qualities. If you have the right mix of these attributes you are set up for success (not just in your personal life).

In particular, I like to use the analogy of an architect or designer who has designed a well-thought-out house but whose priorities are not properly aligned with what their client wants or needs (or at least not with one another). The next step is to get a professional relationship with the client so that both parties feel comfortable as partners in this new project and can develop stronger working relationships moving forward.

This is something you can get from reading (i.e., reading more books — which also helps with more reading overall). Over time you will add more mental models and ideas to your library; this will help fuel your creativity as well as improve your ability to think through problems and make decisions in ways other than those typically associated with traditional jobs that may require spending long hours sitting at a desk.

4. How to Learn From a Book

This is a long, but important post: How to Learn From a Book.

The goal of this post is to give you an objective look at how you can learn from books, not whether or not a book is the best way to learn, but rather how and why you should read it.

So first off, what should be on the bookshelf? The answer is pretty obvious: any book that helps you improve your life in some way. Books about business, about art, about design… whatever you find interesting and helpful, so long as it has something in it for you (and if it has nothing in it for you, then let’s file that away for later).

These days I get asked this question all the time and I couldn’t give a shit. The guy who asked had just spent 6 months reading my blog and wanted to know which books are worth his time. My answer was very simple: “If there’s some new way of thinking or implementing things that will help me make more money or have better relationships with customers then I think it’s worth reading”.

That doesn’t mean that every book has to be something like “Have You Tried This Product” or “I bet You’d Like To Have A 50%+ Increase In Sales By Next Year” (which might be useful information – but not necessarily so), but if there’s a part of your life that can benefit from better understanding what others are doing then by all means read that book!

And how do we do this? That’s easy: if the information is valuable enough to generate actionable items for your life then there’s no reason why the book shouldn’t be an important part of your library. If you don’t know what actionable items are yet then there’s no point in reading (or even thinking) about them… IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO EVERY DAY WITH YOUR LIFE THEN WHY READ SOMETHING ABOUT IT?!?

Realistically though, these are two different questions with two different answers: 1) What kind of book do I like best? How am I going to spend my free time studying those books? 2) What kind of book do I like most? How am I going to spend my free time studying those books? All good points… but they both assume the existence of people who want those things – and when we’re trying to motivate people towards their optimal life trajectory we want them motivated towards

5. Conclusion & Recommendations

For most of your life, you have tried to figure out how to retain information from studying. I’ve been helping people for over 20 years and have seen just about every approach in the book. Here is a summary of some of them:

1. Try using it as a noun: “I had a really good idea last weekend, so I’m going to write it down in my notebook.”

2. Try using it as an adjective: “I got an idea while reading your blog.”

3. Try using it as a verb: “I finished that book last week and want to learn more about it!”

4. Try using it as a verb: “I just finished reading the book and want to learn more about it!”

5. Try using it as an adverb: “I just read the book and want to learn more about it!”