The Art of Reading Remembering and Retaining More Books
in: Living, Reading
• May 1, 2020 • Last updated: June iv, 2021
The Best Way to Retain What Yous Read
"I read an interesting alternative theory from a scientist last week. He was saying that the information is off considering, um, I can't quite call up the reason, but it was interesting."
"That's not a venomous snake. On a venomous ophidian the red bands of color bear on the xanthous bands, rather than the blackness ones. Or look, maybe it'southward the other way around?"
"C.S. Lewis described what you're observing as ' men without chests .' What he meant by that was, uh, you know, well, I forget exactly what he said."
Have you lot ever found yourself saying things like this to friends and family? Or been by yourself, chugging along a productive train of thought that ground to a halt equally yous struggled to recall some salient details that needed to be fed into the cerebral firebox?
We're exposed to a torrent of media these days, much of it dross that we're happy to forget in the time information technology takes to roll to the next thing. Simply sometimes we're reading a passage in a volume or commodity that is so interesting or inspiring we feel we'd like to call back it for a long time.
Typically, even if we mentally echo and rehearse the absorbing content, we find ourselves in the position described to a higher place — just a solar day, or even an hour later on, nosotros can't recall what we read. Interesting, weighty, even potentially life-changing insights take permanently evaporated from our minds.
If you'd like to retain and secure more of the information y'all consume instead of letting noteworthy knowledge pass correct through y'all, here's the all-time way to do and then: share it with someone else .
The hush-hush of why this method works is in the number of times information technology forces yous to reiterate, and thus solidify the memory of, a piece of information.
The first reiteration comes when y'all mentally put what you lot've just read in your ain words. If you know you'll exist sharing something with someone else, you accept to make sure you lot understood what you read and can repeat and explain it coherently. This may require returning to the text, reading over a few bits a few more times, and thinking about how to synthesize things.
The second (and perhaps tertiary and quaternary) reiteration comes during the time betwixt when yous read the information, and when you'll share it with the other person. During this stretch, you'll have to check in with your memory once (or multiple times, depending on the elapsing of this interlude) to make sure you retrieve what y'all wanted to tell them.
The next reiteration(south) comes when y'all actually share (or "teach" may exist the improve give-and-take, depending on the setting) the information with the other person. Making certain they sympathize it and answering their questions about it will force yous to tighten up your ain understanding of the fabric. You'll then farther solidify your grasp of the thought as yous and the other person discuss it back and along.
The outcome of all these reiterations — reading, rehearsing, reviewing — is that you've sunk a new nugget of knowledge deeper into your encephalon and maximized your chances of remembering it in the future.
But the reason sharing newly-learned information with someone else is and so constructive for memory retention goes beyond the number of reiterations the human action requires.
It also adds an important layer of motivation to retaining the knowledge.
Reviewing and summarizing data in your own words is of form something yous could do on your own, by writing down your personal summary of it. But writing something down is not only arguably less effective for retaining it than oral repetition (hence why Socrates thought writing weakened memory), it'southward simply obviously hard to go excited to perform such exercises for yourself lonely; it feels a little like homework.
Knowing that you're going to share something with someone else, on the other mitt, feels more than intrinsically motivating, equally the act carries with it several rewards. Get-go, if what you share offers someone some interest or edification, it's like giving them a social gift , which boosts your sense of condition, which viscerally makes your brain feel skilful . Second, interesting tidbits of information provide fodder for better conversations, which yous and the person you interact with will both appreciate. To keep relationships with friends and loved ones from getting dry and dull, it pays to always have fascinating gleanings from your "cocky-study" to offering up for discussion. Y'all remember something better for the long-term, and your associates delight in better conversation in the short-term. It'south win-win.
While the procedure outlined above may sound rather formal and involved, information technology need not be a lengthy procedure, nor reserved for complicated, meaty topics from deep literature and complex science.
It can simply exist practical to some handy fleck of know-how or a news story you read and want to retain. Spend a few minutes thinking almost the main points. Memorize a couple of the important statistics. Then over dinner that nighttime, share the story with your significant other. Discuss. Debate.
The adjacent fourth dimension you want to tell someone else nearly the same thing, or find yourself contemplating it in the shower, you'll be able to pull information technology right out of the brain hopper.
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Source: https://www.artofmanliness.com/living/reading/the-best-way-to-retain-what-you-read/
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