Getting better at reading

Does it happen to you that you read a lot of books and take notes, spend time highlighting crucial parts of them only to find out that in a few days you have a vague idea of the book you have just read? What about few months? Do you reach out for the old books in order to find out the core concept or something you found striking only to forget it in a few days? Well, do not worry, we all go through this and let’s see some ways we can read a book with an alternative approach next time which will help you to absorb new information better and have a more long-lasting effect. See some alternative approaches that actually work.

Takeaways of action

This is something lot of us stumble over. We often read books and just forget about some key takeaways that we felt to apply on life right away and that has never happened. This is because, often we just highlight or take notes but never even bother having a second or third look at it. You might be wondering after having a thoughtful process of reading and enjoying some crucial information you have come across in that piece of literature, why it is gone anyway no matter how much you wanted to apply it into your life. Why all of these book does not stick around?

Is it the book itself so bad that it does not stick? No. It is our approach to the solution that keep these concepts away when we actually need them. The best possible way to handle this issue is to really push yourself to implement those crucial concepts that strike you the most into your daily life. Soon, you will find them to become your second nature that you do not even need to look at what was concept or a distant noise in your head.

Taking quotes

This is one of the easy ways to build that muscle memory and embed something so deep within. When you are reading and you come across a thought-provoking idea, take a pause and really empty your mind, feel the silence beneath the silence, try not to get carried away and come back to the idea and reflect to what have you just read.

Then, try putting these essential concepts into a sentence of 1 or 4 lines, in a nutshell, keep it as short as possible, and write them down in a notepad as a quote or you can use an app and keep them as a quote. Often read them whenever you have a spare moment or if the app provides you with the service of  reminders. This will be even better. Read those quotes as the reminder goes off.

The conclusions approach

This is something that not only you can get the benefits of doing it in such a wat but the whole reading community you might be a part of can do it as well. Conceptualizing an idea in your own way and associating an adjective like a label with it can really help you to remind yourself of a crucial idea.

For instance, you have just read a book, so now you can make a summary of the book. How do you feel about this book? How much have you found this book helpful? What kind of an impression have you had of this book? You can also go ahead and drop some reviews on the book in various online communities, but make sure you really know what you are talking about. This point is to say that there are people who did not even read the book they are reviewing properly and just jump right in, merely for being engaged into something without even finishing a book.

Preserving the originality

Sometimes there are books that you really do not or cannot conceptualize in your own way. In that case, try to point down these ideas in a questionnaire and ask some questions to yourself. This can be tremendously powerful and open you up to different aspects of your life. For instance, if the author asks you a question, keep it that way and ask yourself the question as often as you can.

These are the points so simple, yet highly powerful once you begin to apply them directly to your life. As a matter of fact, I have suggested these methods to a group of young people and tell them that I was looking for some feedback. They gave this a shot and noticed serious changes in their reading experience even though some of them had just done it out of politeness. They still found it helpful. If they and I found it helpful, it is still not certain that you will find it effective right away. Yet, one thing you can do is just to experiment with these points as well as some other points you may find around reading communities. Combine these and you may have a fantastic way of learning new things.