I listened to “The Futur with Chris Do” yesterday and wanted to publish my notes on this podcast episode about reading. I thought it was a really interesting episode with lots of tips to help you read faster and retain information better.
Notes
You don't have to finish a book once you get the main idea.
Read books in 90 minute, focused bursts.
Make notes in the margins and add an index at the start with quick points and page number.
The whole point in non-fiction books is to transmit information from the author to your brain. Don't be scared to highlight and write notes on it. It's not going to live in a museum.
Why do you want to read this book? What do you want to learn from this book? Be intentional.
The quality of input affects the quality of output. 90 minutes of reading should be your only focus.
Use your finger to scan across lines on the page to read faster and keep focused at the same time.
Teaching something creates the highest level of retention.
Read the table of contents to get a clue to the author's intention, his or her point of view, and maybe the thesis.
Look for ways to implement what you learn so you can retain it better.
You can be addicted to learning. You need exercise what you've learned. Speak it. Draw it. Transform what you've read into something else to own it.
Taking notes helps but they're not that sticky. If you can talk about it and draw it at the same time, it'll stick. Then you can purge your short-term memory to make room to learn more.
We're trying to deepen the hooks of new ideas in your brain. Abscond is a weird word. To remember it if it's new to you, make up a short, memorable story about it. Abscond sounds like "Abs gone". Where did my abs go? They ran and hid. They absconded. Then use that word in the real world.
In a book, highlight just the important words and leave out the fluff so you're already simplifying the idea.
Read many books on the same subject to compare and contrast arguments to form an intelligent opinion.
The first chapter of a book generally has the thesis and the big idea. The last chapter is generally the summary. Sometimes this is enough.
Use the 3, 2, 1 technique. If you are reading a chapter from a book, jot down 3 takeaways, 2 memorable quotes and put it together into 1 memorable post.
