Reading with intention can change your life
A random sampling of the world’s most
successful people will show one common trait: a love of reading. Reading is the
easiest way to continue the
learning process, increase empathy, boost creativity, and even just unwind from a long day. But books can also change the way we think and live.
Warren Buffett, who says he spends
80% of his time reading and writing, attributes a huge
amount of his success to a single book: The Intelligent Investor, by
his mentor Benjamin Graham. For Malcolm Gladwell, it was Richard
Nisbett’s The Person and the Situation that inspired
his string of New York Times bestselling books.
These are what economist Tyler Cowen calls “quake books”—pieces of writing that are so powerful they shake up
your entire worldview.
As author and avid reader Ryan Holiday
explains: “Whatever problem you’re struggling with is
probably addressed in some book somewhere written by someone a lot smarter than
you.”
Every story has been experienced, recorded,
and published by someone at some point in time. Beyond just stories, books
provide life lessons—a set of proven theories and anecdotes that you can apply
to your own life.
So there’s the why of
reading, but what about the how? Too often we get through a book,
flip the last page, sit back, and think, “What the hell did I just read?”
Reading and being able to use what you’ve read are completely different things.
Understanding how to get the most out of your
time reading starts with understanding why we remember things at all, and then figuring
out the best way to use that information.
The basics of
memory
Without purpose and intention, the ideas
sparked while reading easily slip away. Learning to hold onto them means
understanding how our memory works. For the purposes of reading retention, we
can think of our memory as being basically made up of three
components:
·
Impression
·
Association
·
Repetition
Read to be
impressed (and to impress others)
When you’re impressed by something, there’s
a much higher
probability that you’ll remember it. This could
mean a phrase or quote that catches you off guard or changes the way you think
about a certain topic. Or an interesting fact that you’ll want to teach someone
later on.
Just like a teacher is able to master a
subject because they know they’ll be teaching it later on, attacking a book
with the same level of purpose means you’ll be able to recall information a lot
quicker.
A recent study in the journal Memory &
Cognition showed the
effect that reading with intention and purpose
can have. Two groups were given the same material to read—one was told they’d
have a test at the end, while the others were told they’d have to teach someone
the material.
In the end, both groups were given the same
test. Surprisingly, the group that was told they’d have to teach the material
(rather than be tested on it) performed much better:
When compared to learners expecting a test, learners
expecting to teach recalled more material correctly, they organized their
recall more effectively and they had better memory for especially important information.
Having a clear question in mind or a topic
you’re focusing on can make all the difference in helping you to remember and
recall information. While this can be as easy as defining a subject to look
into beforehand, if time is no object here’s how to
effectively “hack” your brain into
being impressed with the subject matter:
Before
reading
Ruin the ending. Read reviews and summaries
of the work. You’re trying to learn why something happened, so
the what is secondary. Frame your reading with knowledge
around the subject and perspective of what’s being said and how it relates to
the larger topic.
During
reading
As you read, have a specific purpose in mind
and stick to it. Don’t let your mind be the river that sweeps your thoughts
away as you read. Be a ruthless notetaker. Your librarian might kill you for
this, but using a technique such as marginalia (writing notes in the margin and marking up key
patterns for follow ups), will make you a more active reader and help lock
information in your memory.
After
reading
Engage with the material. Write a summary or
analysis of the main ideas you want to recall or use, research
supporting topics and ideas noting how they connect with what you’ve read, and
then present, discuss, or write about your final ideas.
Make
associations with what you already know
Association is a peg upon which you hang a
new idea, fact, or figure. When you know where the peg is located, it’s a lot
easier to find what you’ve hung upon it. As you read and come across new ideas
and thoughts, you’ll want to connect and associate these with familiar memories
as a means of creating a bond between old and new. There are many different
ways to create associations in your mind, from pairing new thoughts with
familiar objects, to creating acronyms.
Many champion memorizers (there is such
a thing) talk about creating a memory palace—a mental map in their mind where they store information.
Each memory is connected to a ‘physical’ place in their mind, so as they walk
through the palace they can ‘find’ what they were looking for, just like you or
I would walk through the house looking for our keys.
The information “sticks out” because it’s in
contrast to the “physical” locations in your mind. Our brain’s work
much better with visuals than they do with
words and abstract thoughts alone. Connecting a memory with a location or
visual makes it much easier to recall.
Repeat,
revisit, and re-engage
The final factor influencing our memory, and
the one that is most important for long-term memorization, is repetition.
Without revisiting or re-engaging with the material that you’ve read, there’s a
pretty low chance you’ll be able to remember and apply any of that knowledge in
the real world.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to
read through the book multiple times (although that does help). But rather, that you need to have a method for taking
and organizing notes around the key parts you want to revisit later on.
How the
smartest people read
The most successful creatives don’t just read
for pleasure, they read to learn. This might not seem like much of a
distinction, but it is. Reading with intention is the sum of all of the parts
of memory—it means that you have a specific goal at hand (impression), that you
want to connect what you’re reading to other information (association), and
that it is something you’re invested in and will come back to again and again
(repetition).
Here’s how some of the most well-read and
successful people organize their thoughts and get the most out of reading:
Ryan
Holiday: author and marketer
Ryan Holiday’s monthly book recommendation emails are one of my favorite newsletters to receive. Ryan
is so well-read on a wide variety of subjects that I was incredibly curious as
to how he organizes his thoughts as he reads. Ryan uses a method he
picked up from his mentor Robert Greene.
Here’s the rundown:
·
While reading, write detailed notes in the
margins and then fold the bottom corner of any page you’ve written on.
·
After a week or two, come back to the book
and transcribe the notes you’re still impressed by onto 4×6 cards.
·
Each card gets a category or theme in the top
righthand corner (or you can use color-coded cards).
·
Organize the cards by category (or by chapter
if you’re working on a book project). This way you can move them around as you
please and connect random ideas (the basis of creativity).
·
Maria
Popova: author and founder of Brainpickings.org
Maria relies on making her own indexes of
books in order to quickly scan what’s inside and connect it to what she’s
writing. Here’s how it works:
·
While reading, highlight any passages or
quotes you find interesting (making notes in the margin).
·
In the back (or front) of the book, create an
index listing each page you’ve highlighted and what category the note should be
under (This could be “C” for creativity, or even the title of your latest
project).
·
Austin
Kleon: artist, author
Artist and author Austin Kleon leverages the
fact that our brains respond better
to visual information by taking notes in a mind map fashion.
Here’s how he explains
it:
I’m trying to construct a 2-D memory palace on paper. By
making notes in a non-linear manner, by arranging images and words in space, I
can see connections that would otherwise be impossible with just words written
in sequence.
Josh
Kaufman: bestselling author of The Personal MBA
While not as intricate or as interesting as
some of the other methods, Josh’s method—named “The McDowell Grid” after
Benchmark Revenue Management CEO Tyson McDowell—is an excellent way to connect new thoughts with your own opinions and
ideas. Here’s how The McDowell Grid works:
·
Create a simple two-column grid.
·
On one side, write the fact, thought, or quote
you are impressed by.
·
On the other side, write your own personal
reaction and thought.
That’s it! This way, when you revisit your
reading notes later on, you’ll be able to put yourself back into the same frame
of mind you were in when you originally read.
Reading is one of the great joys of life. And
while it is an incredible way to unwind from the busyness of our day-to-day
lives, reading with intention allows us to increase our skills and learn from
the lives of others.
Jory Mackay
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