A Note-taking Hack to Help You Retain What You Read
The most effective way to learn the most from your reading session
Why do we forget most of what we read?
I’ve read hundreds of nonfiction books since 2015, but I forgot 99% of ideas that sparked “Aha!” moments during my reading.
Why is that?
To answer this question we’ll ask some help from Barbara Oakley, author of A Mind for Numbers, and Sonke Ahrens, author of How to Take Smart Notes.
Sonke writes that reading, even rereading, is not enough to make ideas stick with you.
“Rereading and reviewing does not confront us with the things we haven’t learned yet, although it makes us feel like we have.”
“Rereading and reviewing does not confront us with the things we haven’t learned yet, although it makes us feel like we have.”
Barbara Oakley adds “Do not confuse the ‘Aha!’ of a breakthrough in understanding with solid expertise!”
“That’s part of why you can grasp an idea when a teacher presents it in class, but if you don’t review it fairly soon after you’ve first learned it, it can seem incomprehensible when it comes time to prepare for a test.”
If this is the case, is there something we can do?
Introducing The Blank Sheet Method
A month ago, I read about the Blank Sheet Method from Farnam street’s blog post. It’s a method we can use to recall what we’ve learned from our reading session.
Here’s how it’s done:
1. Before you read a book, grab a sheet of paper and write everything you know about the topic you want to learn more about.
I prefer to use a mind map, where each node represents one piece of information. You can elaborate on each node by adding new branches, forming threads of related ideas.
2. After you read the book, add new information to your mind map from memory.
3. Feel free to refer to the book if you forgot some important detail. But close the book again as you add more branches to your mind map.
Here’s an example
I was confused and overwhelmed and lost when I was writing an article weeks ago.
So I thought I should read more about how to find your story’s focus. That’s why I decided to reread the book Made to Stick.
I used the blank sheet method. I brainstormed what I know about the subject I want to learn more about, read the book, closed it, then added new branches of new information to my mind map.
Note: I didn’t read the book to create a summary of it or even one of its chapters. I read only the sections that served my purpose: to learn how to find a story’s focus.
Here’s how my mind map looks:
Why does it work?
1. It facilitates active recall.
Active recall — retrieving ideas from memory without looking at your notes — forces you to scan your memory of what you know. Failure to recreate an idea from memory means there’s a gap in your understanding.
Summoning up the knowledge without peeking at the author’s words helps you avoid the trap of the mere exposure effect, which states that “the moment we become familiar with something, we start believing we also understand it.”
2. It primes your brain for focus.
Six years ago I taught engineering Physics to three engineering students as a tutor. Before we start our learning session, I would set a timer for three minutes and ask them to write as many words as they can think of from our last meeting.
I made them do this exercise because of the concept called priming.
“Priming is the means by which you activate a schema or mindset. You can prime a schema by merely exposing people to certain words or ideas related to a particular schema.” — Nick Kolenda
Writing everything you know about the subject of the book you’re about to read activates the mindset you need to read it— so you can access a deep, focused state with less resistance.
Use The Blank Sheet Method to complement your other note-taking tools
This should not replace other note-taking techniques you’re using. Instead, use this to add more variety to your process.
I still use highlighters and pens as place markers, explain ideas in my own words, and capture those ideas using notecards.
Also, you don’t need to use the blank sheet method every time you read. As for me, I only use this whenever I want to be more mindful of the result I want to get. Most times I only read for pleasure, where I don’t bother doing active recall.
But in times when I want to have a laser focus on a narrow topic, I know I have a tool to help me do that.
Next time, when you read a book, try using the blank sheet method as an experiment.
It helped me. I hope it can help you too.
Thanks for reading!
If you want to learn how to capture ideas in your own words, this is for you:
