How to Learn More From What You’re Reading: Learn to Translate Ideas into Your Own Words
Monday Motivation
It’s no secret to any of my regular readers, I love taking notes and being an active reader. It’s also no secret that I have wrestled with creating a note-taking system that I like and can commit to fully. But, today’s bit of motivation has little to do with whether you have a system in place or just a process by which you pull from the things you’re learning from.
Instead, I want to focus on the core principle behind learning itself:
“If you want to learn something for the long run, you have to write it down. If you want to really understand something, you have to translate it into your own words.” (Sönke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes)
Don’t miss this. If you want to learn something, make it your own by putting its core idea into your own words. It helps to think of this as translating the things you’re reading, listening to in podcasts and audiobooks and watching in documentaries, and wherever else into your own personal language.
Ask yourself, how can you capture the essence of the ideas you’re learning and want to hold onto? What’s the real idea behind whatever you’re learning? How do you say it more simply, more plainly?
