“Remembering is like any other skill. If you want to get better at it, you must practice it consistently.”
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You read a book and it speaks to your soul. You highlight every other paragraph and wonder how you ever lived without this information. Then, a few days or weeks later, you have trouble recalling the main points when trying to explain it to a friend.
I’ve struggled with this and it’s super frustrating. I used to read a book or watch an interesting video and feel like I grasped what was being said. But when it came time to recall that information later on, I would blank. I couldn’t recall what I had learned.
What’s the point of reading a bunch of books if you can’t recall the information later?
The Illusion of Competence
Today, we have so much information at our fingertips that it’s easy to feel like we know things, like we’re informed. But there’s a difference between truly understanding something and merely feeling like we do.
This “feeling like we do” is sometimes called the illusion of competence.
Being an effective learner means understanding information at multiple levels of analysis and being able to recall it at will in order to solve problems.
Why don’t we remember what we learn?
Most of us aren’t taught the principles for effective learning in school. We are taught what to learn but not how to learn.
Broadly speaking, there are four primary learning mistakes that hinder our ability to retain and recall information:
We get bogged down by details.
We don’t spend enough time with it.
We don’t actively use it.
It’s not relevant to our lives.
How can we remember more of what we learn?
Below are the four most important principles for increasing your comprehension and retention of virtually any material. I’ve constructed these principles from a variety of sources over the years.
You’ll notice I’ve given each principle a tidy name by which you can remember it. Just remember the first letter of each word and it will help you S-E-A-R information into your memory ;-)
These principles have helped me remember and absorb more of what I learn from books, podcasts, videos, lectures, and more. I hope they help you too.
Simplify the main ideas.
Engage with the material.
Apply your knowledge.
Relevance is crucial for retention.
“We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”
Principle 1: Simplify the material.
Identify the main ideas.
Don’t get bogged down with superfluous details. As you read or listen to material, ask yourself periodically: “What is the main idea being communicated here?”
Understanding the main ideas will allow you to dive into the details of each without becoming overwhelmed. However, if you try to learn the details first, without familiarizing yourself with the core concepts, it’s more likely you will become confused and frustrated.
Pay attention to structure.
Another way to grasp the main ideas is to pay attention to how the information is organized.
In order to learn more effectively and efficiently, you need to uncover the structure by which information is organized. The way information is organized plays an important role in how you process and understand it.
For books, the table of contents is a highly effective but often overlooked way to do this. It’s like a map in the sense that it helps you orient yourself within the big picture without getting lost in the details. It helps you understand the core concepts of the material.
Once you’ve figured out the basic structure of the topic you're learning, the central themes, ideas, and concepts will become more clear to you.
Watch keynotes and interviews from the author.
The truth is that most non-fiction—especially modern ones—books are too long. They usually contain only one to three big ideas and could be summarized in a meaty blog post rather than in 200-300 pages.
This is why I love TED Talks, lectures, and interviews with authors — the shorter format forces them to distill their main ideas down to their most important parts. I often listen to several author interviews or keynotes before deciding to invest the time in reading their book.
Principle 2: Engage with the material.
Quiz yourself.
One of the biggest learning errors you can make is to passively consume information without engaging with it.
Research has shown that the more cognitively demanding your learning methods are, the more likely it is that you will retain the material.
When you come across an idea worth noting, instead of just consuming it and moving on to the next one, close the book or pause what you’re listening to and try to recall what you just learned. Write it down in your own words. The point here is to practice recalling it on your own, without the help of the source material.
If you’re not in the habit of this, it will be challenging at first. It’s similar to going to the gym if you haven’t been in years. You’re working out mental muscles that haven’t been trained in a while. It’s cognitively demanding.
But it’s this very quality that helps your brain learn more effectively. Recalling information strengthens the connection that made the recall possible, which is the beginning of creating a long-term memory.
Periodically quizzing yourself on what you’re learning helps you focus and minimizes the likelihood that you’ll “space out.”
Take notes
In addition to testing your comprehension, you can also write down other thoughts about the material. This will help make it more sticky by attaching more “memory hooks” to what you’re learning. Here are some prompts to help you:
What are your general thoughts or feelings about the information?
Why do you agree or disagree?
Where does this material fit into your life?
How does this idea relate to what you already know?
We live in an age of information overload. You may have already come across the one idea that could change your life, if only you had taken the time to master it and absorb it rather than moving on to the next new idea. Quality over quantity.
Practice remembering.
Remembering is like any other skill. If you want to get better at it, you must practice it consistently. When you recall something, you are practicing retrieving it from your memory.
Think of it like working out. You wouldn’t go to the gym once and think that’s all you need. You need to exercise on an ongoing basis if you want to continue to reap the benefits.
The same is true for learning and strengthening neural connections. Consuming information one time doesn’t cut it, just like going to the gym one time won’t give you a beach body for life.
Studies show that periodically recalling information a few days or weeks after exposure is the most effective way to strengthen the neural connection that made the recall possible.
Principle 3: Apply your knowledge.
Use what you learn.
Your brain tends to remember concrete concepts more easily than abstract ones. How do you make ideas more concrete? By using them.
Integrate new knowledge into your life. Test it out in the real world. The sooner the better. When you actively use information, it makes it more real.
Teach it to someone else.
Another way to apply your knowledge is to share it. Our brains tend to place more importance on things that occur in a social context. Thus, one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to someone else.
When you learn something with the intention of teaching it later, you pay attention differently. It forces you to clarify concepts and ideas in your mind and recall them in a way that increases both your comprehension and retention. The ability to teach something successfully is one of the best indicators that you truly understand it.
Principle 4: Relevance is crucial for retention.
Only read it if you need it.
From an evolutionary perspective, part of the reason we developed memory was to store information related to our survival (i.e. complex social dynamics, location of food sources, etc.).
The point here is that information needs to be relevant in order to stick. A good rule of thumb is to seek information in order to solve immediate problems or answer a specific question. This will help your brain absorb information more readily.
When you read in order to solve a problem or find an answer to a specific question, you are more alert and receptive to new information, which increases comprehension. Focus on learning information you can use now, not at an undefined date in the future. The more relevant information is to your life, the more likely you are to apply it, remember it, and use it again in the future.
For example, when I was in my early twenties, I had acne and became extremely motivated to cure it with a diet-based approach. During that time, I had excellent retention for any information I came across that had anything to do with clear skin, nutrition, or diet. And most importantly, I still have the bulk of that knowledge more than a decade later. Having a "why" is extremely powerful.
Seek information that truly interests you.
Skip the boring parts of books. If you find your mind wandering, skip to the parts that excite you. This may seem like “cheating” but it’s actually an extremely effective way to make material stickier. Your brain will soak up information more readily if you focus on things that you’re truly interested in. This is partly because interest increases dopamine production, which puts your brain in an optimal emotional state for learning.
I realize this isn’t always possible in circumstances where you’re not in control of your curriculum (like school, for example). In this case, try focusing on the aspects of the material that pique your interest and relate them to other subjects you already know about that interest you.
Summary
1. Simplify the main ideas
Identify the main ideas. Pay attention to structure. Watch keynotes and interviews from the author.
2. Engage with the material
Quiz yourself. Take notes. Practice remembering.
3. Apply your knowledge.
Use what you learn. Teach it to someone else.
4. Relevance is crucial for retention.
Only read it if you need it. Seek information that truly interests you.
Your Shortcut to Becoming a Better Learner
I’ve spent many years compiling and testing the very best methods for improving retention and becoming a better learner.
I've organized these methods into a comprehensive yet easy-to-follow framework designed to save you the time and energy of figuring it all out for yourself.
I call it The Total Recall Toolkit and it’s designed to help you:
Remember and apply more of what you read.
Improve your focus.
Eliminate information overwhelm.
Feel more confident about your knowledge.
Basically, it’s your shortcut to becoming the most effective learner you can be. Honestly, it’s the framework I wish I had years ago.
If you’re interested, you can learn more here.
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