The Value of Reading
Five simple steps to retain and master what you read
Thanks to Jonathan Borba for sharing their work on Unsplash.
In
my early 20s, I worked for an obnoxiously rich boss in New York City’s
financial district. On my first day of work, he convinced me I could
achieve what he had.
“But first,” he said. “You need to read this book. He opened up his desk drawer and pulled out a fresh copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. “It will change your life.”
On
my subway ride home that evening, I read the first few pages and
devoured the rest of it that night. The next morning, I sprung out of
bed in my dreary studio apartment, certain the wisdom dropped into my
lap would catapult me to the stratosphere of success.
Three
months later, the riches never came. Broke, discouraged, and sickened
by the industry, I quit. The book, apparently, did not change my life.
Years
later, I hired a mentor and told him this story. He disagreed with my
assertion that a book couldn’t change your life. I had gone about it the
wrong way, according to him. He then shared with me his technique to
make books truly life-changing.
The secret is to read one book ten times, rather than read ten different books once.
His
reasoning made sense. You can’t get the full value from a book by
reading it once. It takes repetition to learn and master the material.
That
revelation was both depressing and encouraging. I hadn’t benefited from
books because I had rifled through them, intent consuming rather than
harvesting the wisdom contained within them.
But
to read a book ten times. Who could motivate themselves to wade through
the same material over and over? I couldn’t. I got bored after two
readings of even the most engaging texts.
But what if you could read a book only once but benefit from it as though you had read it ten times?
That’s when I came up with a system.
Five simple steps to retain and master what you read
Let’s
be honest. Just about every nonfiction, self-help book you read can be
distilled down to two or three pages of notes. The rest of it is all
fluff.
With
that in mind, we need to extract the valuable material once and then
organize it into a summarized version that makes sense to us.
Sure,
you can buy book summaries and forego this effort. But I find that I
need to read the book and write notes in my own words. Otherwise, I miss
out on context and meaning. I’m also not as invested in the
assimilation phase — a phase you are unlikely to do if you’re buying the
cliff notes.
Step 1 — Notate
As
you read your book, place an X or checkmark next to every concept or
idea. Don’t worry about repetitive points. You’ll deal with that later.
In some sections, you’ll find examples that explain a concept. For each
one, put a star next to the beginning of the example. Different symbols
help distinguish between instruction from explanation.
If
you’re working off an electronic book, make use of the highlighting and
note feature to distinguish between teachings you want to flag and
examples that help you understand the lessons.
Step 2 — Distill
Once
you finish reading and notating, go through the markup and transfer the
salient points to a document. Be sure to put the page number at the end
of each entry, so you can refer back to the book at a later date if you
need further reference. Put your notes in your own words; it helps the
learning process.
You’ll
find redundancies as you go through your notations. Whenever you see
repetition, ask yourself if the new explanation supersedes the old one
or if the previous one proves superior.
As
you review examples of different points, choose the one instance that
best helps you visualize the lesson. It’s tempting to include multiple “for example” entries, but that will clutter up your summary.
Step 3 — Edit
Once
you finish the distillation process, step away from your document for a
few days. You’ll need to distance yourself from it before you can edit
effectively.
As
you go through the editing process, reword anything that doesn’t make
sense. Remove remaining redundancies and cut anything that fails to
advance your understanding of the topic. By the time you finish, your
summary should be no more than three pages.
Continue
this process two or three more times. Take additional steps to
consolidate and clean up your verbiage. Each time you go through the
process, it solidifies the learning.
Step 4 — Assimilate
It’s
this step that most folks skip. They finish a book, feeling like
they’re on the cusp of a life change. They see the world through a
different lens. And then, they move onto the next book without taking
the time to test-drive, customize, and absorb what they had learned.
Execution
closes the learning circle. It’s where the great teachings become part
of your everyday thinking and skillset. It’s here that the wisdom from a
great book can truly change your life.
Review
your summarized notes once per day. For each lesson in your document,
do one action each day to practice it until you assimilate it into your
daily routine. In some cases, you may need to practice a new way of
thinking. In other books, it could be skill development or technique
refinement.
Here’s a snippet from the document I created for the book On Writing Well by William Zinsser.
Back
when I read this, I spent a week making sure I reduced each story to
the smallest possible objective. Once finished, I moved on to the next
lesson.
Step 5 — Reinforce
What
about a year or five years from now? You’ll end up with a ton of book
summaries. It’s cumbersome and unrealistic to review each one
indefinitely. Here’s a practical way to reinforce what you’ve learned.
For
each of your most-read book categories, draw the essential points from
each summary, and create a checklist. This practice gives you a handy
way to review material long after you’ve finished the assimilation
phase. You may end up with a bunch of different checklists. I have ones
for writing, personal finance, creativity, sales, and mindset.
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