Stop Reading Books Without Doing This

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Almost everyone loves to read books.

Whether they are about fiction or non-fiction (my favorite ones), books help us in our personal development.

That's why we want to read (and learn) as much as possible.

But what if you can't remember what you read?

Ugh, I know that feeling.

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The Downside of Reading Many Books

So here's my experience: in 2022 I've read 55 books, which is like 1 book per week.

I felt extremely productive while reading and seeing how many pages I read each day.

Yeah, I was proud of myself because I was also learning a lot. But that was just an illusion.

When I tried to remember what I read, I could only recall the general picture of it.

I realized I had forgotten almost everything about what I read!

But how could this happen? And why?

Because Our Brain Is A Forgetting Machine

It is natural for our brains to forget to work properly.

Despite the popular opinion, our memory doesn't work like a video camera. We do not store memories like photographs that we later retrieve by just looking at them.

No, we only remember what our brain considers important.

So when reading, it is absolutely normal to forget most of what you read.

So what's the point of reading one book per week if you will forget it?

This is what I realized after reading 55 books in 2022.

So I decided to change my strategy to read less and remember more.

Now, I take notes of all my readings and store them in my second brain.

For this, I use the DB folder plugin from Obsidian to create a database with notes and more information about the book

This strategy helps me to keep track of my reading and also store my notes.

With this, I can now go back to check my book's insights whenever I want.

Now I don't forget, because my second brain remembers everything.

We learn from our mistakes.

Mine was to think that I would remember everything I've read just by highlighting the book.

I hope you found this article helpful.

Do you have another recommendation to not forget what you read?

Let me know in the responses :)

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Thanks for reading!

See you,

Axel