7 Techniques to Help You Recall 80% of What You Read

This is very common...

You perused a remarkable tome like James Clear's Atomic Habits or Peter Attia's Outlive. You read the book, but then you completely forget what it's about when you try to talk about it with someone.

Isn't it annoying?

Then it must be! You just spent a whole month reading this book, and it turns out that what you thought was an investment in knowledge turned out to be simple fun. All that time spent reading seemed to be for naught.

The worst aspect, though? time and time again, it occurs.

You start to assume that maybe you just have a lousy memory. But let me just stop you right there because here’s the truth about memory: Forgetting most of what you read isn’t a character defect. Instead, it’s the way you read literature that’s faulty.

How do I know? I know because I used to feel the same way. I’d read a book; I’d swear it was one of the best books I ever read, and then I’d immediately forget what was in it. It sucked.

However, once I grasped how memory worked, everything changed for me.

Now…

I can read a book and easily retain 80% of what was said in it.

I can communicate difficult things during simple chats.

I can recall interesting thoughts and include them in my work.

Finally, I feel like reading is a true investment in my education.

And if I can do it, you can do it too.

So if you want to stop forgetting everything you read, then here are 7 simple tactics that will help you remember at least 80% of everything you read:

1) Stop allowing yourself to be led away.Have you ever heard of Nelson Dellis? Here’s a photo of him:

Source: Nelson Dellis’ Instagram

If you’ve never heard of him, Nelson Dellis is an absolute legend in the memory competitor world.

He’s remembered 339 digits in five minutes.

He’s learned 217 names in fifteen minutes.

He’s memorized a whole deck of cards in less than 30 seconds.

He’s even won the USA Memory Championship a bunch of times and ranks pretty high globally.

So how did he do it? According to Nelson, it starts with the obvious: Pay attention!

Makes sense. I all, how else are you meant to remember what you read if you aren’t even paying attention to it in the first place?

That’s right, you’re not. So let me say it again just in case you weren’t paying attention the first time you read it: If you want to remember more of what you read, then you need to pay greater attention.

Unfortunately, paying attention is a skill many of us struggle with.

Luckily, there are 2 strategies you can take to set your mind up so that you’re more likely to pay attention when you read:

1) Get rid of all distractions when you read. Put your phone in your pocket, close your laptop, and listen to lyricless music. Don’t try to pay attention half-assed. This means not singing along to music while you’re reading and not checking your phone every 2 minutes. Commit to paying attention to whatever it is you’re reading. It’s not that hard.

2) While you’re reading, always ask yourself the following question: “How can I use this in my life?” Asking yourself this question can help keep you focused on finding those important lines in a book that are likely to stick with you long-term.

9 times out of 10, you’ll discover that these 2 tips will accomplish the work.

2) Pretend that you're watching a film.

Have you ever read a fantastic book, but then afterwards, couldn’t recall anything about it?

If yes, then here’s what you should do the next time you’re reading so this never occurs to you again:

first, pay attention! Remember the earlier idea?

Second, when you read, pretend you’re watching a movie. Essentially, attempt to envision what’s happening in your head. Obviously, you can’t visualize everything you’re reading, but you can envision the broad notion of what’s being said.

Personally, when I’m reading a book, I prefer to picture what I’m reading as being played out on a giant movie theater screen, and I’m in the audience sitting down just watching it all happen.

Why does this help? Because it turns out that our brains are considerably better prepared to remember certain types of information better than others.

According to memory research, visual images are a lot stickier to our brains than abstract items like random words. So whatever it is you’re reading, try to envision it as if it were a genuine recollection of your own.

Yes, this strategy won’t guarantee that 100 percent of the data will stick in your memory, but you’ll have a substantially better chance of recalling what you read later on.

3) Handwrite the Interesting Ideas You've Read (Don't Type)

As humans, we’re horrible at retaining information. We forget almost all of the stuff we read about.

However, when we write things down, we’re significantly more likely to recall information.

This is exactly what Beethoven used to do when he composed music. In the book Managing Oneself, the creator of modern company management, Peter Drucker, says,

“Beethoven left behind an enormous number of sketchbooks, yet he said he never actually looked at them when he composed. Asked why he retained them, he is claimed to have replied, “If I don’t write it down immediately, I forget it right away. If I put it into a notebook, I never forget it, and I never have to look it up again.”

According to many studies, when you handwrite your notes, you retain more information.

Why? Because when you handwrite notes, you’re not going to write down every single word you read. Instead, you’re going to put down simply the necessary words. This helps you discern between what’s vital and what’s not important. This helps you assimilate the information better.

This is why every time I learn of an amazing topic, I write it down instantly. I write it down so that I may better absorb, internalize, and remember it better.

Even if you don’t ever reread what it is you put down, the basic act of writing it down will boost your ability to recall information better.

4) Learn how to fully engage with the book.

Reading is supposed to be an active process, not a passive one.

Therefore, if you’re reading a book and you’re not completely engaged with the material, then you’re going to naturally forget most of it.

So how can you learn to be an engaged reader? You can achieve this in various ways, but here are 4 tactics I highly recommend:

Underline or emphasize essential or memorable comments or passages.

Add symbols such as stars for crucial lines that are impactful to you or question marks to highlight lines you’re skeptical about or topics you wish to study further.

Write down any thoughts or questions you have in the margins of the pages.

After you read the entire book, go back and add sticky notes on the most important points or paragraphs in the book.

By completing these 4 things, you’ll be able to pull the book off the shelf at any time and, by opening it to any page, refresh your memory of it.

Now, you may be afraid to do this stuff because the concept of writing in a book worries you. But don’t be. Even if I possessed a book that was worth $1,000, I’d still do this.

Why? Because what’s important is not the book itself, but the ideas in the book. And it would be a reading sin to not get everything you can out of a book.

5) Put into practice what you've read.

I’m loath to say this, but when it comes to remembering what you read, highlighting and note-taking are practically pointless.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “What? Didn’t you just talk about the necessity of highlighting and taking notes in the previous section?”

Yes, but let me explain…

Highlighting in itself actually doesn’t help you retain information. The only benefit of highlighting is that it will alert you to what you should look at when you go back and reread.

Because here’s the thing with human memory: We tend to remember things that we utilize.

So if you read a book about health, the way you’re going to remember what you read is by changing how you approach your health.

If you read a health book and you highlight a bunch of parts, but you don’t modify how you eat, work, exercise, or sleep, then you’re not going to remember anything.

Therefore, if you don’t discover ways to incorporate the ideas you read into your life in some way, then you aren’t going to remember them.

As a result, you’re going to have this ongoing feeling of like, “Wow, I read all these books, and I have no idea what’s in them.”

Yeah, since you didn’t do anything actionable afterwards!

6) Share what you've learned with others

Imagine you had a bucket, and every time you tried to fill that bucket with water, 90% of it leaked out.

If this was happening to you, would you keep on filling the bucket or would you patch the leaks?

You’d most likely patch the leaks.

Unfortunately, when it comes to learning, people just keep on filling their bucket and never think about the leaks.

Because of this, practically anyone wastes 90% of their learning simply because they don’t comprehend what’s known as “The Learning Pyramid.”

Essentially, the learning pyramid suggests that you’ll retain 90% of the information you read about if you simply decide to teach it to someone else.

Why? Because similarly to handwriting notes you find intriguing, when you try to explain anything you’ve read, you’re not going to be utilizing the author’s words verbatim. Instead, you’re going to be utilizing your own words. This forces your brain to learn the material better.So the next time you read an interesting thought, make an effort to share it with someone else. Simply ask a family member or an acquaintance, "Hey, real quick, can I share an interesting idea from this book I’m reading?” And for 2–3 minutes, discuss what you just read.

Remember, a notion is never only learned through reading. Reading only has a 10% retention rate. That’s bad. This is why concepts need to be talked about in order for them to truly be retained.

7) I Have to Say it Again: Review Review Review

There are those people who can read a book once and retain every single piece of information in that book correctly. But, for 99% of us, the majority of material we read in a book will be readily forgotten.

This is what’s known as the Forgetting Curve,” which states: We lose practically every newly learned piece of information within the first 24 hours.

Exactly how much you forget in the first 24 hours is varied for each person.

But here’s the thing...

Unless you review the material you just received, much of it will slide out of your brain in the first day, with more slipping out in the days after, leaving you with just a fraction of what you originally knew.

The Forgetting Curve

This is intriguing because when we read a book, we feel like we’re keeping what we’re reading. The information is rushing in, we’re understanding it, and it’s all piecing together, but it actually doesn’t stick in our heads unless we revisit what we actually read.

Unfortunately, there’s no way around this. You have to review. But what form of review should you be doing?

It’s called spaced repetition review!

Essentially, you evaluate what you’ve learned at regular times after you learn something.

There are various ways you may use to do this, but the one strategy that I propose you utilize is what’s known as “The Rule of 5.”

The Rule of 5 indicates that after you learn anything you wish to retain long-term, you should ideally review the piece of knowledge you’re trying to memorize at the following intervals:

5 times the first day.

Once a day for 5 days.

Once a week for 5 weeks.

Then after that, you’re set to go!

Remember, knowledge only gets reinforced into your long-term memory by reviewing it. So if you don’t regularly examine what you’ve learnt, then you have a great probability of rapidly forgetting it.

However, by adopting the Rule of 5, you can effortlessly keep any bit of knowledge you read in a book for the rest of your life.