5 Steps to Get As Much Out of a Book As Possible

You will probably recognize this. You are reading a book and all of a sudden you realize you can’t remember anything you’ve just read. You just drifted off, though you still turned the pages.

Here are 5 steps to keep your attention on the material before you.

• Step 1: Relax. You absorb information much easier if you’re relaxed and alert. So meditate before you read or just breathe in and out deeply a couple of times.

• Step 2: What’s your purpose? Write down what you want to get out of the book. Preview the book first, if you don’t know what the book is about. State a purpose, if only the purpose is to get as much from this book as possible. Compile a list of questions.

• Step 3: Take notes. While reading, highlight words and sentences and make notes in the sideline. Assuming you own the book, write down everything that comes to mind. The important thing is you want to get ideas. The ideas don’t even need to relate to the text you are reading. That way you get the most out of the book.

• Step 4: Journal. Pause every 15 minutes or so and write down what you have learned in your journal. I use a software program called The Journal. You can download a trial version by following this link. Write down everything that comes to mind at once. This is easy if you’ve completed the previous step. You just go through the pages you read and copy everything you highlighted or wrote down in the sideline. Don’t tell yourself you will write it down after you’ve finished reading the whole book. If you’re anything like me, you will have moved on to other things (like picking up another book).

• Step 5: Mind map. Make a mind map, before and after reading the material. That way you are actively storing the information you have just gathered. For those of you new to mind mapping, Laura has witten an article about mind mapping.

Of course, all of the above work best if you don’t skip steps. Steps 4 and 5 (journal and mind map) can be combined if you keep a journal in the form of a mind map.

The steps mentioned are easy to do and also pretty obvious. But do you use them every time you read a book? Just try them out the next time you’re about to read a book and have fun!

Gerber

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