How do you remember what you've learned?

Hey! Was in the same boat as you awhile ago and found that two things have helped me (mostly) solve that problem.

1. The Blank Sheet Method

Whenever you start a new book, podcast, article, etc., grab a blank piece of paper and write the title at the top. In one color, write down everything you know or you think you know about the topic before consuming the content. It's okay if that's nothing.

Then, write down anything you learn while consuming the content in a different color. Things that surprised you, things that made you go, "Huh, that's surprising!"

When you're done, write a two-sentence summary of the content on the page and file it with the rest of your sheets. If you want, you can add tags to the top right and file it under a certain category.

2. Have a place to throw things and throw everything there.

For me, this is my Obsidian Daily Notes page. I have a 'Scratchpad' template that I write down any thought that I have, article I want to read, quote I heard, or task I want to get done. Then I tag that line with relevant tags to discover them later.

I also use Siri all the time when driving. If I'm listening to a podcast or audio book and they say something I want to come back to, I'll say, "Hey Siri, remind me about this idea at 23:45 in Indie Hackers Podcast." Things3, my task app, integrates with iPhone reminders and they show up in my inbox, so then I sort those out into each area.

Also... Readwise is a great tool to integrate threads, notes, podcasts, etc. with most note-taking systems now a days.

To Recap

Those may or may not work for you. But whatever you choose, remember, it's going to take work! I make a lot of note taking videos on YouTube and a lot of people ask for a better system and honestly, the system is fine. It just takes time to go through your notes each week and re-discover what you wrote. But that's how you get genuine insights.

Every Saturday morning, I go through my Obsidian and see what I wrote about. Making relevant tags that I see necessary, reviewing book notes, and so on.

Each note taking system has to...

1. Capture
2. Organize
3. Distill
4. Create

Figure out the best way to do these for you and you'll be set!

Hope that helps :)

I have to take notes about everything or I will forget it. For example, if I’m reading a book I will take notes in the Bear app on my phone. I can go back and review them when I want to remember something. Of course, taking notes will slow you down but you’ll thank yourself later. I probably have hundreds of notes and the nice thing about using an app is that you can search them.

Why don't you take notes. You can review them later

I will list a couple of things that help me when learning about something:

• The best way to remember details about one topic is to read it from many different sources. For example, if I am reading about Vienna Secession at the start of the 20th century, I don't remember a lot. Then, when I read another book about art movements in the past 100 hundred years or so, I solidify my knowledge of things I have read in the first one. And so on, to the next book.

• I have found that listening to audiobooks doesn't help me to remember them as well as when I read them on my Kindle, or, even better, in that paper form. For me, the paper form wins. Of course, it is not always possible to get a copy.

• When I am reading a non-fiction book, I take notes. Short sentences of something that I find interesting, or that I didn't know before. Not a lot of them, for example, a book of 400 pages will yield around 15 to 30 notes.

  When I find a whole lot of interesting things, I take a photo of the whole page.

  Keep in mind that the notes are worthless if you don't go over them from time to
  time. I usually read them right after I have finished a book, and them from time to
  time, a couple of times a year at least.

  What is also helpful, is that since I have a bunch of them in paper form, I get to look
  at them when I am around the house, picking them randomly and trying to
  remember them. I found out that just looking at the book spines/titles (sorted in
  my
  library) from time to time helps me with remembering their content. Weird stuff.

• Write. Write your own stuff, write about books and topics you have read. Write
  book reviews, both for yourself and for the public. Writing about stuff does a great
  deal for remembering them.

• Keep reading. By reading a lot, you strengthen your reading muscle.

That is it in the nutshell. Hope that some of this might be helpful to you :)

I just create a draft on medium.com and put my notes there (with reference links if I feel they might come handy). If I feel the content will be helpful to others as well, I just refine it a bit and publish it. Otherwise I let it be in my drafts. If I am working on something related, I check out that medium article / draft. This has definitely helped me apply some of the learnings.