How To Remember Everything You Read

this video is sponsored by curiosity stream get access to my streaming service nebula when you sign up for curiosity stream using the link down in the description below [Music] have you ever experienced this before you like to read books here and there it doesn't have to be books to be honest it can be podcasts audiobooks articles or anything you consume after a bit of time even though there were so many things you learned and maybe even highlighted on the book took some notes somewhere else after a bit of time when you try to explain it to someone else you just cannot remember the question is why is it so hard for us to retain information we are in an information era you can access whatever information you need so easily with just couple of clicks however we are bombarded every day with unnecessary information that we would not like to retain that we forget what actually matters for us after clicking this video maybe you thought is it even possible to retain every information you read maybe not 100 like everything word by word but i'm gonna introduce you guys a framework or a method that will allow you to retain information as much as possible this video is highly inspired by one of my favorite books altoputa daisen the power of output by dr kaba sawashiya let me ask you a question before we dig into today's topic which person's reading style is most likely to result in self-development self-improvement a someone who reads three books and does an effective output each time after he or she reads a book b is someone who reads 10 books a month but doesn't do any effective output after they read who do you think will grow as a person more and more likely to retain the information they have read so the answer is obviously a i'm sorry if you got it wrong but it's okay i'm gonna explain why and how to become the person a and not to become person b so in order to retain information in order to remember the things we read output is the crucial part of memorization and remembering things so you may have realized that i used the term output multiple times till right now but what is output or what is an input input is basically consuming can be reading books listening to podcasts watching tv scrolling on your instagram feed is basically an input you're introducing either a new information or maybe already known information to your brain you are highly passive in this situation so this is an input output is basically creating sharing for example when you tell someone else the things that you have read or when you post a blog post or maybe film youtube videos like this you're actively creating and like sharing something if you would write a summary of the book that you have read this isn't also an output so output is active dr kabusawa says that only way to change your life is doing output you could you could have just like read the most important books of your life like hundreds thousands of them but if you don't take any action from that book then it doesn't mean anything nothing changed in your life and it is impossible to change your life if you don't take any action and outputting is taking an action there should be a golden ratio of how much percent you're gonna read and how much percent you're gonna do an effective output so dr kabusava says that majority of the people get the ratio wrong most of the people do 70 input so let's say read books and 30 of output like sharing it summarizing it telling it to someone else or taking an action from the books however it should be the opposite 30 reading books and 70 should be dedicated to output which is pretty hard actually when you think about it because think how many hours do you consume in a day and how many hours do you spend to create to share to you know take actions from the book probably not that much so that means that we are actually doing the wrong amount of input and output and we should fix that so let me share some easy ways to do effective output so that you will be able to remember everything you read or everything you would like to remember let's say one of the easiest way to do an effective output is actually writing writing out taking notes from the parts that you would like to remember from the book is actually an amazing way to do an effective output writing helps your memory when you write with pen and paper you stimulate your brain's area called ras which stands for reticular activating system this system filters all of the information your brain needs to process and also tells your brain to pay more attention to your writing and it also decreases the input overload because it takes more time and effort to write down things on the paper you now actively think what you need to remember from the book this allows us to prioritize the information that is important for us not only writing with pen and paper activates ras so the particular activating system but it also helps with the memorization the researchers suggest a few tips for better learning and remembering first one is the write notes in books there is absolutely no necessity for you to read the book clean and keeping it clean if you want to retain information taking notes on the book highlighting some of the parts that you would like to pay attention and sticking a lot of post-its and just like you know making that book dirty for the process of learning is actually something really important i actually have a dedicated notebook to remember the things i read ideally having a notebook to write down the things you learned from the books or the information you found interesting and you would like to remember is the best way however for some reason pen and paper is not available you can always use notion obsidian or any sort of note-taking app to store the information it's always better than taking notes than doing nothing another way to do an effective output is sharing sharing is caring i'm just kidding one thing i really recommend is to read the same book with your friends or it can be your partner it can be your family member you know whoever read the same book at the same time finish it you know together and discuss about the book talking and like thinking actively is a perfect way to do an output and also different people can pay attention to different parts of the books so it might love you to maybe recognize some parts of the books that you haven't recognized before so it will allow you to have a deeper understanding of the book and also it will allow you to memorize more if you don't have friends that who would like to read the same book you don't necessarily have to read the same book just like sharing what you learned from the book to the people will allow you to understand more and memorize more so let's say you're really lonely and you have absolutely no one who would like to listen your thoughts about the book then then no worries no worries for the people who have no friends no one else around them it's totally fine you can share it on social