How To Get 10X The Value From Every Book You Read

1. Doing This for the First Time

1.1. Take five minutes to create a simple folder structure on your computer. Start by creating a folder called Book Notes.

1.2. Within that folder, create subfolders for the various categories of books you read

1.3. Don’t worry about neglecting categories. You can always tweak it later.

2. Read and mark

2.1. Whenever you come across a passage of interest, a critical insight, or a profound statement, put a small asterisk next to it.

2.2. If you’re reading a physical book and hate marking up the pages, use a pencil instead of a pen.

2.3. Or, you can fold the bottom of the page down as an alternative method

2.3.1. This will disadvantage you some as you’ll have to reread the entire page to find the line or passage you wanted.

2.4. Don’t worry about redundancies or key insights that supersede earlier notations.

3. Harvest

3.1. Create a new document with the title of the book and its author.

3.2. Thumb through your book, starting on the first page.

3.3. When you come to a marked or highlighted passage, reread it.

3.4. If it still seem important, type it into your document.

3.5. As you go through the text, you’ll find passages that are similar and superior to the ones you’ve already noted.

3.6. When this happens, delete the old record and replace it with the new one. If you’re unsure, record both. You will edit later.

3.7. Always include the page number (for books) or chapter and timestamp (audiobooks) so you can revisit the source material when necessary.

4. Edit

4.1. Edit it to no more than three to five pages.

4.2. Feel free to reword your entries in a way that makes sense to you.

4.3. Don’t feel obligated to retain the author’s exact words.

4.4. Writing the lessons in your own words will help with comprehension.

5. Master

5.1. Read your book summary once a day for two weeks.

5.2. Pick out a few of the topics and write about them as though you were teaching it to others.

5.3. The mere act of organizing your thoughts and simplifying them into a narrative will enhance the retention process.

6. Categorize

6.1. Create a best of the best document to capture the top highlights of each category

6.2. Do your best to keep this document short.

6.3. You can leave out the author, book, and page references.

6.4. If you need to keep an anecdote or short narrative, rewrite it into as few words as possible.

6.5. Use this anthology as a means to trigger a memory about a particular technique or theory, rather than rereading the book.