In my training courses on reading, the most common question is: “How can I remember what I read?”
Variations include comments like: “I often read a whole page then stop and say to myself, gosh, what have I been reading? Often, I can’t remember!”
So how can you remember what you read? In many cases, it’s a case of unlearning bad habits, habits that have ‘got you through in the past’ but which are unsuited to your current work.
Let’s first take a look at some bad habits.
Bad Habits
In terms of remembering what you read, I think the worst habit that you can have is the skill of cramming. That is, reading new material, remembering for 24 hours – and then forgetting it all. So why would people have developed that sort of skill? It’s common in people who study for exams, where the ability to retain information for later regurgitation can result in surprisingly speedy progress up the academic ladder!
Another bad habit is that of reading without thought. It’s easy to read documents, taking in what is being discussed but not actually thinking about it. In fact, when reading, many people are thinking about another topic altogether. After reading the doc they can tell you what was in it, but as to the deeper implications of the material – well, they’ve no idea.
Finally, many people take on too much. That is, rather than breaking the document down into small, manageable chunks, they try to read it as a whole – and then remember it in the same way. That’s a very big ask – one that is best avoided.
Remembering
I think the first step in remembering what you read is to not think of it as ‘remembering’ at all! Instead, think of it as learning the material. Learning – that is, understanding – the material will allow you to remember it with much less effort.
This approach is utterly different to many ‘memory tricks’ – you know, ones where you associate certain pictures with certain things, or where you invent a mnemonic device like ‘Roy G Biv’ to remember the different colours in the light spectrum.
With memory tricks like these, you don’t actually have a context or understanding – you have only the ability to regurgitate.
So how can you learn material? There are four key steps. Note that all require you think about what you are reading!
1. Identify items that are outstanding or unique
Because we tend to remember things that are outstanding or unique, always actively try to identify such items in the content you are reading.
So if you are reading a new staffing policy, say things like this to yourself:
“Okkkkaaaay, so that’s different to the current policy.”
“Right, I haven’t heard of internal pay scales being arranged like that before – that’s unique.”
“What a great approach they’re now taking to flexibility in work hours! That will certainly achieve a drop in absences.”
2. Identify items of relevance to you
We remember material that directly affects us. So the more that you can identify ideas and information as being relevant to you, the better you will remember them.
Again using the new staffing policy as the example:
“Hey! This policy makes the flexibility of holidays far better! I reckon I can now make the Easter break two weeks – great for that overseas holiday we could never squeeze in.”
“Hmmm. This new policy makes the required justification for sick days quite different. I need to draft a note to the staff in my section to make it really clear that no-excuse sickies will now be a thing of the past.”
“That’s interesting how the requirements for study leave have been relaxed. Maybe I should revisit the idea of going back to study.”
3. Associate with information you already know
This is the really big one: when you are reading, constantly make connections with things you already know.
Think of how the ideas are similar to those you already know, how they are different, how they reinforce or contradict existing notions you have. You will very seldom in your business or public service reading come across brand new ideas; instead, they will be variations on those you are already familiar with.
Let’s again use the new staffing policy as an example.
“This is a staffing policy that philosophically is no different from many that I have read previously – it’s the typical top-down, lack-of-consultation model.”
“The differences from the current staffing policy [that I have just scanned to confirm my memory of it] are confined only to absenteeism, pay scales, and flexibility of holiday and study leave.”
“Based on how I have used previous staffing policies, it’s unlikely that I’ll refer to this more than once or twice in the next couple of years. There’s no point in trying to remember all this stuff – but for easy access, I will remember where it is located.”
You can see that ‘associating with information you already know’ allows you to define the big picture. To put this another way, you can grasp the underlying theme of the document – the context, rather than just the content.
4. Review & Reflect
The final step is to break the content down into manageable chunks and then use the ‘Review & Reflect’ technique.
If there is a lot of detail to remember, you might have a ‘chunk’ size of just a single paragraph. That is, you read the paragraph and then consider:
- anything that is new or unique
- anything that is relevant to you
- how it ties in with what you already know about that subject
You might then make a note or two about those points. (Don’t just use highlighting – either on paper or on-screen documents. Highlighting allows you to find your way back to the key material but it does not improve your memory of those points! On the other hand, writing those points out in your own words is great for retention.)
On a simpler document you might ‘Review & Reflect’ on a page-by-page basis.
On some docs (for example, short emails) you might ‘Review & Reflect’ after reading the whole document.
Conclusion
Especially if you have fallen into bad habits, using the techniques outlined in this article can make an immediate and radical difference to the amount you remember from your reading. Try them!
Julian can be contacted directly or reading courses can be arranged through Anne Jenkin and Associates.
