Reading more won’t make you remember more. I’ve finished hundreds of nonfiction books over the past decade. But the big ideas fade away as soon as I turn the last page.
Sound familiar? There’s a straightforward explanation. Passive reading and rereading give us a false sense of mastery. In reality, it doesn’t push us to recall the parts we haven’t fully absorbed. But one technique specifically designed to make new knowledge stick can help.
Use the blank sheet method to remember what you read
Have you ever read a book only to forget most of what you learned soon after? The key to retaining information from your reading isn’t re-reading – it’s active recall.
The Blank Sheet Method forces you to recall what you’ve learned actively, strengthening those memory connections in your brain. Here’s how it works:
Why is this method effective? Two reasons:
Writing out your prior knowledge activates the related mental schemas, so you’re in the optimal mindset to learn about that topic. It’s like warming up before exercise.
Imagine how much more you could learn and accomplish if you retained the key lessons from every book you read. How many opportunities are you missing out on because that knowledge fades away? The Blank Sheet Method puts an end to wasted reading time. By practising retrieval, you exercise your memory muscles and strengthen those neural pathways.
Try the Blank Sheet Method with the next book you read. See how much more you retain and how you can apply that knowledge.