Review Your Book Notes to Get More from Your Reading Experience

After you finish reading a book, do you review your notes? I ask because I often find that when I allow the new information to sit, ideas come to me. And I’m able to make connections, I wouldn’t have been able to make without reflection. After reviewing my notes a few times, I search for the big ideas, and combine them into even better ideas. Doing this forces you to engage with the information.

Reviewing Your Notes

Grab the notes you took from the last nonfiction book you read. Review your notes to find five big ideas. Think of ways to combine the ideas into better ideas. But while reviewing your notes, also think about how you can connect the information to what you already know. A big benefit of reviewing your notes is moving the information to your long-term memory.

And if you’ve read several notes on the same topic, review all your book notes. Look at how the information is similar and dissimilar. Is one author saying something contrary to the others? Don’t toss that information, explore it and dig deeper to see if there is any truth there. What are your feelings? What thoughts are emerging? Are there any gaps in information among all the books you read?

Digging deeper into your notes allows you to better understand the information. If you…