How to Remember More of What You Read

Do you remember what you read, or do you find it difficult to recall it later?

I love it when master writers quote from other writers.

I’ve heard it happen many times, usually when the author is answering questions after a signing or as part of a writer’s workshop. I’ve seen these people pull quotes out of the air that support the point they’re making, and I often say to myself, “Man, I wish I could do that.”

Unfortunately, I haven’t developed that skill yet. There are a few things stacked against me and any other writer wanting to remember more of what he or she has read—our imperfect memories, for one, and our Internet culture, for another.

If you’re doing some research that’s important to remember, or if you’d simply like to recall more of what you’ve read, try the tips below.

A Writer’s Memory is More Like Teflon than Velcro

We’d like to think that after we read something, we’ll remember it. But scientists tell us that’s just not true, unless we make extra efforts to study and recall the material.

Julie Beck, writing for the The Atlantic, states that when we consume culture—when we read books, watch movies, or view art—the experience is like “filling up a bathtub, soaking in it, and then watching the water run down the drain. It might leave a film in the tub, but the rest is gone.”

Most of the memory loss occurs early on, within the first 24 hours. Back in the late 1880s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus tested human memory and developed the “forgetting curve,” which showed that unless you make a purposeful effort to retain the information you consume, you’re bound to lose it, and lose it quickly. How much you’ll forget varies, depending on a number of factors, but each day more vanishes until most of it is gone.

Compounding the problem is our current reliance on the Internet. Researchers are finding that the more information we can find on Google, the less we feel the need to store it in our heads.

You Remember What You Work to Remember

In 2011, scientists reported that when participants thought they could look up the information, they were less likely to be able to remember it. If they thought the information would not be available, they were better able to retain it.

In 2015, online security company Kaspersky Lab reported that “digital amnesia” is a real thing, with most people unable to recall important information like phone numbers for their partners or places of work.

Add to that the fact that most of us don’t always carefully read the information we’re trying to consume—we “skim” it instead, one article after another amidst a bunch of tweets, emails, and Facebook posts. This can lead to cognitive overload, a situation in which the brain simply can’t retain all the information, and so dumps most of it.

10 Ways to Increase the Odds that You’ll Remember What You Read

As noted above, memory can be affected by a number of factors, and many of those are within your control. To remember more, follow these tips.

1. Space it out into smaller chunks.

Bad news for bingers—you’re less likely to remember the books you read or the shows you watch if you read or watch all in one sitting than if you space the material out and read/watch a little bit each day or each week.

Loading your brain up all at once means you’re likely to overload it, which leads to an increased rate of dumping. Research from the University of Melbourne showed that those who watch TV on a daily or weekly basis are likely to remember more of what they saw—and to actually enjoy those programs more—than those who binge watch. Binging on the written word can have the same effect (e.g., starting and finishing a book in one-to-two days).

Whatever you’re trying to learn or remember, space it out. Take in a little at a time and you’ll be more likely to recall it later. You can use the same technique to improve your ability to memorize. Study the material for a while one day, then give it a day off, then study it again the next day. Little by little, you’ll solidify the information in your long-term memory.

2. Write about it.

One caveat here—you have to write your notes by hand, not on your laptop. That’s because physically writing the notes involves a different process in your brain that provides you with better recall.

In one 2014 study that involved three separate experiments, researchers found that students who took notes on their laptops performed worse on test questions than did students who took notes longhand:

“We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial,” the researchers wrote, “laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.”

So anytime you want to improve your memory, write down by hand what you want to remember. When you try to recall it a day or two later, write down again what you remember, then compare it to your original notes and make corrections as needed. A few rounds with a real pen or pencil can make a big difference in what sticks in your brain.

3. Test your memory.

Testing your memory is a good way to increase its capacity. You can do that by simply quizzing yourself on the information you just read. Come up with questions to ask, then see how you do on the answers.

This sort of activity qualifies as “interacting” with the material, which is a known method for increasing recall. So if you’re reading fiction, you can ask yourself, “What’s motivating the main character right now?” If non-fiction, ask yourself, “What were the main points of this article that I need to remember?”

If you can’t remember, check to remind yourself and then consider writing down some notes. Give yourself a break, then test yourself again until the information feels more solid in your memory.

4. Give the material meaning.

Making the information more relevant to you, personally, helps you increase your odds of remembering it.

In a 2012 study, researchers found that when participants made an emotional connection with the material they were trying to remember, they were more successful at remembering it.

So ask yourself: “How can I use this information in my life?” Or, “What does this story remind me of from my own experiences?”

5. Use the information right away.

Try to find some way you can utilize what you’ve learned. This works particularly well for non-fiction.

If you just read a blog about book marketing tactics and you want to remember it, try using some of the information as soon as you can. Maybe you can try one of the marketing ideas on your own book that night, or outline a plan for your next book launch that incorporates some of the recommendations.

When you actually use the information you want to remember, you involve more of your brain in the actual actions you take, and that supports retention.

6. Associate the material with something else.

Association is a key memory tactic that many professionals use when they need to remember important information.

If you’re just introduced to someone and you want to remember the person’s name, associate it with something else. Maybe Cathy has red hair—you can visualize her with curly red hair in a cartoon, and that simple association is likely to help you remember her name next time you see her. The more personal you can make the association—maybe you regularly read a Cathy comic strip, for example—the better it will work.

You can also use association in an exercise called “memory palace.” In this exercise, associate each thing you want to remember with a location in your home. So if you have a grocery list, “take a walk” through your house and think where you might put each item.

Perhaps the milk will go in the refrigerator, but the soup will go in the microwave oven, the bread on the floor by the door, the tomatoes on your writing desk, and the cereal on the nightstand.

It’s okay if it doesn’t make logical sense—simply associating the items with a location can help you remember them all. In fact, the more outrageous the placements, the more you’ll probably remember. When you get to the store, simply “walk through” your house again, and you’ll remember each item as you go.

7. Tell someone else about it.

Sharing the information is a great way to remember it. If you have a friend, loved one, or family member that you can tell about what you just learned, take advantage of that.

This is another example of getting active with the information. When you tell someone else about it, you have to regurgitate the information in your own words, which is a way of processing it that helps solidify it in your mind. Doing so can also help reveal gaps in your memory, showing you what you need to go back and review.

8. Read it aloud.

If you want to remember more of the books you read, a really simple technique is to simply read them out loud. Of course, you may want to be sure you’re alone when you do that, but then again, many couples and families enjoy reading out loud to one another.

When you speak the information, you not only read it with your eyes, but you also hear it with your ears, and this double whammy has proved to be good for memory.

In a 2010 study, researchers found that reading a list of words aloud helped participants remember them better than reading silently, and in 2017, Neuroscience News reported on another study that came up with similar findings.

9. Read a real book instead of an ebook.

Yes, those ebooks are handy, but research suggests you won’t remember as much when reading them as when reading print books.

Researchers reported in 2014 that readers using a Kindle were “significantly” worse at remembering when events occurred in a mystery story than those who read a paperback.

Why the difference? Scientists have also found that when we read paperback books, we tend to become more immersed in the stories, as well as more emotionally involved, and anytime we get the emotions into it, memory improves.

There’s also something to be said for the tactile experience of reading a book. Study author Anne Mangen of Norway’s Stavanger University noted in The Guardian:

“When you read on paper you can sense with your fingers a pile of pages on the left growing, and shrinking on the right. You have the tactile sense of progress, in addition to the visual ….Perhaps this somehow aids the reader, providing more fixity and solidity to the reader’s sense of unfolding and progress of the text, and hence the story.”

10. Get a good night’s sleep.

When you sleep, your brain files away short-term memories it deems worthy of remembering into your long-term memory stores. In a 2013 study, the authors wrote, “Over more than a century of research has established the fact that sleep benefits the retention of memory.”

A lack of sleep, on the other hand, can work against your memory. Early studies on sleep deprivation show that it interferes with the part of the brain that’s responsible for long-term memory, and messes up memory formation.

Getting a good night’s sleep is important both before you want to learn something new, and after, so your best bet is to try and get the recommended 7-8 hours every night. It may also help to incorporate short naps into your day—best right after you read something you want to remember (and perhaps after you test yourself on the information).

How do you remember what you read?

---

Sources

Beck, J. (n.d.). Why We Forget Most of the Books We Read. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/what-was-this-article-about-again/551603/

“Bohannon, J. (2011). Searching for the Google Effect on People’s Memory. Science, 333(6040), 277-277. doi:10.1126/science.333.6040.277

“Cassidy, B. S., & Gutchess, A. H. (2012). Social relevance enhances memory for impressions in older adults. Memory, 20(4), 332-345. doi:10.1080/09658211.2012.660956

“Flood, A. (2017, November 30). Readers absorb less on Kindles than on paper, study finds. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/19/readers-absorb-less-kindles-paper-study-plot-ereader-digitisation

“Forrin, N. D., & MacLeod, C. M. (2017). This time it’s personal: the memory benefit of hearing oneself. Memory, 26(4), 574-579. doi:10.1080/09658211.2017.1383434

“Horvath, J. C., Horton, A. J., Lodge, J. M., & Hattie, J. A. (2017). The impact of binge watching on memory and perceived comprehension. First Monday, 22(9). doi:10.5210/fm.v22i9.7729

“MacLeod, C. M., Gopie, N., Hourihan, K. L., Neary, K. R., & Ozubko, J. D. (2010). The production effect: Delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(3), 671-685. doi:10.1037/a0018785

“Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159-1168. doi:10.1177/0956797614524581

“Neuroscience News. (2017, December 1). Reading Information Aloud to Yourself Improves Memory. Retrieved from https://neurosciencenews.com/memory-reading-aloud-8084/

“Rasch, B., & Born, J. (2013). About Sleep’s Role in Memory. Physiol Rev, 93(2), 681–766. doi:10.1152/physrev.00032.2012

“The Rise of Digital Amnesia | Kaspersky Lab. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://amnesia.kaspersky.com/