Question

Topic: Career/Training

Reading/learning & Retention

Posted by stranger on 8/11/2011 at 12:45 AM ET 250 Points
Hi gang,

Many of the contributors here are clearly very intelligent, thoughtful and ambitions professionals, so I wanted to get some insights here.

When reading industry books, articles, other training materials as well as attending courses & educational webainras, what strategies do you use to retain the information effectively?

Obviously, knowledge is especially problematic to retain when not actively used (e.g. I attended a great course on email marketing, but have not been directly involved with email marketing for a while, so much of what I learned there is mostly forgotten (tips and tricks mostly). Thank god for my extensive notes).

So, to summarize: What are your strategies, tips, etc?

p.s. I apologize if the above is not particularly articulately written. I haven't slept much, but was eager to ask the question.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 8/11/2011 at 9:28 AM Accepted
    I try to find a way to apply the information while it's still in my short-term memory. To me, there's nothing better than putting ideas into action to make me understand new material.
  • Posted by peg on 8/11/2011 at 2:28 PM Accepted
    1. For in-person seminars, I type my notes immediately into a step-by-step set of instructions about how to apply whatever the topic was. To this I add sort of side-bars for important points, insights, books, URLs, etc. (Indented to stand out from the instructions.)

    This helps my retention, like repeating the course again in fast-forward mode.

    Next, I email my notes to a seminar buddy (recruit the person sitting next to you), who reviews them and emails back any points I may have missed. The buddy gets full notes; I get outside perspective. In my view, a good trade.

    Finally, I print the finished notes and keep them in a notebook used specifically for this purpose. Then, if time passes, or I've changed computers, I can find the notes and refresh my understanding quickly.

    For online seminars, it's useful to release the idea that one needs to remember everything. Almost all of these are available for replay on demand. So, I jot down very short notes, only concerning what applies immediately to my business. Usually online seminars teach enough so one can effectively Google for more about the topic later on, even without perfect recall or a replay of the seminar.

    Everybody's different; this is just what works for me. Hope it gives you some useful ideas.

  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 8/12/2011 at 7:53 AM Accepted
    Notes and highlighting. To lock points into longer term memory I read the bullet points in my notes out loud four or five times—then I take a break for a few minutes and do the same thing again. I do this four or five times.

    I also read and re-read books and make notes in the margins, and in a notebook.
  • Posted by stranger on 8/14/2011 at 3:56 PM Author
    Thanks, guys! Great responses; very useful!
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