A Learning Secret: Write Things Down to Retain and Remember More

Do you ever find yourself forgetting what you wanted to do?

Maybe you have an idea that seemed like it would be a good one, but you forgot about it the moment you saw something else.

The solution? Write it down!

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them,” says David Allen.

Writing things down is a proven technique of remembering ideas, thoughts, and tasks.

If you want to retain more of what you learn, make notetaking a habit.

Not only does it also help with mental clarity, but it also helps your mind process information better.

Making notes when you learn is a great way to retain information and improve the effectiveness of your reading or learning.

It also allows you to revisit essential ideas without spending as much time reviewing the book or content from scratch.

“I go through dozens of notebooks every year and write down everything that occurs to me each day, an idea not written down is an idea lost. When inspiration calls, you’ve got to capture it,” Richard Branson once said.

While most of us rely on our memory to remember what we’ve learned, it can be difficult or impossible to remember everything.

Human memory is not a reliable way to store ideas.

The brain is an excellent tool for generating ideas but terrible at keeping them. If you are interested in revisiting these ideas, find a second brain to store them. Don’t count on your memory to find them later.

“Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer,” writes Robert Epstein of Aeon.

The act of writing something down helps you commit it to memory more accurately than trying to remember it yourself.

Making notes or writing things down is a powerful way to improve your retention. Writing also helps you process what you’ve learned and create a deeper understanding of the knowledge.

It can even help you learn better in the future.

You can use a notebook, a dedicated journal, or a digital notepad to capture better ideas and knowledge you want to keep or revisit.

I collect important ideas in a few different places. Apart from my notebook, I use Pocket, Instapaper and Apple Notes.

“Notetaking is important to me: a week’s worth of reading notes (or “thoughts I had in the shower” notes) is cumulatively more interesting than anything I might be able to come up with on a single given day,” says Teju Cole.

If you tend to set goals for many areas of your life, a notebook or notepad is a powerful tool to make them tangible.

It can be hard to stay on track with your goals if you don’t write them down.

Whatever you do for a living, making writing things down a habit helps free up your mind, improves thinking, and makes organizing ideas easier.

You can put things on a calendar or create a to-learn or to-do list to capture everything you want to pursue.

Don’t overestimate your ability to remember — your memory will fail you when you need it most.

If you can’t effectively use a pocket-size notebook, use notetaking apps. There are great options on your smartphone.

A notebook (digital or paper) is like a second brain for your best ideas. Your brain’s job is to think of ideas, not remember them. So always remember to keep a second brain.

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This post was previously published on Better Humans.

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