How to Remember What You Read | How I Digest Books (Plus: A Few Recent Favorite Books) | Tim Ferriss

About Tim Ferriss:
Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 400 million downloads and been selected for “Best of iTunes” three years running.

Connect with Tim Ferriss:

[infantraj]

1. Indexing: Page numbers with brief descriptions/phrases
2. Revise Index with multiple readings by adding stars and asterisks.
3. If using kindle use Evernote and Amazon notebooks to import/export indexes and highlights similar to paperbacks
4. Take down Next Steps/Further Actions to do and keep track after reading
5. Read with Intent to get real behavioral change after reading from both fiction and non fiction

[travellifefree]

I loved the definition of freedom: “Freedom is knowing who you are, what you’re supposed to do and doing it. It’s not doing what we want.”

[ok.]

4:54 reminded me of the quote "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves." -Carl Jung

[MrSilus]

The best advice is the most simple. Just dive into what you enjoy. Your curiosity will naturally expand on its own. And your retention works best when you’re most engaged and can relate the most. As your relate to more, you’ll be able to relate to more. This is how you naturally progress in your reading level.

[quinntonadams]

I love when you catch yourself using the word ‘interesting, ’ and then quickly going back to not only replace the word, but to also elaborate on your thought process. It’s so true that ‘interesting’ is lazy, even a word that locks up freethinking. I highly appreciate your awareness and aspire to catch myself in the same way.

[andrewjmark]

Notes on the different techniques for different reading contexts.

+ For Fiction


* Underline phrases


* Create an Index in the beginning of the book


- Page numbers with what I found interesting
- Phrases with the abrievation 'ph' and the quote


+ For How to: Writing Down The Bones


Create an Index in the beginning of the book


- Page # fundamental timed exercise (week later star then week later circle to underline techniques/takeways that work or are useful.


+ Poetry: The Gift


* Create Index


- Add favorite short poems


+ Kindle: Already Free


1. Highlight interesting bits
2. Bounce highlights to evernote from amazon journal


+ Business memoir: In Pursuit of the Common Good


* Create Index


- Methods key takeaways .etc
- Boxes for next actions. How are you going to use this information what do you want to research next?


+ Key takeaway: Take notes and consider plausible next actions in response to those notes. You can do this with all kinds of books including fiction.


I probably missed something. Comment below if I did!

[christinec]

When I read library books, I slap a lined 4"x6" post-it note in the front cover with the book name and author. I take notes then transfer the post-it to a notebook when I'm done.

[abdullahkapadia]

1. Travels with Charley in search of America(comic)
2. Writing down the bones(how to book)
3. I heard god lauging(poems) + The gift
4. Already free(kindle)
5. In pursuit of common good

[azizrepkash]

In one of the TED Talks there was a guy whose name I can't recall, who made a comparison between readers and miners because the way you looking for a nugget and just working, working just mining through hundreds of pages is the same. When you find something valuable, just take it and keep it. Tim Ferriss does so by taking notes .

[emiliojimenez]

One of the best tips I ever received don't remember from whom is to write each page's main idea on the outside margin, that way whenever you want to go back to that book you can always browse the outside margins and get the main idea. Also fold and star the corner of pages that contain idea that are extremely good.

[shimash]

I'm Persian and I am truly thrilled and amazed by how Hafez has crossed the boarders of cultures by his amazing book for a native English speaker. I wish you could read his book in our perspective to see how he put words together to make this incredible book. it is not just meaning and metaphors that he used, but also perfect rhyme and mindfulness of his poems. his book is precious to Persians not just by its poetic nature, but also sacred because we have a tradition which we think about a subject in our head(something like intention or something that you need a guide for) and then we open Hafez book; its interesting that how you can relate and seek answers from the appeared poem... thanks for sharing

[stephenblessed]

I could never digest books. That's why I stopped eating them.

[randomdude-]

For those who don't want to mark in the books: fold a sheet and leave it in the front of the book with your personal index. Next to that, code your notes with the colored Post-it notes (add symbols or short titles, whatever you'd like). That's how I roll. Cheers.

[INDIANXxhgpp]

0:40 1st book
1:10 indexes of repeated point
5:20 2nd book
8:50 3rd book
11:00 digital evernote
15:00 ending

[fiorenzoconte]

Buongiorno, Tim and team, 2 questions for you:
1. One of the risks I see is having too many actions from a book in search of a problem to fix (that might not be there). What is your process of elimination to focus only on the few actions that are (and not only insightful)?


2. Let’s say in a month your takeaways were a. visiting different churches, b. pondering how anger is fear displayed in public and c. applying the charity PR stunt to raise money. What is your next step in the process: do you classify ideas in can-apply-today and can-apply-tomorrow? Do you actively create opportunities to make them happen e.g. start visiting churches or stay attentive but wait for the right moment to come up?

[ToddLloyd]

When I was going through graduate school, I would mark up the hell out of my text books, and I would never use a highlighter. Back then, it would help my focus so much. I would write in the margins, and I would use the empty space up front as a notepad. Just like Ferriss.

Years later, I went back to look at my notes, and I was astounded at the level of focus I had. The notes and underlines left clues for me.

[voinaalex]

I’ve never heard the term “lazy adjective” before. Very often I find myself writing in the journal assigning a “lazy adjective” to each action/activity, and while I’m always aware of what I’m doing, I never knew how to define it in such a simple way.

Thanks Tim!

[Plushiecity]

My next actions: to get a kindle, to start writing index notes on the front page of books, to re-read some of the books/highlights. Read with behaviour changes in mind!

[bokehintheussr]

"I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson.. If that's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.

[helmet]

I read books on my phone, and while reading it I take notes on notes or just copy straight text from iBooks. If it's something I feel I need to properly absorb, then I read and write it in my own words in my notes. I've read a lot of books and forgotten more than half of them. I've read all Bukowski in a binge when I was in college, and I remember almost nothing. I started the practice to take notes very late. I forget things now too, but I go to my notes and just read a synthesized version of the book. Digital reading and writing are very efficient and it's all saved up in the cloud.