Reading is not enough.

In my own experience, and I'm sure in the experience of many others, the major issue in learning, studying, and synthesizing ideas and concepts is that there needs to be an organized manner in which information is retained. Since not everyone has a photographic memory, we are forced to find a method of breaking down detailed information into its most essential elements and retaining them. This process involves internalizing information for later recall, or "metabolizing" information.

When I say metabolizing information, I mean an actual internalization of new thoughts on topics or subjects that did not exist before. This doesn't mean that your ideas have never been thought of before by anyone, though that may be the case. What I mean is those thoughts have never been a part of YOUR thinking in the past. Hopefully, those new thoughts will inform your future thinking and analysis. Metabolizing information means you get this new information inside of you. Here's the shocking truth for many people who consider themselves informed: simple reading or listening DOES NOT necessarily internalize information… at least not completely.

Let's really stretch this digestion metaphor. Chewing is the first step in eating and is obviously very important. Without properly chewing and then swallowing food through the next sequence of digestion, the body will not receive the nutrients in a beneficial way.

Information must be broken down, properly processed, and then passed on to deeper thinking strategies for us to truly benefit from the information we've consumed. (This, but is a topic for another post.)

To take the metaphor maybe way too far… sometimes when chewing information we discover it may be more beneficial to just spit it out. At that point we were admitting there's no further advantage to that particular bit of information.

What is your favorite way of intaking information? Do you read books? Do you listen to podcasts and/or audiobooks? (Let me know in the comments!) Whatever your preference, in all of these different medium, if we do not find a way to take that information and record it in some way, it will be lost.

Metabolization of information requires thoughtful reproduction in some manner. It may be as simple as repeating a quote or nugget of information verbally; repeating it out loud. I know that may seem overly simplistic, but we do this instinctively at times. If a statement is shocking, we may say it in disbelief. It is the easiest form of reproduction of that information. Oral tradition is the extended and more disciplined manner of verbal reproduction and for many cultures around the world, it was the best method for ensuring the passing down of important information.

Today, we have more methods of receiving and reproducing information. Text is the worldwide standard, whether digital or print, mass-produced or handwritten. Even when people can't hear what someone is saying on TV, they will turn on Closed Caption TEXT for clarification. With all this information, there needs to be a distinction between information worth the time necessary to internalize, but doing this on the fly is next to impossible!

So here are a few suggestions for gathering those delightful info-nuggets for later personal processing while READING:

1. Highlight or underline in your book. Isn't this obvious? Maybe it is, but it's a first step If this is ALL you do, maybe keep perusing this list . . .
2. Capture impactful or interesting quotes in a Common Place Book or Journal. The simple act of copying the quote will yield results, but again, there's more!
3. Write down the reason(s) you collected this quote. Just a statement like "this really boiled down this whole topic for me" will remind you later of what your initial thoughts were.
4. Write down any questions from this quote or surrounding text. Questions from a quote can lead to the best journal entries. Questions draw out our thoughts that only rise to top when prompted.
5. Share this quote with someone else and be prepared to hold a conversation about it. This is one of the best ways to make information stick in our minds and metabolize. Processing the information with someone else demands your mind recall as much as possible.

These above steps are some of the easiest ways to metabolize your information when reading. And the more we practice these the easier and more automatic they become.

Do you already incorporate some or all of these? What's been your experience?