Have you ever read something and thought to yourself, ‘I understand
this. Why has no one ever told me this?’ Or, ‘I know this; now I need to
learn how to be more organized and make the most of it?’
If so, then you’re in luck because you’ve found the perfect blog post
for you. In today’s world, sometimes the best way to learn something is by
simply writing it down. Not only does this help you retain what you’ve read,
but it gives you the chance to connect the dots between what you know and
what you’ve read, which in turn makes you even better at understanding
what you’ve read. Plus, you can refer back to your notes whenever you need
to remember something.
Here’s the whole process in a nutshell: Write down what you learn. Read
and understand what you’ve written. Then, compare what you wrote to what
you read. This will help you understand the material better and remember it
quicker. Pretty cool, huh?
So, how does writing something down help you learn it? Let’s find out
exactly.
Why Is It Important To Write Things Down?
Whether you’ve been told this a million times or not, nothing
matters more in life than to write things down. Seriously. No, not just
because it’s good for your diary (though that’s a major reason).
It’s important to write things down for a number of reasons, but here
are just a few of them:
- It helps you learn the material. If you read something
and you understand it, then you’ll almost certainly remember it. That’s
what makes it helpful. If you don’t understand something, then it’s
usually hard to learn it without writing it down first. This is why many
people believe that writing things down helps you understand them better. - It helps you process information. If you’re reading a
book, it’s usually because you already know the basics. That’s why you
read it; you have a good idea what’s going on and you want to understand
it better. However, sometimes, when you’re reading books and
materials that are more difficult, it can be hard to keep everything
straight in your head. If you write down what you learn, then when you
come back to it later, it will all be there in front of you. This is
especially helpful if you’re having trouble keeping up with everything
and need to take a moment to regroup. - It helps you understand the material. Many
people think that if they can read and understand something, then it
will become easier to learn or remember. This couldn’t be more
nonsensically untrue. Sometimes, understanding something can be more
difficult than learning it. If you can write down what you learn, then it
means that you’ve understood it. This is a great feeling because once
you’ve written something down, it means you get to keep it and refer to it
whenever you want. Awesome! - It helps you retain information. Have you ever
read a really good book or seen a really good movie and thought to
yourself, ‘I must remember this. It’s so good!’ Or, ‘I want to learn
more about this topic. I’m sure I’ll remember it if I write it down.’ - It helps you track your progress. Have you ever
wanted to study something but didn’t know where to start? Maybe you’ve
heard about a book that seemed really good but didn’t want to ruin your
lazy Sunday by reading it on the train. That’s when you know that
writing things down is the key. It’s the only way to keep track of your
progress as you go along. Whatever it is you’re trying to learn, writing
it down will make sure you stay organized and get the most out of your
studies.
Organizing your notes the right way will also help you connect the
dots. Sometimes, when you read or study something, you’ll get
frustrated and not know which part you need to pay attention to. This
happens mostly because you didn’t write down what you learned. If you
wrote it down, then it will be much easier to pinpoint which bits you need
to focus on. Remember: writing things down makes them easier to
understand and retain.
So, as we mentioned before, sometimes the best way to learn something is
by writing it down. Even when you’re not sure if what you learned is
relevant to what you want to remember, try it out. Write down what you
learned and see how it applies. Then, you can decide whether or not you
want to keep what you wrote.
How Do You Organize Your Notes?
This is one of the most important things to keep in mind when writing
down your notes. Whatever subject you’re studying, you’ll inevitably learn
a lot about the proper way to organize your notes and how to make the most
of your notes. So, let’s take a look at how you should be doing
things.
The first step is to make sure that you’ve got plenty of nice,
nonscary paper. If you’ve been writing things down on a computer, then
it’s likely that you’ve been typing them. This means that you’ve
been using a program that automatically spaces things out for you. This
can be handy, but it also means that your notes are doomed to be
unformatted and unorganized. When you’ve got nice, clean paper,
the next step is to make a list of everything you know. Start with the
biggest concepts you’ve learned and work your way down to the smallest
details. Try to think of everything you know and write it all down. If
you’ve learned something about marketing, leadership, sales, or business
strategy, then make a list of everything you know about each one of
those topics.
When you’ve reached the end of your list, take a little
break. Then, you can come back and start organizing your notes. Pull
each topic out into its own section. Make sure that each section is
written in a way that is brief yet comprehensive. If you’ve got a lot of
information to cover, then separate the section into sub-topics. Once
you’ve done that, you can start adding details to each section. Remember
that this is supposed to be a review of what you know, so you don’t
need to spend a lot of time on each topic. Just take a couple of minutes
to quickly brainstorm, and then move on to the next one. You can come back
to the first section when you’ve completed your review of what you know
and continue adding to it.
One more thing, make sure that you write in a way that is
easy to understand. When you’ve written something down, it means that
you’ve had to break it down into simpler concepts. So, if you’re reading
a book on retail marketing and you don’t understand how businesses gain
affinity with their customers, then it means that you’ve got to
break down that complex idea into something simpler. Remember: writing
things down forces you to simplify them and consider them from a new
angle. This is important because it will make what you’ve learned
more accessible to you and hopefully make it stick in your head longer.
Why Should You Bother Reviewing Your Notes?
Have you ever studied something and then forgotten most of what you
learned when you went over it in the test? This is why it’s important to
review your notes. Have you ever studied for a test and then forgotten
most of what you’ve learned? Whether it’s been a few weeks or a few
months, you’ve likely forgotten about much of what you’ve learned. When
this happens, it’s usually because you didn’t learn it in the first
place or you didn’t retain it well enough once you’d learn it. If you
want to improve your score on any exam, then review your notes. Study
what you’ve written and see how much you’ve remembered. Then, read
through what you’ve studied and see if there are any misconceptions
that you’ve held about the topic. If there are, then go back and
relearn it. This will help you better understand the material and
remember it longer.