Taking notes when you read seams a bit inconvenient, but it can be vastly rewarding. I’ll admid, the idea seems kind of preposterous. Well at least when you are reading fiction. I’m pretty much a non-fiction reader. I rarely dable in the fiction although I used to. I personally like to spend my precious time focused on education. To me it’s enjoyable now. Every book presents an opportunity.
I’ve outlined a few tips for maximizing what you get out of books that you read:
1. What do you want to get out of the book?
Example right now I’m reading a book in piecemeal that has no value as a business text but I’m able to learn snipits of information that I always wanted to know. “The Intellectual Devotional” – Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class. The goal of me reading this book is pretty much summed up by the subtitle but, as I flipped through it, I saw 1 page snipits on Socrates, Homer, Hagia Sophia, Cleopatra, and more. It sounded interesting… I’ve wanted to know the facts behind these but if I learned them in school, I certainly don’t remember much, and I want to be able to round out my knowledge of subjects that are not related to marketing, blogging, real estate, and so forth. I set out to do just this when I cracked the book for the first time.
2. Look in table of contents and identify “takeaways”.
When you see a chapter titled, “The 16 monumental Secrets of Guerilla Marketing”, that to me sounds like there is a valuable takeaway or two. I’m going to take notes when I get to that chapter.
3. Recap the book.
Writing a small summary about the book, what you learned, and what the action items are when you’re finished will allow you to maximize the value of the knowledge you just consumed. Reading although enjoyable and an escape can provide a residual value to you.
4. Act on the Action Items
An action item can be anything. For example it could be, ”submit my website to 10 specific directories in my business vertical to create quality inbound links.” Set a time aside like you would a lunch appointment in your busines day and do it. Block the time, turn the words you wrote down into action.
5. Follow up on Action Items
The best way to do this is simply put another date on the calendar a bit further out that will allow ample time to inspect if anything has happened. In #4 we used “submit to 10 directories”. Look at your analytics program 3 months from now and see if your rank has increased, or if you have traffic being referrred from those sites.
6. Make notes about the author.
Learn a bit about the author. Often you will find they have written another book or 2 about the same subject. You might find book signings, or lectures they are being featured in.
7. Use your notes to refer back to.
Store your notes online somewhere like a 37 Signals product so you can refer back to them in the future.
Hope this helps. Happy reading/note taking.
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