The Best Way to Retain Information

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“Lo que muy bien se aprende, nunca se olvida.”

Did you have a high school Spanish teacher that made you repeat that line over and over? If you did, you know the translation: A well-learned lesson is never forgotten.

Then life happens and, POOF, all the notes you took from books, seminars, and Spanish 101 are gone. How to retain all that information? You could do something drastic, like that “No Regerts” ink your buddy got during Spring Break ’98. That’s not ideal, painless, or pretty.

The other option? Check out this short slice. You’ll discover a pain-free method for remembering important stuff.

Click to tweet this: Memory is malleable. Learn by taking actions and you won’t need to remember. @DaveCrenshaw

Video transcript:

A client of mine recently asked me, “Dave, how do I retain all the information that I am learning? I go to events, I go to conferences, I read books. But how do I actually keep it inside of me?”

Well, I like to think of this like putting a tattoo on your life. No not a real tattoo but one that inks [the lesson] into your life permanently. The way that you do that is by taking action on what you learn.

In other words, when you go to a conference and you hear a speaker, rather than writing down the words that they say, write down the action that you’re going to take. Don’t take notes, take action.

Then later you can process those actions using what, when, where processing that I teach in Time Management Fundamentals. Then–most important–when the time comes in your calendar to do that thing, do it. By doing it, it’s like you’re inking that lesson into your life. It makes it a part of you. Rather than trying to retain knowledge, take action.

So my question for you is—what is the lesson that you learned recently and did you do something about it?

Also, if you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future video, ask that below as well.

Thanks for watching and may you go do something about what you learned.

Join the conversation: What is the lesson that you learned recently and did you do something about it?

I respond to every question and comment. So, please, join the conversation!


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