Found an old reading trick that actually works for me now

I used to highlight every line in a book, end up with a mess of neon. Nothing important stuck. Then I tried J.K. Rowling's old method from interviews, just underline one sentence per page. Anything more than that gets a tiny star in the margin. After 3 books that way, I actually remember the plot and themes better. Has anyone else found a single note trick that clicked for them later in life?

3 comments

3 Comments

murray.cole2mo ago

Underlining one sentence per page just makes me forget the rest.

hall.charles2mo ago

Four words per page max is my rule, works way better for me. @murray.cole probably ends up with a whole novel underlined at that rate. Just pick the one big idea and call it a day.

tyler_white4214d ago

@murray.cole I get where you're coming from, but the trick isn't to remember every single thing on the page. Your brain naturally forgets most of it anyway. What works is making that one sentence the anchor for the whole chunk. If you pick the right sentence, it triggers everything else around it. Try pairing it with a quick mental note of the topic before you move on. What kind of books are you reading? That might change how you pick the sentence.