You forget what you read for one simple reason:
No substantial attempt to make the information relevant to your brain.
Whether it’s plot details in a novel or critical information you need for an exam, the easiest way to fix unwanted forgetting while reading is to intentionally connect what you read to things you already know.
The process is not only easy.
It’s also a lot of fun.
Although the suggestions I’ll give on this page will take a bit more practice for some than others, I’m going to cover everything you need to do to start remembering more of what you read.
As you’ll see, remember “more” is the key. That way, you’ll avoid overwhelming yourself by trying to have it all.
And the best part is that you’ll discover that the reason many books are hard to remember simply isn’t your fault. Even if it is your responsibility to remember certain books anyway, after reading this tutorial, you’ll be able to stop blaming yourself.
Ready to remove the problem of forgetting what you read and start remembering books realistically?
Let’s dive in!
Why You Can’t Remember What You Read
Chances are you probably have an idea of at least a few of the reasons you don’t remember books and articles.
On top of not making the information relevant so your brain has an easy time recalling the information later, there are a few key points I’d like to quickly cover.
That way, you can immediately avoid these behaviors. I’ll pepper in some tips along the way as we move towards the ultimate secret of making everything you read relevant.
One: The Book Is Poorly Written
Sometimes it’s not your fault. Many books just aren’t very well put together.
Years ago I had a student tell me he thought it was his fault. He thought he was a slow reader, which as I demonstrate in this article is rarely a problem for forgetting.
When I asked him for a sample of what he was reading, I instantly saw a major problem. The poorly organized writing lacked verve. For the full story and poor writing example, read this post on how to focus when reading poorly written books.
It’s not just my opinion that bad writing is hard to understand and remember. In The Sense of Style, Dr. Steven Pinker explains why bad writing is so problematic.
For more research, Danny Oppenheimer studied the ins and outs of bad memory and published his findings in The Journal of Applied Psychology. One conclusion of his work is that we can remember just how bad some books were, but not what they were about due to the awful writing style.
Theoretically, bad writing also increases cognitive load. According to John Sweller, the more effort you have to put into understanding something, the more strain it puts on your working memory.
Two: You’re Just Not That Interested In The Topic
We all have to deal with boring topics from time to time.
Here’s the good news:
I’ve got a bunch of suggestions for how to make boring information more interesting.
For now, research shows that meaning matters for understanding and memory. Boredom motivates people to change their behaviors, so it’s important to use the techniques we’ll discuss below when you need to remember what you read.
Three: Your Expectations Are Unrealistic
In the Renaissance era, people Giordano Bruno and Robert Fludd believed it was possible to remember everything.
Although it is true that you can train yourself to remember many things, many people think they need to remember more than is actually necessary.
In reality, memorizing just the main points is often more than enough.
How do you set more realistic standards?
There are lots of ways, but a starting point is discussed in my tutorial on how to memorize a textbook. Once I started using this approach in combination with Zettelkasten, I started remembering a lot more without fear of missing out on extraneous details.
Four: You’re Just Not Ready For The Reading
There are certain books that I’ve struggled to read and remember.
It wasn’t that they were poorly written. I just didn’t have the necessary background to understand what was going on. That, or the book was filled with vocabulary I didn’t understand.
This is the case for many people. We just have to take a step back. Look for an introductory text and memorize some of the tougher vocabulary in the glossary before giving the advanced book a try.
What You Should Do About Forgetting What You Read: 6 Practical Tips
Now that you know some of the major reasons why you forget your reading, let’s dive into solutions.
Although you might be surprised that I didn’t mention turning off distractions, there’s a reason for that.
The modern world is distracting. We can’t let things that impossible to change stop us from remembering what we read.
We need to do the following things instead.
One: Mentally Elaborate What You’re Reading
You can bring even the most dry and boring writing to life.
Often when I come across difficult passages, I’ll read aloud and act out the ideas.
If I’m alone, I’ll do this in my mind only.
Visualization techniques will help as you read, but make use of all your senses. You can find euroscientific support for this suggestion in Imagery and Text: A Dual Coding Theory of Reading and Writing.
As the writers make clear, Dr. Pinker’s point that I mentioned above is important. The writing often lacks the emphasis we readers need to bring to the reading.
It’s not your fault. It’s just sometimes your responsibility to animate the reading. I read very complex texts when completing my PhD at York University and still and have to do this often. It’s worth it because taking a second to use elaborative encoding really does help me remember more of even the most complex and challenging texts.
Two: Listen To The Book Or Article
The problem with elaboration and multisenstory visualization is that some researchers think it’s a struggle for certain readers to make associations while reading.
This makes complete sense to me. That’s why when I find a book really hard to understand, I’ll try the audiobook and try using visualization techniques while listening. This removes eye strain.
When I was in grad school, I sometimes recorded articles and listened back to them so the poor writing was easier to understand and therefore remember.
Three: Extract Information While Reading With Engaging Note Taking Tactics
I’ve used many note taking strategies over the years.
But one of the best involves making my own flashcards while reading. I share the exact process I use here. I’ve also created a deeper discussion of the the technique and why it works in this video tutorial:
The key with this technique is to not worry too much about remembering anything while reading.
Just take your notes and save them for later. That way, you can focus on memorizing the information during the next step.
Four: Use A Memory Palace After Reading
A Memory Palace is a simple mental version of a familiar location.
Once you’ve extracted the main points from your books and articles, commit them to memory using this powerful mnemonic device.
The beauty of the Memory Palace is that it makes spaced repetition faster and easier.
Sometimes called “distributed practice,” spaced repetition helps you avoid rote learning and use active recall instead. It’s a creative, fun and fast way to help information enter your long-term memory.
The catch, as researchers have shown, is to time your repetitions based on when you might be taking a test.
Or, if you just want to remember better, to time your re-reading strategy as I’ve discussed in my post suggesting you re-read at least one book a month. (At the time I’m writing this post, I’m re-reading The Lord of the Rings).
Five: Test Yourself Using The Rule Of Five
Dominic O’Brien introduced the Rule of Five many years ago.
Basically, it’s the idea that you deliberately recall things you want to remember at least five times.
Although there’s nothing magical about the number five, scientists have shown that self-testing is critical for long-term retention.
If needed, you can set reminders using technology to perform self-testing, but I personally avoid this because it deskills prospective memory – the ability to remember future tasks that need doing.
The beauty of this technique is that you can do it passively or do it by visiting a Memory Palace. I do both.
Another positive aspect to self-testing is that you can memorize information you don’t understand. As you practice bringing it back to mind, your reading comprehension will strengthen. In fact, the self-testing approach was shown to be be more effective for comprehension than concept mapping.
Six: The Ultimate Solution
All of the strategies above are effective.
But the most useful of all is to simply make what you’re reading relevant.
Ask questions like:
- What does this book or article connect with or remind me of?
- Why is this detail important?
- In what situation is the information useful or important?
Researchers reporting in Educational Psychologist go even further with what they call the “The Four-Phase Model of Interest Development.”
In addition to asking questions like the ones I listed above, you need to spark your own interest in the short-term. You can do this by:
- Noticing an interesting feature of the text, such as unusual word choices or phrasings
- Looking up video interviews about the book or article
- Giving your self rewards to keep motivated if you still can’t engage deeper with the reading.
- Reminding yourself of the value of the material and feeling positive about it
I’d like to add another, more robust means of developing your interest in texts so they become more memorable. Think categorically.
What I mean by that is while reading, think about what category the material belongs to. For example, when reading The Lord of the Rings, I sometimes think about how parts of it belong to the “road movie” genre. It doesn’t really, but it helps me remember some of the scenes.
I’ll also note when a chase is taking place, or when the characters are taking a rest, gathering allies, or the like. It’s a form of labelling.
When reading philosophical books, I’ll do something similar. Except in this case, I’ll think about whether what I’m reading belongs to ontology, epistemology or if it connects to psychology more closely than sociology.
This tactic makes the reading much more personally relevant, supporting memory because I’m actively engaged in categorization of the material.
You Really Can Remember What You Read
As you’ve discovered, a certain amount of forgetting is normal. There are many reasons we forget things, after all.
In most cases, it’s not your fault.
But as I’ve stressed, if you have to get your reading remembered, it is your responsibility.
That’s why I have personally sought out the tactics we’ve discussed today.
Because having strong working memory is key to remembering more of what we read, especially when the writing is clunky or cluttered with tough words, here’s what I suggest.
Get my free memory improvement course:
It gives you four video lessons and three worksheets that guide you through a way to use memory techniques to remember your reading. If you want to stop forgetting things you read once and for all, this is the course for you.
Now that you’re equipped with actionable strategies, I’ve got one last tip for you.
Writers have their strengths and weaknesses. Celebrate the good, but be patient with the bad.
This suggestion is really important.
I know because I used to be a much worse writer myself.
But people were patient with me, made suggestions, and over time my writing became much more reader-friendly.
I also have learned from the science I shared with you today. Keeping positive and going out of your way to be grateful is itself a memory technique.
So go forth and read with joy, even those books and articles that challenge you.
