Want to Remember Something? Blog About It
Granted, I’m extrapolating a little bit. But, if you have listened to the latest Work Life podcast, at the very end you’ll hear Adam Grant suggest three things that help you remember something new.
- Take a 10 minute break to let it sink in
- Quiz yourself on it, to start recalling the information right away
- And, finally, explain it to someone else.
Of those three, the last is the only one that requires someone else’s presence, but what if you’ve just read something really interesting, and you want to remember it effectively? Instead of waiting for someone to cross your path, or trying to tell the barista at the coffee shop about it, why not write a blog post? Summarize what you’ve learned into a short message and share it online.
There, you just accomplished the last step, even if no one ever reads it, by creating a written synopsis of what you have learned. Plus, you’ve added a little bit of knowledge to the web by publishing that synopsis to a public page. Who knows when that might come in handy for a reader?
As an added benefit, it also gets you in the habit of working to explain something new to someone who maybe doesn’t know anything about it, which is a tremendously useful skill to develop for your professional life.
