Advice on how to improve retention of info

posting in ER forum in case some missed it:

I've always been terrible at retaining knowledge and I think it's a skill I need to work on. From all the info I consume in a given day e.g. Financial times etc, I probably only retain 30%-40% of it. I have a tendency to disregard info or switch off, if I don't find the info interesting. A few questions:

Do you think retaining 30-40% of all you consume in a day is normal? Do you have any advice on how to improve this? How do you turn from a passive consumer of information to an active one? I've decided to pick up the following books:

Mastering the market cycle - Howard Marks Blink - Malcolm Gladwell Thinking Fast & Slow - Daniel Kahneman Valuation by McKinsey

These are well regarded books but I don't want them to be read today and the lessons forgotten tomorrow. One of the ideas I had was to write notes on what I learnt from these books, would anyone recommend that?

Also any book recommendations would be great! Thanks in advance.

6 Comments
 
 
Most Helpful

If it is important, write it down. So books, anything relevant to your companies, phone call conversations...write it all down. Catching up with the news flow in the WSJ or FT not really important, read it and move on. I have to take notes on everything or I will forget. I think that was probably the best advice I got from a more senior analyst when I first started was don't try and remember everything, but if it is important write it down.

 

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