"Wow! Wow!", I said to myself as I read this blog post on a system to track your takeaways from reading books - How to Retrieve What You've Read - Almost Instantly | Michael Hyatt. Personally, I can't stand to highlight books or read highlighted books. It just feels like defacing something beautiful (unless it's a workbook). But that's besides the point. The point is that Dwayne Morris describes a more thorough system for performing 'memory recalls' of books than I could ever have imagined. It underscores the amount of work and thoughtful planning that go into processes that appear effortless to the casual observer. It makes me feel ashamed of my disorganized scribbles into whatever writing material happens to be closest by when I'm overcome by an insight from my reading. I depended on the discipline of writing what I read to get me through high school and college. Then I became lax with it as I read for pleasure (I tell myself). I feel upset with myself that I have accepted inadequacy in myself in recalling book details. It is all too common for me to say stuff like "I read somewhere that..."
Now to make amends. I will not force myself to highlight physical books, but I will work out a system. Kindle books I highlight with wild abandon, and I'm glad to learn I can print or copy my highlights from amazon. Did not know that was possible. Blog posts, online news, etc., I also need to figure out. I typically email them to myself, but that system isn't working. (Why did I continue to do that?) Until a new system is figured out, blog perhaps it is.
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