How to gain maximum benefit from online content you consume

You may read an article or watch a YouTube video that you find very informative but didn’t do anything with it, thinking you will keep it in mind instead of writing it somewhere.

If the answer is yes, you should read this newsletter till the end.

Before I started using the note-taking method (which I will show you in some time), I used to read/watch an article/video and didn’t do anything from it and the result? Even after watching many productivity videos and reading articles, my productivity didn’t increase.

What did I do?

I started taking notes of whatever article, podcast, or video I found useful.

But if you blindly take notes of useful content and never open the notes or don’t know what to do with the notes you had written, it is of no use, right?

Here are some tips for note-taking

1. Write in your own word - While taking notes, try not to copy-paste what the author says; instead, try to reframe the author’s message in your own words. By writing the author’s meaning in your own words, you will know if you understood what the author is saying. If you didn’t understand it correctly, you could go through it again.

2. Go through the content at least twice - When you make notes, you should go through the content at least twice, once when you first discover any content on the internet, you should go through the entire content, then you should think if it’s worth making notes or not? If the answer is yes, you then go through the entire content thoroughly the second time for taking notes from it.

3. Make it easily searchable - If the notes you have made are not easily searchable, then it’s of no point, right? For example, you wrote notes on a video showing an easy and quick snacks recipe for a housewarming party; it was a month ago, and now you bought a new house. You are giving a housewarming party, and you remember, you once watched a video and took notes of the recipe. You tried to find it but couldn’t find it. So, the hard work of making notes becomes worthless? Therefore try to make it easy to find.

4. Have a Call To Action (CTA) - Don’t just take notes; try to apply it. After writing notes, prepare two columns, first Key Takeaways, and second Action Items.

Key Takeaways - These are 3-4 essential phrases from the content. This describes the whole notes in a nutshell. Action Items - These are ways you will apply the knowledge you gained from the content in your life.

This is a snap of my notes template in the Notion App credit: Jeff Su

Let me know in the Comment if you want to know more about how I Notion.

Quick Recap If you want to reap maximum benefit from the content you discover on the internet, you should make notes from it. You should make notes in your own words and have Action Items after writing the notes. In the following Newsletter, I will show you how you can become a more organized person. If this interests you, Subscribe Now!

Exercise

Note - If you come across content that is helpful for you, if possible, you should start applying that immediately or take immediate action.

Now, as you know how to reap maximum benefits from the content you consume, why not start applying what you have learned about note-taking now?

Here I am sharing some valuable content I came across this week with a short description.

Start taking notes right away!

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My Favorite Things

Articles

How to Retain More of Every Book You Read by James Clear

If you are like me, who reads many non-fiction books, you may encounter the problem of not retaining the maximum from the book. Even if you make notes, which I do, there are many things we should consider before picking the book for reading (Choose books whose ideology you can apply), and even while reading (Combine Knowledge Trees), if this interests you, do give it a read!

Podcast

If you are an entrepreneur or are interested in entrepreneurial things, you should definitely check this podcast. One of my favorite lines from the podcast is “You Never Fail, You Always Learn.”

Harsh Mariwala is the founder and Chairman of Marico, a Fortune India 500 company.

I don’t usually take notes from the podcast. Still, I took the notes of this podcast because Harsh Mariwala sir talks about various things that I believe are very important for entrepreneurs.

Listen to the Podcast now

Videos

If you are working in a corporate or interested in working on your communication, this video can be a game-changer.

Jeff talks about the Bottom Line Up Front method, which management consultants and product marketers use to communicate.

It says you should write the final result of any action at the top and later define the whole process for getting the result.

The idea is simple if you are sending mail to your boss or senior management, they probably don’t have time to read it, so if you give the result of action in two or three-line their time will be saved, and later when they have the time they can read the entire message.

Books

Hooked Book

Hooked Book is especially for entrepreneurs and product designers. The author of the book Nir Eyal gives valuable lessons on making a habit-forming product.

The lessons from the book have deeply helped me in designing products for my own startup “Book Pool.”

This is a pot of gold for entrepreneurs and product designers.

Quote

We are not what we think we are; We are not what others think we are; We are what we think others think we are.

That’s it for today. If you read till this point, I believe you found something helpful. If that’s the case, don’t forget to Subscribe and Share our Newsletter with your friends and family and help us grow.