Recently, I wrote a blog post, How to Read with a Critical Eye: Using Books as Tools for Thinking about the importance of reading critically. By that, I meant that instead of just reading and accepting everything an author says, read it thoughtfully and critically. Accept what you find convincing, and reject what you disagree with.
In that post, I quoted Francis Bacon’s astute advice, “Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.” Essays, , Of Studies, 1625, edited by Susan Ratcliffe.
Now that we’ve read critically and engaged with the text, the question becomes: What do we do next? The answer lies in two actions: remembering what we’ve read, and applying what we’ve learned.
The Challenge of Recall: How to Preserve What Matters from Your Reading
Most of us won’t remember everything we read. David Allen captures this concept perfectly in Getting Things Done, The Art of Stress-Free Productivity; “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”
Most of us don’t have photographic memories and will soon forget what we read and our ideas about what we read. To truly benefit from our thoughtful reading, we need systems in place to capture and preserve our insights.
Personal Knowledge Management: Remembering What You Read
Personal knowledge management, or PKM, has become a hot topic recently. People want to record their knowledge and recover it for future projects. Thankfully, several tools can help us capture our thoughts and make our reading a lasting resource.
A warning—it’s easy to overdo this and attempt to save every idea we encounter. We don’t need to store everything we read or all of our ideas, just those that are significant to us or resonate with us.
A. The Power of Highlights: Using Readwise and Other Tools
The Readwise service gathers highlights you make in your e-books and creates a searchable database, making it easy to revisit the ideas that caught your attention.
It can also present you with random, attractively formatted highlights each day. I review 15 highlights daily, reminding me of concepts I thought were important enough to highlight.
If I read an idea I might want to develop into a blog post, I run a shortcut that saves the topic and my initial thoughts into a document in a blog ideas folder.
I save a copy of the highlight in the document. Then, I can develop them further when I’m ready to write about them. That’s how most of my blog posts are produced.
B. Storing Your Thoughts: Digital and Analog Options for Note-Taking
Many apps, such as Apple Notes, NotePlan, Notion, Obsidian, Craft, and DevonThink, help you preserve your ideas about your reading. You can make a note and include the reference, which is searchable in any of these apps.
Whether you prefer organizing notes in multiple topical folders or keeping everything in one place, digital tools allow you to search and find your ideas instantly.
“The solution is to keep only what resonates in a trusted place that you control, and to leave the rest aside.”
Tiago Forte, Building a Second Brain
Some people enjoy using analog tools such as notebooks, journals, or boxes of index cards. They find delight and benefits in writing everything out.
However, there are distinct advantages to using a digital format. The most critical and practical benefit is that it’s electronically searchable. You can look for any keyword or combination of words in any of the listed apps.
Also, in digital tools all your notes are in one location instead of scattered in multiple notebooks or journals. The more handwritten journals or notebooks you fill, the more books you’ll have to look through to find what you’re looking for. Also, you’ll need additional storage space as your collection builds.
For these reasons, I preserve all my ideas and highlight collections in digital formats.
Taking the Next Step: Turning Reading into Action
Books have the power to change us, especially when we engage with ideas that challenge our current thinking. However, reading critically and capturing ideas is only half the battle—the real transformation happens when we implement those insights in our lives.
Some people list action items when they read a book, ideas they think would be suitable to implement. If it makes sense, you can use a task or habit manager or set up a project. Use whatever method works best for you.
An illustration: If I read a book about productivity and recognize some ideas I want to implement in my productivity system, I note them and assign them to a task in my task manager or set up a small project to implement the idea.
Conclusion: Taking Action on What You Read
Reading is just the beginning. The true power of books lies not only in the ideas they offer but in how we choose to remember and apply those insights in our lives. By capturing what resonates with us and taking deliberate steps to act on those ideas, we can transform our reading from a passive activity into a powerful tool for personal growth.
Start today: Set up a system to capture your highlights, jot down your reflections, and take small, actionable steps to bring those ideas to life. Whether setting up a Readwise account, creating a dedicated note-taking space, or listing action items from your latest read, choose a method that works for you and commit to it.
Make reading a catalyst for change and growth—don’t let great ideas slip away. Begin building your personal knowledge library now, and see how it can reshape not just what you know, but also what you do and who you are.