I have a lot of cheap notebooks.
I handwrite notes on almost everything I read and learn. Notebooks can fill up fast.
I also keep a couple “higher level” notebooks around for rewriting, quizzing, and reviewing the information I decide I want to retain for longer term.
From those notebooks I usually have a number of the concepts “memorized” using mnemonic techniques (often “memory palaces”).
My process:
Step 1:
- Take copious notes. Lots. Many. Scribble, draw, map, play.
Step 2:
- Stop every so often (every 15 minutes, or every 30 minutes, or every hour, but at minimum every 2 hours) to decide which information I want to be able to remember when I wake up tomorrow.
Step 3.
- Rewrite that information, or find ways to quiz myself, or spend time creating mnemonics for the information, etc.
Step 4:
- Continue the loop from Step 1.
Step 5:
- Review the stuff I did for Number 3 the same day and if possible the next morning (and the next night).
Step 6:
- Keep a list of what you’re learning.
- One way I do this is by picking one notebook, flipping it over, and writing out an “index” of the topics/information I’ve been memorizing on the back—so I can just flip the notebook over and get a high-level perspective on what I might need to review or keep studying more of. And I just try and keep the back of the notebook sort of up to date.
- One way I do this is by picking one notebook, flipping it over, and writing out an “index” of the topics/information I’ve been memorizing on the back—so I can just flip the notebook over and get a high-level perspective on what I might need to review or keep studying more of. And I just try and keep the back of the notebook sort of up to date.
That’s a process I use more or less.