For a long time, I thought I should be remembering everything I read.
When you stop and think, that makes no sense.
We spend hours in school studying and working out problems and learning the material.
We explore it, test ourselves, get tested by others, and build on it with further studies.
But when it comes to reading books or learning outside school, we expect to remember right away.
We all need reminders.
When we learn new material, we should be challenging ourselves as we do in school.
We should quiz ourselves, mix the material with other things we’ve learned, and summarize.
Working with it. Learning it.
And then remind ourselves. Over and over. Spaced repetition. Revisiting our notes, adding new things as we learn other related material.
There’s no shame in needing reminders.
In fact, revisiting and resurfacing old material is a sure way to build understanding.
We should all be reminding ourselves a little more often.
