 Have you ever read a book that you really liked, like Benjamin Franklin's biography? And then as time goes on, let's say a year or two, you realize that you read 600 pages and you don't remember a single thing. I think being able to remember what you read is a real secret to reading books and actually getting something out of them. So in this video, I thought I would share exactly what I do to remember what I read. What's up, guys? Alex Heim here over at Modern Health Monk. So before we jump into this video, I've put together a free seven-day self-growth challenge. So if you guys are interested in trying to figure out how to get your life together and how to build the most incredible epic life, check out the free download, which is the first link right below this video. So for me, whenever I jump into a new book, as someone who likes reading, I both like reading and I also actually want to remember things from reading. So for example, I'm going through this giant book, Benjamin Franklin, An American Life by Walter Isaacson, who does a lot of famous biographies. And one of the issues with biographies is that they're very long and they're often very boring and they're filled with tons of details about a person's life that mostly are not that interesting. But in between, there are some interesting narratives and interesting stories or interesting experiences that the person had that really shaped who they are. And those are the things that I want to remember when I read a book like this. That's not a how-to or a self-growth book. So for me, the first part of always remembering what you read is to just leave a brief, discrete little mark somewhere in the book about what it is you want to remember. So for me, half my apartment is all books and 90% of those books basically still look brand new, even though I've read them. So I'm OCD about books and you'll see flipping through this, it still looks clean. There's no underlines, there's no highlights, I'm not a heretic, I'm a nerd. I like books. So I'm not going to deface them. But I will show you a little thing that I do. When I find something that I like, I just use what I call the dot method, which is I use a pencil or a pen and I'll flip back here and you can see I put together just some little dots by a point or by a paragraph or something that I want to remember or a fact or a note. There you go, right? And basically the dots are just my reminders for this is what I want to remember in a way that doesn't deface the book, but it's clear that this is an idea or a sentence or a story or something that I want to remember. So instead of you weirdos that underline books, I just put a little dot that's discreet because I wasn't raised writing in books and underlining them and highlighting them. So you have the little dots or the little marks if you're like me, you don't like to face in your books. And at this point you're like, you're coming to the end of the book and you want to remember some aspects of the book. Well, obviously reading will not help you remember what's in a book. It by itself does not aid retention, but even taking the notes doesn't mean you're actually going to change your life or do something with that information. So the next phase for me is that I go into Evernote and I have one giant nerdy document called Books Read or Books List. And I actually like to keep track of what I read over the course of a year just because I'm curious what books I've read and what I've naturally been drawn to. So I keep this big list called Books Read and in Books Read I usually break down based on the month the books that I've actually read. And what I do is I actually will create a little hyperlinked document in Evernote that just has a maximum of two pages that become my two page summary. But the point is you have some kind of digitally archived way to keep track of the books that you read. For me, I just like breaking it down by month because it's sort of a fun way to think about where I've been over the last year. So we have my Books Read list, right? And I have it here broken down by month. And then again, there's 2019 Books Read list month, month, month. Each thing has a link there. So when you click to the link, that brings me to part three, which is keeping a maximum of a two page document on the key notes and the highlights. And don't worry, it gets even nerdier from there. I keep on one side of the page, the key point and the elaboration, right? So let's say you're reading a book on productivity and the book says that you should only do one thing if you want to be productive because it'll help you feel less stressed and you'll be more focused. Well, that may be a good point, but when you share the elaboration or more about it, for example, maybe there's a story in the book that impacted you that makes it easier to remember it. Maybe there's something in your life that it connected with and you think, oh, that reminds me of why I was such a terrible boyfriend in my last relationship. So you put that story in there. The point for me is to create these sort of mnemonic links. Like, let's say, this book, The Illusion of Money by Kyle Cease. You know, key point. Follow your inspired callings instead of external money and you'll ironically earn way more money. And then elaboration, more points about this. And these are quotes from the book. The second point, getting security from money is an illusion. And once you embody this, you can follow your soul's calling. Boom, now we go down to the next thing, right? And then the Helen's concept. This was a great story that really stuck with me. And I wanted to write down the entire story. So I write down the entire story here. So this is the way that I remember not only the big points of the book, but why those big points were even memorable in the first place. Because you have to project out in five years, you may not remember anything about the book, right? You just may know the book cover and the book title or the author. So if you break it down by key point and elaboration or some other further aspect of that book, this makes it a lot easier to remember what it is actually you read and how it can change your life. And if you have this list of books read, it makes it a lot easier for you to go back in a year and be like, oh, you know, my friend is talking about Benjamin Franklin. I can go back through my books read list, find the two page book summary, and then pull out the key points that I remembered. So you don't need to go back and read the same book unless you really want to and it really impacted you. So that three part system is the main way that I've been really keeping track of the books I've read and still applying those books throughout my life because periodically I go back through a lot of them. So try those three things, guys. Let me know how they work for you. Download that free seven day self growth challenge right below this video, which will help you figure out how to get your life together and design your dream life going forward. And I'll see you in these related videos right there.