I usually have a conversation with people who say, they start the book but didn’t finish it.
Recently, I had a conversation with a participant who mentioned he has read many books but have forgotten most of them and didn’t take any action on any of them.
In fact, this is the same mistake I have made as well. I read books, in fact, many books but don’t take any action. It feels good while reading books but it is useless if you don’t take any action on it.
In this blog post, I am going to share what you must do after you finish reading the book.
Review the book immediately. Read Highlighted Material within 24 hours.
Research says that you will forget over 90% of what you read within 48 hours. Therefore, it’s important that you review what you read within 48 hours.
To review, you don’t have to read an entire book once more. What I recommend is read what you have underlined or highlighted. This will cover most of what is important in the book.
Reread/ Review the book regularly. ( for good books)
You don’t understand and get everything from the book in one reading.
If it is very good, I recommend you to read and review the book multiple times.
All good books require multiple readings. Review the book more than once. You will notice all the information you have missed in your first reading.
You will also get different perceptive of the same thing. There are books where I have read more than 25 times and still learn something new if I read it again.
Keep a journal
If you love the book and think it could be life-changing. I recommend you to maintain a journal for the book (physical or electronic – it doesn’t matter).
In the journal, write down what you learned from the book, how you applied it in your life, your progress from taking action. You can also record your mistakes you have made and what changes are required in the future.
When you look back at the journal after years, it will be magical to see the journey you took.
Tip: If you prefer electronic, I recommend you maintain a journal in an app like Evernote.
Take Action
This is the most important thing you must do after you read the book.
Here is the mindset which I think is useful:
It is better to read one book and take action rather than reading 10 books and not taking action.
While reading a book if you come across an idea which you think will be useful, stop for a second and ask yourself how you can apply in your life.
Make a note of it either on the margin of the book or on somewhere.
Take the action within 24 hours of you reading about it. If you delay it further, there is a chance that you’ll forget about it.
Also, apply the learnings from the book in your life at every opportunity. Your life will improve for the better.
When it comes to self-development, remember knowledge is no longer power. It is only potential power. Knowledge, when put to action, becomes power.
You can use the following template to record your learnings and how you are going to take action.
An idea I learned Page Number How am I going to take action Notes
I have created a template which will help you track all the important things you learned from the book and how you are going to take action.
You can download the template from here:
Take action From the book – Implementation Plan Template
Schedule it in your calendar
I have done a lot of study on productivity and how to get things done.
Here is what I have learned: If you don’t schedule the action steps, you won’t get it done.
If you keep your action steps in mind, there is a high probability that you will forget about them or your life will come in the way. Whereas, if you schedule it, you won’t forget it and it means you are making a commitment with yourself to take the action.
In short, Schedule what you want to take action in your calendar.
Tip: Use Google Calendar to schedule your action steps. Its FREE and syncs with all devices.
Action step:
What book have you read recently? Revisit the book and revise it for some time. Then, ask yourself how you can implement the ideas in your life. Take action now.
You can record ideas and action steps in the below template:
Take action From the book – Implementation plan Template
Happy Reading and Taking Action
Srinivas Vakati
