Write It Down!

I saw a great tidbit of advice from Jim Rohn today.  Here is his quote: "Be a collector of good ideas, but don't trust your memory. The best collecting place for all of the ideas and information that comes your way is your journal."

I can't tell you how valuable this advice is.  I have read a good number of books, and each one has had a goldmine of information within.  But how many times do we read a book and then quickly forget what it said?  

Sometimes a quick read will help us to feel good as the concepts ring true to us, and sometimes that is helpful to just influence our attitudes.

But to get the meat out of the book, you need to study and internalize the concepts.  But how do you remember the good stuff out of all the books you have read?

What I do is to keep an online journal open on my computer at all times.  Then when I am reading a book and a passage jumps out at me, I either write it or copy and paste the nugget into my journal.  Then that valuable thought is available whenever I need it by opening my journal and rereading the information.  

Many online journals are keyword-searchable so you can find the posts that contain the thought that you are looking for.

This technique may slow down your reading some, but the advantage is that the thoughts that can change your life are available to you even after you no longer have to book.

Give it a try and see how it goes!  If you already keep a journal for your thoughts, share with us which journal application you use.

-- Roger Cox