Active Recall Technique – The art of learning and remembering more from the books you read

“Reading is important. If you know how to read, then the whole world opens up to you.” – Barack Obama

Lately, I have been asking myself a very important question, which I believe will help me improve my reading experience. And that question is: How can I extract more information from the books I read and apply what I have learned to my personal and professional development?

Finding the technique that helped me answer that question took some time. The technique is an amalgamation of several different reading techniques from different individuals, which I plan to improve. The technique is referred to as Active Recall Technique, or A.R.T when acronymized.

Acronyms were invented to help us remember things with ease and for longer. On the other hand, art is about: inter alia, beauty and creativity. Let’s look briefly at the beauty and creativity of the Active Recall Technique (A.R.T), and how it can help us recall and apply the information we learn from books in a way that can improve our personal, professional and business lives.

The Active Recall Technique (A.R.T) work best for non-fiction books and implies that you don’t take notes while you are reading. However, you are allowed to highlight anything you find interesting or fascinating in the book. With that, you are required to stop reading after each chapter, and recall everything you have learned and enjoyed from the top of your head and that is the essence of the A.R.T

The technique helps you recall important and inspiring content from each chapter using a framework called the 3-S Formula. The first S stands for Story, the second S for Statistics, and the last S, for Summary.

We as human beings are hardwired to listen to and focus on stories, and we turn to be more engaged when we read or hear stories. When using the 3-S formula of the A.R.T, we start each chapter with a mind that seek inspiring stories, and from those stories, single out life lessons that contribute to our personal growth.

A.R.T requires that you recall the most inspiring story in the chapter you just finished. You can write two or more stories if you wish, then summarize those inspiring stories in your own words. The act of writing will help you remember the stories with ease when you tell them to someone else.

If the chapter has no stories (a rare case), there’s high chance that there will be a mind-blowing statistic (second S of the 3-S formula for A.R.T) that will shift your perspective about the subject you are reading about. Great books are filled with stories and anecdotes that give life to facts, data or statistics in general. World class authors understand that people don’t just need knowledge (which is only potential power) but wisdom - application of that knowledge for their evolution and transformation.

World renowned writers understand that nuggets of wisdom are attained through stories and situation analysis through statistics. However, should the chapter or the entire book you are reading contain no statistics and stories (an unlikely scenario), there’s always a summary (third S of the 3-S formula for A.R.T) you can derive from the chapter you’ve just finished reading.

The summary of the chapter is where most of the recalling takes place. Summary forces you to drill into your mind and recall everything based on the chapter you just read, which is easier to do rather than waiting to finish the entire book. Therefore, it is advised that the 3-S formula be applied after each chapter in order to maximize the A.R.T.

One who is an excellent reader, reads habitually, efficiently and competently. Active Recall Technique (A.R.T) enables you to become just that, as Oprah Winfrey once said: “Have you ever met a person who was a great reader when they were young and not become successful? Never, it (reading) is the absolute best foundation ever!”.

In summary, the A.R.T has room for improvements and I am still in search of various ways to make it better. My goal is to improve it as much as possible. I would appreciate it if you can share a technique that has helped you gain or absorb more from the books you read, and improved the quality of your life, in the comments section.

In 2022 and beyond, let’s help each other become better and proficient readers. Ultimately, this will foster our self-confidence in our reading skills and promote the reading culture on the African continent and abroad.