Your bottom line might be improving your health, your finances, your relationships, or your happiness in life. And you can be sure there’s someone on the internet who could help you achieve that. Sometimes even for free. Unsurprisingly, change takes work. And I’m going to share with you some ideas on how to remember important information, so that you’re able to take action on it and create the kind of change you want.
Get yourself some post-it notes
That’s right. Good ol’ post-it notes. The reason I’m suggesting you do that is because these things don’t disappear once you’re done using them. Because what happens when you take notes on a piece of paper, on your computer, or on your phone? You close the window, fold the paper, close the app, and what you wrote down is gone from view. It essentially doesn’t exist anymore. This, of course, defeats the point of taking notes (which is to remember) and facilitates procrastination. So before you start reading any book, or take any course, or engage in any project, personal or professional, remember: Buy a pack of post-it notes. That way any truly valuable insight you come across can be in your face at all times. At least until you decide to act on it.
Focus on core ideas
Not every single page of every book is worth keeping in mind. Your time is just as valuable as your mental real-estate. The more wisely you’re able to decide what occupies it, the more efficient you can be in reaching your goals. If you’ve read a lot of self-help or business books, you’ll know that a lot of times entire sections are dedicated to stories. Stories that really do nothing more than illustrate concepts that were already presented, or that are yet to come. This is a good example of a place in the book where you can decide to cut corners. You might decide to save your time, write the main idea on a post-it note, and then move on to the next big idea of the book. Even in this article, though I’m trying to be as lean as possible in the way I illustrate my main points, the most important parts of this article are still the main points. The headings. At the end of the day, that’s what I want you to remember.
Practice as soon as possible
In her 2011 Ted Talk, Life Coach and Motivational Speaker Mel Robbins talks about her “5-second rule”. She believes that if you have an original idea, and you don’t act on it after 5 seconds, it’s dead. It dies and you will most likely never ever carry it out. Now, I won’t be that harsh but I certainly agree that good ideas must be acted upon quickly because of Human nature. Our emotions tend to coax us into keeping things relatively the same in our lives. We don’t like sudden changes, we don’t like events that break our established patterns. This, of course, is very normal. But here’s the thing: If you get a great idea, gain some great insight from somewhere, and then you don’t do anything… Then you’ve completely wasted your time. And if you say reading that one book in 2013 wasn’t wasted time, then what do you have to show for it today? Again I’m not trying to sound harsh. Simply pointing out the fact that if you really are committed to something (again whether that’s improving your health, your finances, your relationships or your life satisfaction), then you will act. You’re going to take an action that brings you one step closer to the result you’re committed to. Even if it’s just writing ideas down on a post-it note. Now let’s see it! :)
