I would look at Timothy Kenny's courses on Udemy for a really good explanation on this. There is also a book called "Cognitive Productivity" by a professor at

I would look at Timothy Kenny's courses on Udemy for a really good explanation on this. There is also a book called "Cognitive Productivity" by a professor at Simon Fraser university I recommend you check out. Sadly there is not a lot on this subject. A good example of this is the fact that right now, the only traditionally published book on this topic is literally called "How To Read" and was published in the 1940's. - - - - - To directly answer the question though, you should: 1. Read a book and use a pen instead of a highlighter. This allows you to not only underline but also write in the margins insights 2. Type up your raw notes 3. Take your raw notes and the synthesize them into a higher level summary of the main points 4. THEN, THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP, take your synthesized notes and create a "concept map" of them, something visual. Mind Maps are a good example of this, but they're only 1 type of concept map. This is extraordinarily easy to remember, and ideally you want to create a visual diagram for each book you read. These pictures or patterns are incredibly easy (comparably) to store in long term memory than recalling say 3 pages of notes. Also they are far easier to draw and convey to another person.