TJL #53: Don't underline (Daily productivity #28)
Productivity tips that work for me and might work for you
Daily Productivity Tip #28
Today’s productivity tip is simple: don’t underline text when reading!
I was rereading my Atomic Habits and I realised that I had a lot of text underlined.
Then it struck me, what did I gain from underlining all this text? Did I memorise it better? Definitely not. I don’t recall any of the things I underlined!
Why do we underline stuff? Is it because we want to remember something for later? If so, judging from my experience, underlining is quite useless.
The problem is that underlining feels useful but actually isn’t. Underlining makes us feel like we understand the material, but we actually don’t. Of course, if you simply want to underline stuff for the sake of underlining that’s fine. But if you are underlining because you want to remember it later, then underlining is not great.
What is helpful on the other hand, if you want to remember stuff, is making notes by closing the book and then trying to recall what was said on the page. This is called active recall and I have written about this here: TJL #32: Use active recall (Daily productivity #7).
Long story short, don’t underline, use active recall.
Thank you for reading!
That was today’s issue of the Daily productivity Newsletter 🚀
Daily Productivity is a newsletter in which I share practical and effective tips on how to become more productive.
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As always, you can find me on my website janmeppe.com or on Twitter at @janmeppe.
Previous TJLs
Read my previous TJLs by following on the links down below:
TJL #6: How to remember the difference between margin and padding
TJL #7: According to Jeff Bezos there are two types of failure
TJL #27: Be aware of the spotlight effect (Daily productivity #2)
TJL #28: Start with the upper-left hand brick (Daily Productivity #3)
TJL #30: Start with writing your README (Daily productivity #5)
TJL #35: Use the Pomodoro technique (Daily productivity #10)
TJL #36: How to handle your negative feelings (Daily productivity #11)
TJL #37: Imagine the work, not the reward (Daily productivity #12)
TJL #38: Separate your writing from editing (Daily productivity #13)
TJL #41: Don't be ashamed to ask for help (Daily productivity #16)
TJL #48: Focus on interests, not positions (Daily productivity #23)