Reading with intention can change your life

Just like a teacher is able to master a subject because they know they'll be teaching it later on, attacking a book with the same level of purpose means you'll be able to recall information a lot quicker.

A recent study in the journal Memory & Cognition showed the effect that reading with intention and purpose can have. Two groups were given the same material to read-one was told they'd have a test at the end, while the others were told they'd have to teach someone the material.

In the end, both groups were given the same test. Surprisingly, the group that was told they'd have to teach the material (rather than be tested on it) performed much better:

This doesn't necessarily mean you need to read through the book multiple times ( although that does help ). But rather, that you need to have a method for taking and organizing notes around the key parts you want to revisit later on.

The most successful creatives don't just read for pleasure, they read to learn. This might not seem like much of a distinction, but it is. Reading with intention is the sum of all of the parts of memory-it means that you have a specific goal at hand (impression), that you want to connect what you're reading to other information (association), and that it is something you're invested in and will come back to again and again (repetition).