Do you want to keep tracks of the book you’ve read? Retain more of the information that you come across? If you answered yes, then you will greatly benefit from keeping a reading journal.
In this blog, I explain how to keep a reading journal, and show how it can help you become a better reader.
What Is a Reading Journal and How to Keep One?
For the longest time, I read self-help books and then stored them away, only for them to collect dust and for me to forget about them. What’s worse is that I didn’t ponder about the knowledge the authors were trying to communicate.
I did something similar with my audiobooks, which I listened to on my work commutes or at the gym. Whenever I finished listening to a particular book on Audible, I would remove the download from my phone and not think about it again. Though I tried to be a good listener, the information didn’t stick with me. In one ear, out the other.
As I finished my felt 1,000th book in this fashion, I realized that I was wasting my time and money. I knew that if I wanted to understand the material, I would have to read it more than just once. I would have to think about it and write it down, if possible. As Zig Ziglar said, “Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”
My ability to retain basic information from books took a 180-degree turn when I stumbled across this reading journal on Amazon. As I learned that day, this is what a reading journal is:
A reading journal is a tool for keeping track of the books that you read and the information that you come across. It provides for space to write down random thoughts, reading experience, and book reviews.
A reading journal can be used in many different ways. I predominantly use it to plan how I can implement new information into my life. It allows me to move in the right direction and also keep track of a number of books that I’ve covered.
The Benefits of Keeping a Reading Journal
I believe that everybody who reads should keep track of key ideas. It will help you make the most out of your books.
A book doesn’t come cheap these days, unless you use an e-reader, such as the Kindle. With Kindle Unlimited Reading, you can access over 1 million titles for about 10 dollars a month.
If you prefer to read paperback or hardcover books, then a reading journal will get you more bang for your bucks. Cost is not the only benefit, though. Here are 5 more reasons you should use a reading journal.
1. It Helps You Get Into a Habit
Many of the reading journals you will find on Amazon include a habit tracker. A habit tracker is a simple way to measure your progress, and a powerful tool to form new habits (For those who are new to this topic, a habit is a routine or behavior you perform regularly and often without conscious thought).
The most basic format is to get a calendar and cross of each day that you stick with your habit. The same method is used in the reading journal that I currently use.
The top row is reserved for the month, and the leftmost column shows the day of the month. At the intersection point of each row and column you will find an empty checkbox, which represents the date. Whenever you finish reading for the day, check off that box.
With time, you will accumulate a streak. The longer the streak, the more satisfying it is to look at, and the deeper the habit.
2. It Provides Visual Progress
The famous comedian Jerry Seinfeld says that the best way to create better jokes was through consistency. He would write jokes every day and pressured himself to do this with his big yearly wall calendar—his version of a habit tracker.
Each day that he wrote, he put a big X on that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt,” says Seinfeld.
Visual progress is one of the best ways to create a habit. A reading journal provides you with evidence of your progress; Think about it: the longer you use the journal, the more you will have written in it, and the more results you will have been able to achieve.
Wouldn’t it be cool if you had a few years’ worth of checkmarks representing all the work you’ve put in? What about a list of books, quotes, personal thoughts, and knowledge that you’ve covered?
3. It Aids With Memorization
Reading journals are also used to write down important information. As soon as you get one, carry it with you wherever you go and write down the most important things you read.
Writing forces your brain to process the information in a more detailed manner. When you use your hands to write, you are forced to slow down and connect the dots. Writing by hand is a great memorization tool.
A reading journal is not just a place for you to dump information, though. If you want to remember something well, you must repeat it often. That being said, also use your journal to review what you’ve already written in it to etch it into your memory. After all, what’s a book if you don’t remember what it’s about?
4. It Can Act as an Index
One of the tabs that you will find in a reading journal is an index page. An index is a list of books with references to where they occur in your journal, typically found at the end of a book.
If you’re unsure what I mean by that, open a book you have lying around and flip to the last few pages. What you will find is a list of the keywords mentioned throughout the book alongside a page number to where that topic can be found.
You can do the same thing with your reading journal. Whenever you finish a book or come across an important topic that you’d like to reference later, add it to your index on the last page. That way you do not need to shuffle around and spend hours trying to find your notes.
This part is especially useful for me when I write a new blog post. I consider it my job to find business great ideas and share them with the world through my website and social media. Whenever I write a new piece of content for this website and I need to review a subject that I’ve previously read, I will flip to the index of my reading notebook and try to find the book title or keyword. It saves me much time, and I think it could do the same for you.
5. It Will Bring to the Surface Your Personal Taste
When I open my reading journal and flip through it, I find that almost all my notes are about self-improvement. It’s filled with comments on books like Atomic Habits or Deep Work—books that I recommend every entrepreneur should read (You can find a list the greatest books I’ve read here).
I am obsessed with learning about ways to improve my life and that of others. Whether I have been successful in that is not for me to decide; My peers and followers are the best judge of the effect that my work has had on them.
When you keep a reading journal, you will find a theme in the books that you read. They will not all be on the same topic, because that would be boring of course. But perhaps you will find that you like to read books on fiction, investing, or relationships—to list a few.
Writing down the books that you’ve read is a powerful exercise. It provides valuable insights and might reveal a passion that you have not been aware of previously.
In one of my favorite books of all time, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, author Angela Duckworth talks about how passions are developed. “Passion for your work is a little bit of discovery, followed by a lot of development, and then a lifetime of deepening.”
If you want to discover your passion, pick up a few books online or at your local bookstore that you think you like, and read them from front to back. Once you’ve finished them, look at what you’ve learned with a critical eye.
- Did the information resonate with you?
- What rating would you give the book?
- Would you read it again?
It takes a lot of books from different genres to identify your personal taste, but after you’ve covered a number of great books and have assigned them with your own star ratings, a pattern will emerge.
How to Keep a Reading Journal
Though the process of keeping a reading journal may seem daunting at first, it is a crucial component to becoming a better reading. What’s most important is that you get started. You don’t need to fill out the entire reading journal at once; Start with one page and move on from there.
Exceptional readers can extract information from books and relate them to their own life thanks to keeping a reading log. What’s more is that they use these words to improve their current situation, no matter how good or bad it may be. Put differently, they consistently implement new information.
If you want to make a difference in your life or business, I highly recommend that you pick up a reading journal and write in it daily. Here are some of the questions that you may be wanting to answer once you’ve finished reading:
- How much did you like the topic that you read about?
- What were the 3 most important pieces of information that you came across?
- Is there a way that you can implement this new knowledge?
Besides answering these questions, feel free to jot down memorable quotes. Words that are well-crafted leave a lasting impact on you. A quote by an unknown author helped me move from a place of stagnation to a place where I was suddenly motivated take action in my own business. It reads, “Day one, or one day. You decide.”
If you believe in the power of words just like I do, I invite you to sign up for my weekly On-Track Newsletter. Besides sharing my favorite quotes, I help entrepreneurs and people interested in growing their business to stay on track with their goals. I look forward to seeing you there.