Stop Highlighting Notes — You’re Not Learning Shit

If you watch an aesthetic video on studying (because those exist for some reason), chances are you see a lot of highlighting and bolding (see what I did there. Please laugh.)

Why the hell do people highlight their ‘study notes?’

And the reason a lot of people like doing that is because it’s easy and passive, and maybe even fun. 

Studying is not meant to be fun though — it can be, but not in ways like highlighting the goddamn text.

The problem is that you’re studying passively — you’re not actively learning whatever the hell is going on. 

The reason for this is simple. When you highlight text, you generally want to do that because you can color-code them and read fewer words later on.

WHY DO YOU WANT TO READ LESS WORDS?

The better solution.

Okay so now that I’ve thoroughly taken out my anger on everyone that highlights in the world, I’ll tell you a better solution.

For topics that just need a straight answer (for example, multiple choice questions), use flashcards.

However, if you’re seriously considering applying the knowledge you’ve learned, split your time up.

For example, you do topic A for 15 minutes, topic B, etc. and then you go back to topic A. By topics I don’t mean different subjects but different sub-topics.

Or, you could use spaced repetition. Spaced repetition consists of learning a new topic, then waiting just long enough to forget it, and then doing it again.

This makes it go into your long-term memory, which makes it great for remembering things in the future.

And yeah, there, I said it. I might’ve made someone mad.

Substack: Writing for Absolute Idiots | Kushagra Thapliyal | Substack