Nine Benefits of Summarising Books

I’ve taken the time to reflect on the benefits of summarising books – from my personal experience over the last month.

Studying, not reading

You are not just reading a book. You're studying a subject.

It's different.

It's akin to giving yourself an assignment.

There's a book. It deals with a powerful concept that you want to learn.

With the assignment of a book summary, you have to consider:

• Key takeaways from the book
• Key takeaways from each chapter

You are looking for the main ideas and key concepts that will help people in their daily life or to remind them of the key aspects of the book (which they may have already read) for the full concept to come back to them through association.

Not to mention you can always come back to it for a glimpse of the main points, and remind yourself of them on a regular occasion until they become ingrained into your thought process.

A higher level of commitment to reading

When you summarise your books, your commitment to reading increases.

You choose books that you feel will have a powerful message.

You tend to read books that help you focus on your skillset and interests.

You start to consider things at a much deeper level.

Why are you reading the book and what do you want to get out of it?

I've set myself a goal to become one of the best copywriters of my generation.

The aim is to become educated enough that I attract opportunities to work within a high-profile environment – with clients that matter.

And produce results.

That will take time.

What better than my blog to prove and showcase my abilities?

How do I do that? I summarise books and write blogs.

There's the motivation.

It's a higher-level purpose that keeps me committed to the book.

I want to learn everything I can about the topic, which keeps me going back for the third and fourth read.

The book summaries are just an extension of that purpose - to keep me motivated and to showcase my expertise.

More clarity on subject matters

Being clear on a subject matter to me means that you can attach that to other thoughts and concepts, conceptualising how the idea in the book has practicality.

You don't get half of the level of understanding on a subject if you have just read it, over the clarity you feel over the idea when you have summarised the work.

Summarising clarifies your understanding and cements the key aspects of the book into your mind.

Without putting it into your own words and thinking deeply about the subject discussed in the book, how would you put the ideas into context?

I find I can explain the ideas with much more clarity and precision.

I can apply them to my work.

I can see the world differently because of them.

All because I summarised the book, rather than just reading it cover-to-cover.

Thinking things through...

Having to write summaries means you have to be concise.

Having to be concise means you have to carefully consider the key ideas of the book.

Then you clarify the concepts in the least amount of words possible.

If you're just regurgitating the book, you aren't providing a summary... You're simply copying the book.

Summarising is about getting the key ideas and prioritising them for your reader.

If you only had a short amount of time to consume all the information in this book, what would be the main points you would want to remember?

This requires you to think things through and put them into your own words, which science has shown helps we retain information.

Stating what you've learned is a powerful way to cement the knowledge, particularly if you are contextualising the information.

Discover the big ideas

One thing in a book summarise is the three or five key principles that you can take from a book.

This is the true value of summarising a book.

You take away powerful ideas with you – ideas that you have had to sit and consider.

Why?

It makes you consider the priority of the topics in the book.

The ‘big ideas’ part of the summary is all about priority.

It’s about thinking for yourself.

A good question to ask:

If the book has ten things to teach, which are the most important three?

Considering how the knowledge can be applied

As you write about the key concepts, you are engaged in thoughts that consider how this knowledge can be applied in life.

The most powerful way to learn the concepts is having to prioritise them.

It leads you to consider:

How are these ideas going to contribute to my reader's understanding of this topic?

How can I apply this to my life?

Why is this more important than other points in the book?

You can remind yourself of key points

I often listen to my audible titles three times as I’m summarising them, though it is always good to have a reference to key points within a book.

You can do as you wish with that.

I would re-read books periodically.

I don’t need to do that anymore, you can pick up the ideas through association with your key points.

Laser-focus on your subject matter

When you're consistently engaged in reading new material and stretching your comprehension of a subject, it becomes a lot easier to focus.

New books, new concepts, new ideas.

New principles to apply to your work.

You are stacking on your knowledge every single day.

It allows you to comprehend the subject in more depth each day, each week, each month – you get more and more layers to stack upon your set of skills.

It becomes a habit to apply the principles you are learning in your work.

As a consequence, you get better.

And the cycle continues.

You become happier

With all this writing, reading and lack of social media, I've become a hell of a lot happier.

I think the key is the focus.

Focus on new ideas.

On my career.

On my long-term prospects of becoming a writer.

It's also the fact I am doing, not just 'thinking about what I could do.'

I'm consistently writing.

Self-control is a huge contribution to your happiness.

It's a good idea. Try it out if you're having problems staying focused...

Personally? I think it's been one of my most important lessons. I will continue to summarise books and study this way for the rest of my life, I do not doubt that.