One of the best habits I've developed is to extract quotes from my reading sessions and write them in my pocket notebook.

Before this habit, I would consume information passively and none of it would stick. The pocket notebook enabled me to capture the ideas that resonated with me and created an alternative in my pocket to reach for in times of boredom. I started to reflect on these nuggets of wisdom in place of impulsively checking my email and eventually found myself memorizing passages by doing what I like to call recall walks.

Active recall–a study habit where you intermittently try to recall a piece of information before checking for errors–is a proven way to learn and memorize information. During my walks with the dog I started to recite quotes I had written in my pocket notebook before checking to see if I remembered correctly. Turns out you can train your memory pretty fast with this simple method. At the risk of sounding pretentious(or maybe just dorky), I've even started to memorize some passages of Shakespeare who I'm reading for the first time in my life.

But memorization alone isn't that helpful. "Learned we may be with another man's learning" wrote Montaigne–the 17th-century inventor of the essay– "we can only be wise with the wisdom of our own." It's important for me to remember that the ideas I'm capturing in my commonplace book are actually being practiced, not just recited.

So when I go on these recall walks and train my memory, I take it one step further and try to internalize these ideas by drawing connections to my life. When Hamlet laments, "Conscience does make cowards of us all" I think about the time I didn't show up to a Valentines Day date when I was 17 because I got too anxious about how it might go. And when Epictetus warns us "that it is impossible for a man to learn that which he thinks he already knows" I'm reminded of the ten-year guitar playing plateau that I was only able to break through by going back to the music theory fundamentals.

As I walk and recall these quotes, patterns emerge and new connections form. I can see how new ideas intersect with my life and how what seems new at first is usually a timeless truth. "Use laws that are old, Periander of Corinth said some 2500 years ago, "but food that is fresh." The good quotes stand the test of time because every generation finds a fresh perspective to see it through. Or, as Tim Ferris puts it, "the good shit sticks."

Of course, there is the more practical use of commonplace books which is to use the quotes as reference material in your work like I have been in this newsletter. But I find the daily practice of recall walks paired with personal reflection to be a more useful application for the average person who is interested in commonplacing.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, "No man ever steps in the same river twice for it's not the same river, and he's not the same man."

You might find the same truth while reflecting on the quotes in your commonplace book.

Prompt:

How can you incorporate recall walks into your day?

(I also practice active recall while standing in line at the grocery store. The options don't have to be relegated to walks alone. There may shorter spaces in your day where you can fit in a quick memory muscle rep. )