where they separated a class into two groups.

The researchers had each group take notes for a class in two different ways.

The first group was told to take notes by hand. You know the old-school method with a pen and paper,

which was met with a lot of groans and complaints because...

Well, it requires a lot of effort. It's time-consuming and it cramps up your hands.

The second group was told to take notes by typing it out on their laptop or phone or whatever device.

Which was a far more efficient way of note-taking.

In fact, the second group on average ended up with twice the amount of notes after each class,

compared with the pen and paper group.

Now the purpose of this study was to figure out what method of taking notes would allow you to remember more of what was being taught.

So at the end of the semester the researchers looked at the overall test scores for all of the students in this class.

And to their surprise, the kids who took notes by hand using the old-school pen and paper method,

scored twice as well as the kids who used their laptops. That's a lot.

And at first the researchers thought, okay, maybe having this group take notes by hand somehow prompted them to study a bit more outside of class.

So they conducted this study two more times.

One time they tested each group immediately after class so they had no time to study.

And the second time they gave a surprise test to each group only a week after they took notes.

And both times, the kids who took notes by hand scored about twice as well as the kids who typed out their notes.

What they discovered in this experiment, is what I would like to call the "effort principle".

Essentially, the more effort you put into recording a piece of information, the better you will retain it.

And I believe that this is a concept that has a lot of value in the world of self improvement.

See, one of the biggest issues with self improvement is the fact that there's so much information out there.

There are hundreds of thousands of books, videos and podcasts.

But it doesn't matter how much time you spend consuming this information,

because if you're not remembering any of it and internalizing the lessons, there's no point.

Now, I know, I know I'm someone who advocates listening to audiobooks a lot.

I tell you guys to do it all the time.

But to be honest, I don't think just listening to audiobooks is ideal. It's too easy.

It doesn't require that much effort. In fact, back in the day I would often find myself listening to an entire book.

And just one or two week later barely remembering any of the key concepts.

So today I want to show you a sort of note-taking mini habit that I created over the years,

that has allowed me to retain most of the key lessons from the books that I listen to.

Quick little side tangent. If you are interested in building habits, we do have a new program.

"The habit builder challenge" that teaches you exactly how to do that.

We sold out all of the seats in just a week and the program has been extremely successful so far.

So if you want to gain access to this program the next time we run it,

all you have to do is click on the link in the description box below to sign up for the waiting list.

Now back to the topic at hand.

The note-taking mini habit is essentially this.

See I carried these little water proof notebooks with me.

They are a bit smaller than my phone which makes them very easy to carry around.

And whenever I'm listening to a book and I come across an "aha-moment", basically a moment where the gears in your head click.

And something just makes a whole lot of sense to you.

Something that you know is a game changer that you should really remember.

When that happens, I will put in some effort to record that lesson down.

For example, a couple of weeks ago, I was listening to "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins at the gym.

And I came across an aha-moment when he talked about what he likes to call the "cookie jar method".

The moment I heard about this method, I thought to myself.

"Wow, this is some powerful stuff. I need to remember this."

So I put down my weights. I paused the audio book. I pulled out my little notebook and pen and I wrote down cookie jar method.

And I proceeded to write a short little summary about what it was.

And after doing that I rewinded the audio by a couple of minutes.

Just so I could listen to that part again.

If you take a look at this incident. I'm putting in maybe 10, 20 times more effort into digesting this one piece of information,

as compared to if I just listen to it on the audiobook.

And because of that, that lesson has stuck with me ever since.

And to top it all off, when I really, really want a lesson to stick with me,

I'll actually go out of my way and put in even more effort, by bringing it up in a conversation soon after.

I have some friends that are interested in self-improvement and when we're just hanging out,

I'll talk about some of the new concepts I've come across recently.

The moment you re-teach what you've learned, you're putting in additional effort,

which will cause you to retain the information even more.

This episode's brought to you by... you guessed it, audible.

Now that you know about the effort principle, you still have to read books in order to find powerful lessons that are even worth remembering.

This is where audible comes in.

Audible allows you to find powerful lessons in places where you normally wouldn't be able to pull out a physical book.

I listen to the audio books when I'm commuting on long flights,

when I'm eating by myself and when I'm working out.

Go to www.audible.com/improvementpill or text "improvementpill" to 500500 to get started today. You will get one free audible book of your choice, and two free audio originals every single month.

Of course, I recommend you guys to check out "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins. It is a very powerful book jam-packed with powerful lessons that we should all remember.

So, definitely check that out. Besides that, guys, stay tuned.