Stop Forgetting Everything: My System To Learn Fast

One hour. That's all it takes to forget 50% of what you are learning right now. And it only gets worse. Within 24 hours, you will forget 70% of what I just said. In one week, 80%.

Here's the thing: you're probably consuming more content than ever. Hours of YouTube videos, multiple books per month, countless articles, and podcasts. You're investing massive time and energy into learning every single day. But science proves it.

We are learning completely wrong. According to this little curve right there, in 30 days, you will remember less than 5% of what you're learning right now. And you know what everyone suggests to address this phenomenon? Consume more: read more books, watch more videos, take more courses. However, they are completely ignoring the real problem. They have no system for retention, no method for implementation, and no structure for creation.

This results in massive time waste, information overwhelm, and minimal actual growth. In this video, I'm going to show you the science behind learning and memory retention and why 97% of people are completely wasting their time while learning. But more importantly, I will show you my exact step-by-step system that I use for content acquisition, including how to choose what to consume, the best tools to capture information, and, most importantly, how to ensure you actually retain and use what you learn. You will get my complete system with templates, SOPs, and the proven implementation roadmap that will help you transform your approach to learning for personal growth and content creation. No more wasting hours consuming information you will forget. No more random highlighting that you will never look at again.

No more struggling to find that perfect reference when you need it. If you're ready to stop forgetting, actually learn and retain what you consume, and start creating better content, let's dive in. In this video, we'll explore the science of learning for content creators. We'll examine why traditional learning fails, the science we are learning, and the solution—a systematic approach. You'll receive an implementation guide to apply this system, and I'll also explain how to access Noah's Ark Bank to obtain all the templates and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that I will discuss and demonstrate in the video.

First, let's explore why traditional learning fails and the science behind learning. The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, discovered in the 1880s by Hermann Ebbinghaus, illustrates how information decays in our brains. According to this curve, 50% of information is lost within the first hour, 70% is gone after 24 hours, only 20% remains after a week, and less than 5% after 30 days.

And the thing is, the curve is exponential. The steepest declines happen immediately, then it gradually levels off. This is why most learning methods fail, as you can see here. The only way to prevent it is to practice spaced repetition. It consists of reviewing information at increasing intervals and requires active recall. This means that the more you actively try to recall the information instead of just reviewing or rereading it, the more you will create new neural pathways and the better you will remember the information.

Each review strengthens memory and creates new neural pathways, which helps you remember the information better. Every time you review or actively retrieve information, you prevent the ebbing of the forgetting curve, leading to improved retention. Now, the next concept I want to show you is the learning pyramid. It illustrates how effectively we retain information depending on the type of learning.

So, it's 5% from lectures, 10% from reading, 20% from audio or visual material, 30% from demonstration, 50% from discussion, 75% from practice, and 90% from teaching others. The thing is, most people use only passive methods; they are just reading, watching, or listening. However, active learning is crucial. Teaching, practicing, discussing, taking notes, and writing about what you learn are essential components of effective learning. That's why it is said that the best learning method is teaching.

The next concept is the content hierarchy. The idea is that not all content is created equal. Books have the highest value because they provide deeply structured insights, are thoroughly researched, and have stood the test of time. Below books, we have articles, newsletters, YouTube videos, and social media. The goal is that when you're trying to learn something new, you should seek out the content that ranks highest in this hierarchy. If you spend all day watching YouTube shorts to learn a skill, it would be more beneficial to select the best book on the subject and study it thoroughly. The last concept I want to discuss regarding the science of learning is the Lindy effect. The Lindy effect states that the longer something has survived, the longer it is likely to continue surviving. This explains why books that have lasted for 100 years will likely last another 100 years. Understanding this principle is important for learning because it encourages you to focus on timeless ideas, avoid temporary trends, and build foundational knowledge.

So, how do you apply it? Prioritize classic works, look for time-tested ideas, and question the new revolutionary methods and new material that is emerging every day. Now, how can you apply all of the principles I show you into an integrated system? We are going to explore a systematic approach. First, we will look at the tool stack for better learning.

And the first tool I want to talk about is Readwise, which will serve as your central hub. It will allow you to sync all your highlights, create daily review sessions, and facilitate spaced repetition with the highlights of the content you've consumed. We will connect it with every tool I'm going to show you next. Then, we're going to use content capture tools. We'll use Kindle for books and Snipd for podcasts. Snipd will allow you to save key moments, access AI-generated transcripts of the podcasts you're listening to, and quickly highlight the key moments of the podcast that you want to remember.

And it will also sync with Readwise, which will allow you to see those highlights and the summary of the highlights in your Readwise library. The next tool is Reader, which we will use for everything else. We're going to utilize it for articles, newsletters, YouTube video transcripts, and PDF highlights. Reader is a "read it later" app that allows you to save content for later and read it directly inside the software, highlighting the key moments you want to remember. This will automatically sync with Readwise. To establish an effective content processing system, it is important to make learning a daily priority. Here’s a good example of a learning routine you can follow: In the morning, try to read for 15 to 30 minutes. During your commute, listen to podcasts and highlight key moments with Snip. After lunch, you can also read for an additional 15 minutes during digestion.

In the evening, when you're tired from work, you can start processing articles and videos. Using a reader, before going to bed, you can read again for 15 to 30 minutes. When you're highlighting information, try to apply an active highlighting method; avoid highlighting passively. If you want to, you can also write quick notes about why a particular point is important and why you highlighted it. This will help you later when you are processing those highlights. Try to think ahead about how you can use each highlight, whether it is to create a note or develop content related to it. If you're learning with a specific goal in mind, and you have a project you're working on, knowing why and how you want to apply the information will significantly improve your memory retention. Additionally, try to connect new information with your existing knowledge and concepts. You can also establish a daily review process. Use Readwise's daily review feature to go over your highlights each day.

Practice pace repetition with it, and try to actively recall key points instead of just reviewing them. After that, we're going to integrate this whole system with Cortex. If you don't already know what Cortex is, it is DanCo's new second brain app for creators and writers. It allows you to streamline your notes and your writing workflow in the same place, featuring a seamless interface. This is the tool that I use for all of my content creation and learning system. It's free, so I highly recommend you check it out; the link is in the description. All of the templates and systems I will provide are in Cortex, so it's better to subscribe. All the highlights from Reader, Sniped, and Kindle will sync with Readwise, which will sync with Cortex. This will allow you to create your personal library and consolidate everything in one place.

It's organized by format, so you can see the book session, the article section, podcast notes, the video highlights, and other relevant content. It will be connected to a larger system because now you don't just have a bank of highlights like you had in Readwise; you have it inside Cortex, which is your hub for content creation and organization. This way, you can make all of your highlights from the content you're consuming a part of your content creation workflow. It will feed into your writing process, and you can also link it to permanent notes. Now that you have a complete overview of the system and the key concept of memory retention, we're going to see how to implement this system in Cortex. First, how to set up the entire system. You need to install the full tool stack, starting with Readwise, which will be your central hub for all your highlights and will connect everything together.

Then, we set up the tools: Kindle, Snipe, and Reader. Next, you connect all these tools to Readwise, and then you sync Readwise with Cortex. You will be able to see the highlights if they are syncing. So, I'm going to show you directly how it looks. I created this entire SOP in Cortex to help you initialize the whole system. Just like the new routine I just showed you, you can download it for free in the description. Now, I'm going to walk you through the entire process. First, we need to initialize the system. You can go to readwise.io and create your account. Then, go to "Connect and Sync" and select "Import Highlights." Here, you will see all the different apps with which you can connect to import your highlights. As you can see, I have Kindle, Twitter, Snipe, and Reader. You can also sync with all the apps that are listed there.

Quick tip: If you're using Kindle and sending your PDFs directly to it for highlighting, note that your highlights won't sync automatically with Readwise. This is because Kindle highlights only sync automatically when they are taken from books purchased in the Amazon library. However, to import all the highlights you've made, you can connect your Kindle to your computer, find the myclippings.txt file, and import it into Readwise. This way, you will have all of your highlights, including those from PDFs that aren't directly downloaded from the Amazon library. Readwise offers multiple options to help you manage your highlights as you prefer.

For example, if you go to configure reviews, you can set up the daily review you will receive to retrieve your highlights and practice optimal repetition. You can change the settings for each day, adjust the frequency for each book and article, and you can also browse your highlights by type. Here, as you can see, I can view all of the articles and books I've consumed, along with all the highlights from them. The next step is to set up Reader. Reader, as I mentioned, is a "read it later" app.

The idea is that you have the Chrome extension available for download on the Google Chrome extensions store. Every time you want to save an article or video to read later, you simply click on it. I will show you an example on my blog. If I go to my blog and click on the latest newsletter, I can just click the extension, and now it has been saved to my reader.

And here, as you can see, it has automatically been added to my library. From there, I can decide if I want to consume it, but at least it's there. The main benefit of Reader is that it allows you to control and manage what you consume, rather than having your content learning workflow dictated by an algorithm. This way, you can easily save and read later the content that truly matters to you. The second key feature of Reader is creating feeds.

Feeds are content that are automatically added to your Readwise through RSS feeds or through the newsletter. So basically, when creating a reader account, you will have access to a custom email address that you can use to subscribe to email newsletters. When you subscribe with this email address, it will automatically add the content to the feed. You can create folders, tags, and other organizational tools to filter items as I did here. This way, you have your own custom feed of content that you have created yourself, organized in chronological order.

It allows you to create your own feed of interesting content. This way, you're no longer a slave to the algorithm for the content you're consuming; you are intentionally selecting the creators you want to learn from and benefiting from their content, which is a game changer. Then you have Snipe. You can download it from the app store. You can actually use the free version if you're not a huge podcast listener like I am. However, the paid plan is definitely worth it if you listen to a lot of podcasts.

And then here you have Kindle, where you will have your Kindle library with all of the books you've bought and the PDFs you send to your Kindle. From there, you can highlight directly in the books. By the way, I'm about to show you a pro tip on how to use Readwise and how to highlight effectively in Kindle that I wish I knew before. It would have saved me so much time if I had known this tip three years ago. So here we are in the Kindle app for Mac. Basically, when you're highlighting, you just have to select the text and click there. Here you can add notes. When you're adding a note, you can, of course, include your thoughts about why you made this highlight. However, Readwise allows you to do something very interesting: create custom commands for the highlights you've taken. For example, for this title, I've created a note that begins with ".h2". Essentially, when you write ".h" followed by a number (1, 2, 3, and so on), it will create a title in your Readwise library that will separate your highlights.

When you're consuming and studying huge books, it's an absolute game changer because it allows you to see where you are in the book. Another thing you can do is concatenate highlights. For example, if you have one sentence that you want to highlight and then you want to highlight the end of another sentence, but between them there is a lot of fluff that you don't want to highlight, you can follow this method. First, highlight the first part and create a note with dot C1. Then, take the end of the second part that you want to highlight and add a note, which will be dot C2.

And basically, "c" means concatenate, and it will concatenate both highlights and make them into one. So it's very, very useful when you're taking highlights because, in books, it's very easy to highlight an entire paragraph just because you had two or three sentences separately that you wanted in one highlight. But because there was a lot of fluff or stories between each of them, you were forced to highlight the whole paragraph. This way, you can just take what is very important and be very intentional about what you're highlighting, which is very, very important. As I said, you don't want to be just passively highlighting; you want to do it actively.

This comment will help you be more intentional and actively highlight content from Kindle. Here’s how it looks in Readwise: you have a table of contents created from the little notes I added to each title using H1 or H2 formatting. If I click on a title, I can see all of the subheadings I've inputted. This way, I can view my highlights organized by the different sections I've highlighted.

And it's so cool because now I can see the highlights by chapters and subchapters, which is very useful when you want to reread some parts, retrieve key information, or create notes. So this was just my pro Readwise tip. As I said, I wish I had known this tip sooner because it would have saved me a lot of time when retrieving some of the highlights I've made from past books. But hey, now you know it too! And so the last step is to sync your Readwise with your Cortex library.

This way, you have everything synced, making it very simple. Just go to app.cortex.co, create your account, and you'll have access to the app—it’s free! Then, click on settings and select Readwise. Follow the short tutorial to sync Cortex with Readwise using the access token. Once it's done, you will automatically have all of your Readwise highlights inside Cortex. This way, you will have a library containing all of your highlights from Readwise within Cortex.

So now you can add mentions and authors, and you can incorporate specific highlights into your content. It's absolutely amazing! For example, I have this note on the flow state, and I just tagged the authors. I can see the book referenced by this author and all the highlights associated with this author and book. If I want to add a reference from a highlight in the book, I can simply go there, find a highlight that makes sense, create a quote section, and copy the highlight to paste it here. Now, as you can see, the highlight has been copied, and I can see the author and the book from which it originates.

So I have direct integration in my notes and in the content I'm writing as well, because you will be writing your content and creating notes in Cortex as well, and you will have everything there. So that's absolutely amazing for connecting, centralizing, and streamlining your learning and writing workflow. That concludes the demo. Now, if you want some quick wins to start just after this video, begin with one format. Choose either books or articles, master that workflow first, try it out, and incorporate it into your daily routine. Then explain it to others. You can add podcasts, books, art, YouTube videos, and more into your process. Start your daily routine. You can use the free X15 reading method that I talked about during the morning, lunch, and evening.

It's small but consistent, and during the day, you will be reading for one hour without even realizing it. Additionally, use the daily review feature of Readwise. The daily highlight review takes just five minutes a day. This practice will reinforce the habit of spaced repetition and help you retrieve new information every day. It will spark numerous ideas and enable you to retain and remember much more from the books you're consuming, along with all the articles and other material—it's totally worth it. One pitfall you need to avoid is trying to do everything at once.

Start small and grow gradually. Master one tool at a time and build sustainable habits. Try to avoid passive light lighting. Don't highlight without thinking. Be intentional and consider the future use of these highlights. Watch out for information overload; focus on quality over quantity when learning.

Focus on implementation and trust the system. We produce as much information every day as humanity did from its creation to 2003. These statistics come from the former Google CEO, and it's absolutely crazy when you think about it. That's why, in today's age, you really have to focus on quality and not succumb to the fear of missing out. There will always be thousands of new pieces of content every day.

But there are a few timeless principles, books, and authors that you truly want to study in your field. So, find them and focus your time on them. Now you can access Noah's Ark Bank and explore all the templates, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and systems I just showed you and even more. To get a complete system, you can simply download Noah's Ark Bank. You will find everything you need to create the perfect second brain system with Cortex.

You will have the plug-and-play system that you can start using today. Inside, you will find three complete SOPs, including the one I just showed you today for configuring your library and revising materials. You will also find one for applying the Telecast method and another for writing amazing content. I will create two YouTube videos for both of them, just like I did with this video. You will have access to eight Cortex templates to set up your second brain, including note-taking templates, templates for writing short-form content, and templates for writing long-form content.

I recently added a YouTube video template that I used to create the video you're watching right now. You will also find three essential tools: the tag taxonomy, which is my tag organization system; copywriting structures that I use when I'm writing content; and a framework to identify your three highest priority tasks and focus on them in your business. As a bonus, you will also gain access to all my mind maps from previous videos. This way, you can easily remember and reference any concept I've discussed in these videos directly from the mind maps. The link is in the description, and it's free access.

You can start downloading it today. Also, if you're joining it and joining Cortex as well, I highly advise you to join the Cortex community on Discord. This way, you can share your progress, ask questions, and get support, whether from me or from the whole Cortex team. We are very active on Discord, so I highly recommend you join and see what's going on there. Now, let's conclude this video.

So now that you have your complete acquisition system in place, you might be wondering what's next. How do you actually use all of these highlights and turn them into valuable notes that you will be able to reuse in your content creation? Well, that's exactly what I'm going to show you in the next video. I will demonstrate how to apply the Zettelkasten method to all the highlights you've just captured. You will learn how to process the information in a way that not only helps you retain it but actually makes it immediately usable for content creation. I will show you how you can create atomic notes that will become the building blocks of all your future content. So subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss it when it's out. And before you go, if you haven't seen it yet, check out my overview of my entire second brain system inside Cortex. It will show you how everything we've covered today fits into the bigger picture of your learning and content creation system.

You can click here to watch it now. Go on, watch it right now. I'm looking at you!

It's here. Click. Have a nice day, guys.