It’s often said that consuming content won’t help you achieve your goals.

Reading books on business won’t grow your business. Listening to podcasts on productivity won’t make you more productive. Watching videos on graphic design won’t make you a graphic designer.

It’s wrong, learning should never stop.

In fact, the actions we take in our lives are highly influenced by what we consume. Reading business books won’t grow your business, but they’ll make it easier for you to grow your business.

But then, there’s the problem of endlessly consuming content without taking action.

I divide consuming content into two different categories:

• Mindless Consumption

• Mindful Consumption

Mindless Consumption is scrolling through YouTube watching lots of valuable videos and not remembering even a single lesson you took away after a week. It’s reading lots of valuable articles but not taking action on what you’ve learned.

That’s what most people advise you to avoid doing.

On the other hand, Mindful Consumption is:

• Having a list of content to consume

• Capturing notes of your learnings and highlights

• Taking action on what you’ve learned

In this post, I am going to share the system I use to consume content mindfully.

My System

I break down my system of content consumption into two parts:

• Capture valuable content

• Take notes and highlights

Let’s go through each of these.

Capture Valuable Content

The first part is having a list of content to consume.

Imagine you’re in the middle of a focus session and you come across a really valuable article. But since you don’t want to break your focus, instead of reading that article, you should go ahead and save it somewhere.

Then, you can schedule a specific time for content consumption.

I use a tool called Readwise Reader to store all my read-it-later content in one place. It also allows me to read all of the content in a single distraction-free environment.

It’s currently in public beta, so you can use it for free, but you’ll have to pay for it once it’s launched.

The tool that I use doesn’t matter, you just want to have a place where you can quickly dump the content that you find interesting.

It can be a Notion document, text file or even YouTube’s “Watch Later” playlist.

You don’t wanna break your focus, that’s more important.

You can consume the content later on.

Take Notes & Highlights

Now, once we have a list of content we can consume.

It’s time to consume it, but mindfully.

To do just that, I use a Notion database I call the “Knowledge Base”. In this database, I store all the content I consume and what I have learned from them.

I use a 7 columns database like this:

• Title: pretty self-explanatory

• Format: is it a newsletter, a YouTube video, or a podcast episode?

• Author: who’s the one who produced this content?

• Status: is it to consume, in progress, or consumed?

• Topics: what broad topics is the content about?

• Link: the link to the content

• Data: the date I consumed it

That’s not the main point.

Because you can always change your system according to your needs.

Now as for the note-taking part, I use a simple Notion template that goes like this:

The Big Idea.

The first thing I note is what’s the big idea behind the content?

How do I think it’ll provide me value?

This is a simple but effective method to make more sense of your learning.

Highlights.

Then I move on to capturing my highlights from the content. I use a simple color coding system that works for me.

I use:

• Red for Strong Ideas

• Blue for Actionable Tips

• Yellow for Interesting Ideas

• Green for Quotes

I try to get at least one of each highlight for every content I consume, so basically, it’s 4 highlights or more.

Action Steps.

Next up, I note down the action steps.

The steps that I can take in order to achieve the outcome I initially thought of when consuming that specific piece of content.

I note a simple to-do list and when I can take those actions.

For example, if you listened to a podcast episode that teaches you how to grow your business from $5M to $10M, you first have to get to $5M in order to take action on what you’ve learned.

So, write down the action steps and when you’ll be eligible to take them.

Ideas / Opportunities.

The next thing is ideas and/or opportunities.

It is to note down potential ideas or opportunities that come into your mind after consuming the content. Sometimes, the most creative thinking awakes when you’re consuming.

For me, I note down content ideas.

You can note down whatever you think best fits you. You can note down offer ideas. You can note down campaign ideas. And you can even note down business ideas.

I’ll tell you once again: how I optimize my system doesn’t mean that you also have to use the same system, you can create one that works best for you.

Next Steps

This was my system for capturing, organizing, and note-taking content.

Ready to learn through content more effectively and mindfully?

Here's what to do next:

1. Sign up for a tool that lets you save content on the fly

2. Capture any interesting and valuable content you come across

3. Create a Notion database to store your learnings i.e. the Knowledge Base

4. Create a template to easily document your learnings

5. Schedule time blocks to go through your list and consume

6. Capture highlights, notes, action steps, and ideas

7. Take action, that’s more important.

The key to consuming content mindfully is to consistently capture content, consume it, and take notes properly that move the needle.

If you can do that, you'll never procrastinate while “learning” and will be able to learn with more sense.

I hope you’ll give this a try!

See you on Saturday.