Tech Productivity Issue #363 (How To Remember Everything You Read)

Issue #363 (How To Remember Everything You Read) 01/26/26

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If you find you often read something but don't retain the information well, you might want to check out How To Remember Everything You Read from the Polymath Investor Substack. Usefully, the author has put the article's contents into a printable PDF.

A lot of the posts on that Substack are for paid members only, but this one seems to be open to all, including the link to the PDF.

Reading Retention with Spaced Repetition

There are five primary sections in the document, with multiple sub-heads under each of those sections. The sections are:

Encoding & Comprehension Heuristics
Memory & Retention Frameworks
Synthesis & Integration
Tools & Systems of the Experts
Mindset & Behavioral Heuristics

There should be lots in there for anyone who wants to improve reading comprehension. Of course, many would argue that reading comprehension is not as important today with the influx of AI tools. Nonetheless, I'm still a strong believer that reading is important and I hope the tips in there assist you.

Now on to this week's productivity links!

Tools & Apps

Mole — An all-in-one toolkit for Mac that combines CleanMyMac, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk, and iStat Menus into a single binary, to deep clean your Mac and reclaim up to many gigabytes of space.

AdeptDev — A lightweight project management tool built for web developers that combines Kanban-style task tracking with GitHub integration so you can manage work, code, and progress in one place.

Macaron — A personal AI assistant that does more than make your work, it helps you live better by remembering your preferences and experiences, creating mini-apps to help boost productivity.

OneClient — A comprehensive platform for centralized client management, a streamlined project workflow, document management, professional invoices, real-time communication, and more.

Refind: Brain Food, Delivered Daily — Every day the folks at Refind analyze thousands of articles and send you only the best, tailored to your interests. Loved by more than 550,000 curious minds. sponsor

Slop Evader — A browser extension that adds a search tool to your browser that will only return content created before ChatGPT's first public release on November 30, 2022, so you can avoid so-called 'AI slop'.

Radiant — An AI meeting assistant and workspace for Mac that captures your meetings without a bot, then drafts your notes, email follow-ups, Slack messages, documents, and more.

Articles & Resources

Why Do I Keep Failing My Goals? The Real Reasons + How to Actually Achieve Them — This makes the argument that goal failure is a systems problem and the solution is building a system that works with your brain, based on psychological and neuroscientific reasons for failure.

The Method I Used to Reclaim 72 Hours a Week — If, like the author, you believe that work should only take up 25% of your time, you might benefit from the steps suggested here.

TLDR Dev — Get smarter about software in 5 minutes. The most important software engineering news in one daily email. Join 450,000+ readers. sponsor

This Simple Practice Did More for My Business Than Any Productivity Hack — Interestingly, the practice encouraged here is engaging in a musical hobby, which is supported by evidence that having hobbies relieves stress among other benefits.

The Most Important Skill to Learn in the Next 10 Years — The skill discussed in this long read is 'agency', and the author also encourages becoming a generalist and learning when is the right time to 'break free' (that is, use your agency).

In 2025, I Thought a Lot About the Things I Want to Say to My Boss — One of which is, "I hope you learn that leadership is more than LinkedIn posts and conference talks. It’s the day-to-day choices you make when nobody’s applauding."

How to Deal with Difficult People at Work: 4 Secrets From Experts — This is more of a description of challenging workers (narcissists, bullies, perfectionists, etc.), with some advice at the end on how to handle them.

Suggestions?

Have a suggestion for a productivity-related tool, article, or other resource? Send me a direct message via X or chat via Bluesky and I’ll consider including it in a future issue.

Stay productive!

Louis
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