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By Colby Kultgen

How to Remember Everything You Read, The Most Underrated Productivity Hack, and Setting Baseline Joy

Read online / Read time: 4 minutes

Today at a Glance: • Article: Remember everything you read • Tip: Most underrated productivity hack • Tool: My favorite AI tool of 2025 • Idea: The greatest skill you can develop • Funny: Had me for a second

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An article about how to remember everything you read

To sum up this brilliant piece in 4 words:

Write in your books.

More specifically, leave marginalia (notes, highlights, and scribbles in the margins).

Personally, I always hesitated to do this.

Books felt like these sacred objects that were meant to stay pristine and untouched.

But since reading this article, I’ve fully embraced it: beating up my books, dog-earing pages, and filling them with as much marginalia as possible.

Here’s the case for why:

• Stronger memory. When you underline, question, or explain an idea in your own words, you are doing what psychologists call elaborative encoding. That act of wrestling with the text signals your brain to transfer the knowledge into long-term memory.
• A time capsule. Marginalia becomes a snapshot of your thinking. When you revisit a book years later, your notes act as a map: you see what stood out, what confused you, and how your perspective has evolved.
• Layers of meaning. Sometimes, the notes are as interesting as the text itself. Buying a used book with someone else’s scribbles can feel like finding a story within a story.

If you're wondering how to get the most out of this practice, the full article breaks it down beautifully.

From the marks to make, to the mindset to keep, to the surprising reason you should use ink instead of pencil.

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The most underrated productivity tip

I've spent the last decade obsessing over productivity (to an almost unhealthy degree).

To be honest, most of the advice out there is hustle-bro BS.

Hour long morning routines.
Mainlining caffeine and nicotine.
Tracking your sleep with three different devices.

In reality, it mostly just boils down to this:

Do the hard things as early in the day as possible.

A bit of an oversimplification, yes, but this is really what started moving the needle for me both in my personal and professional life.

It’s no surprise that within the last week, I’ve seen this exact tip shared by two prolific creators — Dan Koe (above) and Charles Miller (below).

Note: This doesn't just apply to entrepreneurs.

The same principle works if you’re climbing the ladder at a 9–5, running a side project, or just trying to build momentum outside of work.

Leverage your mornings.

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My favorite AI tool of 2025
​Sponsored

Speaking of productivity hacks.

No tool has saved me more time in 2025 than Wispr Flow.

It's an AI-powered voice keyboard that lets you speak naturally and turns it into clean, well-punctuated text anywhere: Slack, Gmail, Notes, you name it.

Why I love it:

• No filler words or awkward transcriptions
• Learns your go-to phrases, names, acronyms
• Quiet mode = no awkward stares when you’re dictating in public
• Syncs with your computer for easy note-taking

Exciting news: Flow is now available on your iPhone.

​​Try it out for free right now.​

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One of the greatest skills you can develop

Ok, we had the greatest productivity hack, now we have the greatest skill you can develop.

Superlatives aside, I really think there’s something here.

It’s the ability to set what I’ll call your baseline joy.

A good mood that exists independent of outside circumstances. Instead of waiting for achievements, compliments, or lucky breaks to lift you up, you start from a place that’s already positive.

I realize that’s not always easy.

Some days it feels almost impossible.

But even the act of trying, catching yourself and choosing a better state, builds the muscle over time.

It reminds me of one of my all-time favorite quotes from holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl:

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Had me for a second there 😂

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P.S. Reply telling me what resonated most this week!

(I read and respond to them all)

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