Last week I wrote about the value of creating and following good habits for success in life. Today I want to share one habit I began years ago that has provided great rewards for me. As regular readers of this blog know, I read a lot. The shelves in my library are overflowing with books. The problem of reading a lot is remembering what you read and finding it again when needed. As a student at Boyce Bible School in the 1980s a professor taught us a simple trick he followed and which I have followed since then.
When I read a book I keep a highlighter nearby to mark important thoughts. When the book is finished I record those thoughts in my computer in folders I've established. There is a file in my Word program marked "Book Notes." In that file are hundreds of folders with different subject titles. I go through the book I just finished looking for the highlighted items and type those items word for word into the proper folder. At the end of the item I have the identification number for the resource.
Each book is numbered using the Dewey Decimal System. The book number and page number is placed at the end of the item I just put in the appropriate folder. For instance the ID for that notation might be 231 BIC: 47. I now have the quote, the book number and the page number so I can go immediately to that resource. There's no more trying to remember the exact quote, which book it's in or what page it's on.
Does it take time to do that for each book? It sure does, and there's times I don't want to do it. But over the years I've learned that no matter how much I'm sure I'll remember the quote and where it's at in my library, I won't. Taking the time to record that information makes it much easier to find it later when I'm preparing a sermon or writing a book. The work upfront pays off on the back end. I can give proper recognition to the original work and I don't lose my train of thought searching for the resource.
When one begins his or her ministry it's possible to not have that many books, and you might think you won't need such a filing system. However, it doesn't take long before those book shelves begin to fill up. Without a good retrieval system those quotes you were sure to remember will get lost in the shelves, and you'll spend hours trying to find it. No minister has the time to spend trying to find the information he or she needs to properly prepare the sermon.
Maybe you have a better system, and that's fine. Find one that will work for you and use it faithfully.
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