Why Can't I Remember What I Just Read/Heard In A Book?

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I bought a best seller book for a Kindle app to help with getting into the mindset of obtaining a career, keeping it, and then following one's long term occupational dreams but I ran into an ever so common issue that put my reading to a halt. I can't remember what I just read in the damn book and same goes for just about every other book that I read as well! I am not so sure of myself as to why I have had this problem for so long now. Also, I have this problem when I'm listening to audo books, I have an audible.com membership that is about to dry up and I'm not sure if I'll subscribe to it again once it reaches the end.

I've been trying to highlight every thing that I read that seems like it may have even a slight of importance to me the moment I read it, and I often end up having to re-read so much over and over just to tell if it's important enough to keep the highlight, and it's still difficult to remember the highlited parts. It almost feels like I'm preparing to write a book by going over and over the thing. With the Audio books I have to pause them, go back to the beginning of what I thought was useful, and replay it over and over so I can type what I heard word for word in WordPad. It takes a lot out of me... I'm drained so quickly. I feel like I am going nuts!

Try this technique out: The first time, read it quick. It will do two things, I find reading quickly actually helps with comprehension. And secondly you can filter the important stuff. And then with the 2nd pass you wont waste time on the unnecessary stuff and it will reinforce the material. This is what I do you with my textbook reading for my classes so im not sure how it would apply to what you are reading. I used to sit there and read for hours trying to remember everything and understand everything the first time around. And then when it came time to do problems, I would find out I wasted a massive amount of time trying to remember stuff I didnt need. But if you dont have problems to do, maybe make a list of goals before you read so you'll have an idea of whats important.

And be easy on yourself with this, most people have the difficulty you are describing with the reading. Try not to try sooo hard. And same goes for the audio, myself and my friends dont like the online classes because of the audio lectures. We complain of the same thing about spending more time (sometimes double, at least for me) than the actual length of the lecture.

the standard learning model [for most of us] says that for our brains to fully learn something it has to be repeated 6 times, preferably in novel ways.

regarding audio books, i have found i can't pay attention to some speakers but focus better depending on the voice or the way they speak.

in general, repetition helps because i seem to pick up on different things at different times. having no distractions helps but frequently my own thoughts and worries distract me from what i am reading or listening to. it amazes me how much i missed when i read/listen at a time i am "with it" or "on track" compared with the same material when i am preoccupied or having a bad day (which is most days). not phrased very well because i'm not "with it" right now.

Well, I have enough trouble focusing to read in the first place, but when I do read, I have to read sentences and paragraphs maybe even up to 5 times before I can remember it much at all. So this I can understand.