How can I better use & apply knowledge?

Not applying what you learn, is the best way to
convert your time and effort you invested
in learning into waste 

Learning a lot and applying nothing, is as good as learning nothing. What works for me is a process that I have been following since a long time. A process that involves breaking down all my life's lessons into small parts and grouping them under relevant categories to which they belong, once all that is done, I associate them with a skill or quality or a personality trait, which allows me to move into the 'Action' part. Let me also add that these life's lessons can be taken from personal experiences, observation from surroundings, a small but inspiring talk with friend, a seminar or a book or even a movie.

Here is the process:

1. Make an immediate note of the thing that you have learnt. Do not do this for all small bits that you learn everyday but only when the learning is worth noting down. You can make a note of that on Google Keep, a clutter-free note taking app. I use it most of the times
2. The note should NOT exceed a line or two. Try following the twitter approach of keeping the note restricted to 10 characters
3. Pick a fixed date of a month and that day you can read all your notes and convert every lesson into a personality trait
4. Once you make the list of these personality traits or qualities or skills that you need to work on, you next step is to do a self-check to understand how many of those skills or qualities you have but need an improvement on, or you do not have them and need to cultivate them in yourself 
5. Once you know exactly what areas you need to work on, GET STARTED immediately. 

To make things more clear let me cite a quick example:

1. If in the month of July, when I sat down for simplifying my 'lessons learnt' and came up with a list of three skills, like Communication to myself and to others
2. Now I proceed with a self-check and felt that I need improvement in the communication that I do with myself (may be I talk with a negative tone inside my mind about myself and this leads to a lowered self-esteem) 
3. My next step to really apply that knowledge will be to catch myself the next time I indulge in talking negative inside my head, I can of course further do a quick R and D about how to get more in control of this self-talking habits and how can I improve it in order to achieve greater level of happiness and motivation in life