I would never read "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
when reading I don't take notes, but I write down conceptual ideas if they're new to me, or cause me to think about applying something I'm already doing in a different way
alot of what I read doesn't necessarily directly relate to the work I do online, but analyzing and adapting my conceptual thinking has def helped my business. That's the beauty of concepts...they can be extrapolated in so many different ways
when it comes to learning new (to me) facts/info, mostly I just have a shit ton of bookmarks that I reread through when I'm on the streetcar. I can totally see the self-created assignment thing being really helpful, though. I do tend to write out mini-plans for what I'm going to do with new things I learn, which I suppose is a sort of 'assignment'