5/16/2023 0 Comments Instapaper vs readwise![]() ![]() The Instapaper browse list is also a good source. The best of these often come from newsletters the fact they’re mentioned in a newsletter means they have already passed the filter of others. Trying things out of left-field is good to open your horizons it’s often these that generate connections you didn’t even know you were looking for. It gives fresh oxygen to confirmation bias and limits your ability to connect the dots between different fields and different cultures. If you only pick up books you know with certainty you’re going to like you’ll confine yourself to reading the same authors on the same topics. Interestingness - Finally, I look for something that might be just plain interesting. One way I have begun exploring (it’s very much an experiment-in-progress) this is to filter the article through Richard Feynman’s 12 Favourite Problems. If I’m not feeling particularly focused, I’ll aim toward lighter reads.Ĭurrent topics of interest - I’ll tend toward articles that look like they could have a direct impact on whatever my current focus is. Time available - I’ll use the estimated reading time in Instapaper to choose shorter or lengthier readsĮnergy levels - I also factor this into length, and gauge the reading intensity I might need to consume the information. There’s more art than science behind my choices, but they factor in: I have several heuristics I use to decide what to read. Just because something made my Instapaper list, doesn’t mean I’m definitely going to read it. I don’t need to seek it out, which frees my mental energy for things that I have more control over. The most critical information will make its way to me. I don’t follow the news much, often they’re nothing more than clickbait, and most news doesn’t directly affect my daily life. Learn your own energy peak, trough and rebound cycle, and plan to read accordingly. And then, before bed, I will switch to fiction to completely relax and unwind. In early evenings, my reading will be predominantly non-fiction books, when I read more deeply and take notes. I’ll generally read articles during breakfast and lunch. Consequently, I try to plan the periods when I’ll read to take advantage of my natural energy levels. I have come to realise that doing one thing well, and giving your whole attention to it is vital if you want to absorb the material and think as you read. However, there are a few crucial points worth noting. I have to be able to make my own backups and export entirely whenever I need to. One of my fundamental principles for applications that hold my data is my ability to retain control. However, until they add export features, I’m not ready to commit. It is a joy for bookmarking random stuff, where you generally don’t need or want to overthink things for organising and later retrieval, such as recipes or visual ideas. More recently, I have also tried out MyMind, which is a fascinating concept and does make capture simple. Others which are for more direct action, I send to Drafts which I then add to Roam in my daily notes. I capture tweets and tweet threads that are interesting to Readwise. ![]() It’s also on my Focus app block list in case I try to get around it when I should be focusing on work. Since returning to Twitter, to not let it consume me, as it used to do, I have set strict time limits on iOS and Mac OS. If I come across an article that seems appealing but isn’t directly related to the task I’m working on right now, Then I add it to Instapaper. It is one of my if-then rules to stay on track. It’s easy to end up down interesting rabbit holes. it helps me to avoid distractions when I’m working. (For things I’m actively working on I also use the OneTab browser extension to keep my tab addiction in check.) Now I use Instapaper exclusively to send web articles and videos I am interested in reading later and immediately close the tab. 8 tab lists in Bear later, I finally realised I had a problem that I hadn’t solved. I saved all the tabs to a list in Bear (because, you know, I still wanted to read these) and resolved not to do it again. In the past, I have hit browser tab limits and opened another browser for more tabs… I recognised I had a severe problem and declared tab bankruptcy. I would often open a page I would want to read, and then leave it as an open tab in my browser. I used to be particularly terrible at this stage. The first step is capturing what I want to read. The key to creating more than you consume is having a consistent habit to build this muscle. You need to read with intent, and “write between the lines”, i.e. Reading lots on its own is not enough to learn and gain wisdom. What I haven’t covered yet is how I read and take notes on the articles that I consume, and more importantly, how I turn them into knowledge and action. My process for reading and taking notes on books has evolved quite a lot over the years, which I’ve written about here and here.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |