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How do you manage your (non-book) reading list?

2 points by aneeqdhk ↗ HN
I find a bunch of links on HN and Twitter which I would like to read later on. I've been using Instapaper for storing these links but I've noticed I don't get around to reading many of them. It's not because the topic doesn't interest me - it's more the form factor. For one, I always prefer reading on paper and hence my consumption of books is constant.

I'm curious to know what mechanisms people have figured out on HN to acrtively go through new content found online.

9 comments

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al_borland
I have a similar problem. Not just with articles, but videos as well. I made it my goal this year to actually get through the backlog.

I started with videos, because that’s the easier one for me. I started pushing myself to go to my watch later list before the recommended feed. Between cleanup and watching stuff, I’ve knocked out about 300 videos. I have about 100 left.

I think the reading list will be harder, I’m thinking of unplugging my TV for a while to create space for it.

Form factor does matter. If you prefer books, exporting the articles, compiling them into book form, and having it printed up might help. It might be a bit of work and have some cost associated with it, but if that allows it to fit into your normal patterns, that might be what it takes.

aneeqdhk
That's great, and I too will give the watch later a try. I've always felt that feature was too ambiguous so never tried it out

A follow up on this - do you also make notes for the videos you watch?

al_borland
Notes depend on the video. I have an upcoming trip and take notes on the videos related to that (things to see, ways to get places, etc). If I’m trying to learn something I may take notes to reference, so I don’t have to go back to the video and scrub through if I forget something.

For other videos that are more for entertainment, I don’t take notes. A Tom Scott video, for example, provide some interesting information that may come up in conversation down the road, but I’m not taking notes on it. It’s ultimately entertainment.

wsc981
For websites I sometimes add a bookmark or add an article to the Safari Reading List, but more often then not, I never revisit. Now that I think of it, I probably should export such websites to PDF and save in iCloud or something ...

With regards to YouTube videos, I add them to the "watch later" list, which works well, since YouTube often recommends videos from the "watch later" list at the home page.

derbOac
I have this same issue.

I usually save things in a "to read" bookmark folder that gets synced across devices, or leave them in open tabs that are accessible across devices in Firefox. If I don't read them after awhile I just remove them.

The most effective thing to get me to read them is to share them with friends but that's obviously not always possible.

A friend of mine had an email she wrote to herself and saved as a draft that she just added to, which seemed clever to me although I've never tried it.

Maybe an eink note writer and ebook reader would work for you?

I forgot about Instapaper, which seems appealing to me although I gravitate more to simple DYI solutions for this type of issue.

aneeqdhk
Will give eink a try, haven't tried that out yet. Any devices you recommend?
derbOac
I think I was thinking of the reMarkable 2 tablet somewhat when I wrote that but I was thinking more in general. I know Kobo also has a new eink reader that's supposed to be good for note taking.
sqwrell
https://getpocket.com is awesome Install the extensions on browser and app on smartphone tag anything to read later and it will format it into an easy to read format then you can read it on PC, smartphone, tablet later works great
aneeqdhk
Thanks for the recommendation