Link: The Secret Power of ‘Read It Later’ Apps

Below are my two takeaways from reading this.

Make better use of idle time with a reading list

In this article, Tiago Forte quotes David Allen on the benefits of having an organized reading list available all the time. The reason being, is that life is full of these random moments where we don't have anything to do. Having an organized reading list can come in handy during those moments. It is better to spend that time reading something good, than to spend that time browsing social media or consuming junk information.

Use waiting periods before reading new content

“Waiting Periods” is an interesting idea shared in this article. In essence, it's basically a tactic you use, to force yourself to wait a little bit, before you read that article that you think you really want to read. It's similar to the advice to wait one day before making a big purchase.

The idea is to give you time to evaluate your decision as to whether the article is really worth reading or not. Chances are, after a day or two, the same article that was so interesting a few days ago, might turn out to be totally irrelevant to your interests now.

Combine this idea of “Waiting Periods” with the use of a to-read list and you'll cut down on the number of new content you think you need to consume.

Tags: #Bookmarks #DigitalMinimalism #Productivity #TiagoForte

It is a pretty long read, but I think it's worth your time. Especially if you have overflowing email inboxes like me. If you find yourself doubting whether it's worth your time, I suggest scrolling all the way down to the “Fifth, practice making triage decisions” section. In there you will see how everything comes together. It will give you a good idea of whether this approach will actually work for you or not.

Link: One-Touch to Inbox Zero: How I Spend 17 Minutes Per Day on Email

In this post, I share some of the notes I wrote down from when I read it. To an extent, you can think of these notes as literature notes.

Use an app that allows you to forward/send emails to it. This allows you to clear the email off your inbox, while still keeping it in a place where it can be read at a later time.

In the guide, the author mentions using EverNote for this. I found that you can do the same thing with OneNote.

One thing I don't do, but is mentioned in the guide, is to always start with the oldest email. I always start with the newest one... Hmmm, maybe that's why I can never clear out the older emails I have in my inbox?

Another idea I ran into, that I should probably apply to my note-taking workflow, is to funnel everything into one inbox.

Right now, the notes I take when I'm not at home, are either saved on OneNote on my phone, or on an Obsidian vault on a different PC/laptop. I need to consolidate and use just one app for all these notes away from home.

In that case, writing down notes on OneNote via web browser on different PCs/laptops and on my phone seems to be the best option right now.

Tags: #Bookmarks #Productivity #NoteTaking #TiagoForte