This is in response to an article by ege called “read-it-never”:
Having hundreds of articles in my read-it-later app doesn’t really yield anything. I’d rather read a few.
I’ve been there. When I used Pocket (RIP), I had so many articles saved and never read them. It got to the point where I wasn’t reading stuff from the year before. So I culled things I realised I wasn’t ever going to read and, when Pocket died, I transferred the leftovers to Instapaper.
Of course, they piled up again. And I pruned the list again, this time actually reading what was in there and, if it wasn’t that engaging, I got rid. But the article made me reflect on how I use Instapaper as a “read it later” app.
A few years ago, I wrote about my content creation flow and Pocket was a major part of that. I wrote a follow-up last year and it’s much the same, albeit with different/less tools. The main thing between the two is that I save ideas as well as articles to read in my read it later app and make different decisions based on what’s in there:
- Is this worth reading?
- If I read it, is this worth blogging about as well?
- Is this something to show friends or family?
- Is this something I can sample (yes, I save music ideas in there too but I “archive” them to keep them separate)
Instapaper feels like a component in my reading and writing processes. It stores information and I take the time to add, subtract, and organise what’s in there as I go. Because of past experiences, I try to avoid letting articles pile up before checking if I still care about the article. That’s not to say everyone should do the same and paying for an app to do offer similar behaviours might not make sense if you literally just treat it as a customised newspaper but I think that’s the beauty of these apps. Beyond their fundamental purpose, you can take them further.
Buy me a coffee or a pledge!
