I want to share a very practical process today – how I capture, read, and remember articles online.
In my life, I’ve consumed quite a lot of information. Sometimes it’s not a great thing to consume so much and not do anything more with that information.
The Problem
I consumed mindlessly, clicked on whatever interesting content appeared in front of me. Saved articles in different tabs, bookmark bar or note-taking apps.
Jumped into reading articles or watching youtube clips, when I was actually meant to be working on something else.
But I was distracted by this shiny new piece of information that had flashed before my eyes.
How I capture and read articles
I want to show what I do, maybe it can inspire someone to do the same.
So basically what I do is I use a few online tools to structure my online flow.
What my process looks like
So In this case, I was browsing LinkedIn. I see an article I like, open it and scan it. Deciding it’s something I want to read.
I also know that I’m not going to read it right now, because if I start reading, it will take me somewhere else, when I was probably supposed to be focusing on something else.
Capturing information
So to capture what I find, I use a tool called Instapaper.
It captures and stores your online readings and content. It has a simple Chrome extension, that I simply press, and it pulls in the content into my Instapaper account.
So now it saves it to my Instapaper account.
I don’t immediately run to Instapaper. I visit Instapaper at a specific time and look through all the content I’ve saved over a few days.
A few days later, if I go to as to Instapaper, and I see what I saved, probably 70-80% of what I’ve previously saved, I just remove. It might have been something that caught my interest at the time, but now I don’t really see why it would be worth diving into.
So Instapaper serves as a triage inbox.
What I choose to read
When I’ve decided to read an article, I read it in my Instapaper account. What is really good is the ability highlight specific sections, which will come very handy later!
I want to read it kind of consciously, and I want to highlight whatever pops out and sparks my interest – this is the type of information I’d be able to use or want to recall later in life.
Now the magic starts 🙂
I’ve connected Instapaper to a tool called Readwise. It syncs automatically,
You can actually sync Readwise with all type of tools – Kindle, Scribd, etc. etc.
And most importantly, you can export it beautifully to your note-taking app of choice. In my case, I use Notion In Notion, it syncs automatically, and I can sort my notes in books and articles, tweets, podcasts, et cetera.
Now I have the top highlights, curated content, from an article I very consciously chose to read. This information I can later return to, and use.
As a resource for what I create or to send to someone who might enjoy it.
I hope this was helpful.