Published on Feb 17, 2019 in Productivity · 3 min read
I realise I dont need a read-it-later service. You should too.
And here's a month passed in 2019. 11 more to go. By this time, your new year resolutions probably are either a failure or a good start. While I was refining my Todoist workflow, I have realised I don’t need a read-it-later service. The idea is to replace read-it-later app by your todo app and note app.
How it works
Eliminating a read-it-later app is one step closer declutter your digital life. One less app in your phone and Chome extension / bookmark, as it could be replaced perfectly.
I use Todoist as my daily task management app, it would become the trigger whenever I saw something to read later. (Similarly, Todoist has an desktop and mobile app and as well as a Chrome Extension). Zero inbox philosophy would help me to process them daily, without delay. Those articles will be imported to Evernote with the sophisticated tagging system.
Why should it do the same?
I have been using Pocket primarily as my read-it-later service together with Facebook Saved. Few years ago, hundreds of saved links are stored on Pocket by the end of the year, that are something might be useful yet I don’t want to browse it yet. Clearing up my Pocket and Saved links have become one of my chores.
Making my to-read articles part of my todo list, is a solution to end my chores and integrate my digital life. In the time with too many choices of productivity tools, our digital life are fragmentated and attentions are delayed. the notion of picking the right one / figuring how does it work are drawing far more attention than getting things done.
Setting Up
Best of this solution is it’s doesn’t require much setup. There are only two rules:
1. Keep it all at the same place and
2. Clean your inbox regularly.
Review your read it later database and summarise most of the sources. Making sure you if easy access to the todo app. For me, it’s mostly from social media and feedly. Then, download the app or install the extension on Chrome.
How to make it even better
I use the Share extension most often to add articles to my to-do list, you can basically share anything to your todo app and make it an independent task.
Make sure you re-order or pin it for quick access. Next time. You come across any articles or video to watch, just press share and select the todo app. On Android you can even attach articles to task as a comment.
Era of Fragments
Stepping into a new year, I'm less interested to incline to spark joys by subtraction rather than addition. Hopefully my tools in 2019 than experimenting new ones. Feel free to share your stories of subtracting with me!
Tools are promoting in their ideal use cases, but in real life using many of them will only cause mess. it messier and delays our attention. There are a lots of productivity tools that we can use and they have all promoting the ideal use case. But the fact is when there are too many tools, When I realise I don’t need read-it-later service, it was obvious that the best alternative is directly to use my todo app + note app. Todo app would be the trigger while note app woThe philosophy of keeping the inbox clean wouldIn my case, it’s Todoist.
