Read now or forever hold your peace
I’m starting a new challenge to stop using Read it Later services.
I’m a high school student, video freelancer, baseball player, and startup founder. On top of that, I sift through an enormous amount of articles every day. Right now, my workflow is 1) find articles via RSS, Medium, and blogs, 2) save any article to Pocket that I find remotely interesting, and 3) read whatever is in Pocket whenever I have time (typically Saturday). While I’m able to read a lot with this approach, I typically end up taking hours to go through everything in my Pocket queue. I want my time back.
I’m Borrowing Time
There is nothing wrong with reading. I typically avoid “news” and focus on startup tips and thought pieces instead. I want to learn. My problem is that whenever I save an article to be read later, I am essentially borrowing time from a another day. It is so easy to save to Pocket: in one single swipe I can save any RSS article to Pocket using Reeder 2 for iPhone. A couple of taps or a right click are all it takes to steal another 5 minutes from tomorrow. Saturdays should be my day to relax, not a day to catch up.
I began to realize that I could have a flawed workflow when Pocket sent me an email with some crazy stats on Pocket, a service with millions of users. At first I was impressed. I must be well read, right? I’m now beginning to realize that I may have a time wasting habit on my hands in a time in my life where every hour counts. I still love Pocket, but I am now realizing that I should make a change.
The Challenge
I’m not going to stop reading, I retain a lot of valuable information. Instead, I will stop saving new articles to Pocket for an entire week (starting Wednesday, February 5th). If I see an article I’m interested in, I’ll read it on the web or in another app. If I don’t have time for an article, then I simply don’t have time for it. If the content is truly engaging and thoughtful, I will find the time to read it. I’m hoping that by changing my habits I’ll be able to still read as much as I want, but at a better pace and at better times. I’ll share my results in a week or so.
I’m posting this to not only hold myself accountable, but to also inspire others to try this challenge if you’ve found yourself in the same cycle I’ve been stuck in. Maybe it’ll help. Feel free to share your results with me, I’d love to hear them!
