Friday Notes #46 — Reading More Often
A possible long term solution for reading more often and a useful tool for bloggers.
In this world of easy content consumption, reading is not the easiest way to consume, for me at least. Reading requires attention, is a slow process, and information retention is not guaranteed. Yet, reading is an essential way to acquire knowledge and learn new things, enlarge our horizon. So how do I make sure that I keep reading or, even better, that I read more often?
Recently, I started (or restarted) using Matter, a read-later service. Think of it as a Pocket competitor, another service I use sporadically (you can look at my profile page). There is something to Matter that entices me to read more often. There is a social side to Matter that I find interesting. I love seeing what others are reading, what passage they are highlighting, what thoughts their readings are stimulating. I feel that I’m part of a network of readers. Some are very active readers, others much less. But there is one more thing that I like even more about Matter.
The way Matter is presenting itself is a bit different than Pocket. As my use of Matter increased, I found out that Matter is a great tool to write link posts. I used to post them here and there on my blogs, but putting them together requires some work. Matter helps me do it effortlessly. While reading an article, I highlight what I find interesting, what could be takeaways. Then, after I'm done with an article, I like to post a comment about it, a summarizing thought. So it looks like this.
The more I read, the more I write, the more I participate in this network of readers, and the more I find content to write about in link posts.
I know that many people don’t like or even use read later services. If they don’t read an article on the spot, that’s because it’s not essential. There is no reason to save it in a read-later queue. My goal is not to read everything I keep in Matter (or Pocket, for that matter). It’s a way to get back to content, as I see fit, and find something to read.
I don’t know where my Matter adventure will take me. But, for now, I enjoy my experience because it makes me read more and write a bit more.
