# How do I read things on the internet

> This is a linkpost - I recommend reading it at the [original URL](https://vlad.roam.garden/How-do-I-read-things-on-the-internet) for a better reading UX

I have a somewhat elaborate process for reading things that I find on the web. I've been inspired to share it because after many a long iteration it finally feels adequate!

Reading things on the web seems like it should be easy, and yet - I've been failing at it for years! 🙀

In this article I explore my current workflow and challenges that made it into what it is today.

Workflow
--------

*   When I see something new I want to read - save it to [Readwise Reader](https://vlad.roam.garden/wLiy9Fazi) (it also becomes an [SRS item in Roam](https://vlad.roam.garden/G_0t7yGfS))
*   When in "podcast mode" (doing house chores, biking, etc) - [queue up a TTS version of an article](https://vlad.roam.garden/4iNC3y_f9).
*   Each day after lunch - [read one or more pieces suggested by Spaced Repetition](https://vlad.roam.garden/ZpWIVc-0M) in Roam - reschedule others
*   Highlights and notes are synced into Roam and selectively become SRS items

![](https://39669.cdn.cke-cs.com/rQvD3VnunXZu34m86e5f/images/87f4a55b3486f9b55a07b6a3f5a7acee9bc326acbbaa012a.png)

The goal of the workflow is to: ***Enable you to reliably read things you want to read (and retain learnings from it) while minimizing effort and attention spent.***

Discovery
---------

This is part of the pipeline that received relatively less optimization attention, mostly by virtue of me suffering from abundance of content rather than scarcity. I include it primarily for completeness’ sake.

Some ways in which discovery is happening for me are as follows:

*   Follow-up from previous things I read
    *   people often link related content
    *   [Ampie extension](https://vlad.roam.garden/Ampie-extension) is helpful to discover the broader conversation about a given piece - which includes links to related content
*   Recommendations from friends - sent directly or via social media
*   Aggregator newsletters (Indie Hackers, [https://rationalnewsletter.com/)](https://rationalnewsletter.com/))
    *   [I like aggregator newsletters](https://vlad.roam.garden/SOuYamZj7) because they introduce an additional layer of curation over raw subscription streams like RSS.
*   I'm also subscribed to a few "normal" newsletters

I'd love to see a Goodreads-style platform created for discovering and tracking articles.

*   Ampie gives me some of the same benefits, but less systematically
*   [Curius.app](https://curius.app/) is a more social version of [Hypothes.is](https://vlad.roam.garden/Hypothes.is) and also covers some of the similar ground

Reading Inbox
-------------

> When I encounter something that I think would be worth my attention - I save it to Readwise Reader
> 
> *   This also serves as a trigger to [create an SRS item in Roam](https://vlad.roam.garden/G_0t7yGfS)

The first problem of reading things on the internet is that there are too many things out there one is tempted to read.

Even if you have a good curation process there is always too much content and too little time.

My first approach to managing the reading inbox was to *keep things I want to read in endless browser tabs and breathe a sigh of relief when my browser crashed and all the open tabs disappeared*

When I noticed that this process didn't actually achieve the goal of helping me to read things I wanted to read - I started pushing myself to add things to Pocket/Instapaper to have a clear backlog of things to read

*   Which put me in a situation when I had hundreds of articles in Instapaper instead of as persistently open tabs (somehow that only marginally impacted number of open tabs I had 😅)

The result wasn't amazing - I went from not reading things and having them eating into my attention to not reading them and forgetting about them.

Arguably it was an improvement, as [attention is an important and scarce resource](https://vlad.roam.garden/Marginal-attention), but as the point of this workflow is to help me actually read things instead of collecting the things I wish I have read - it was a failure.

A better way to direct my limited attention was called for! And I found it in [Spaced Repetition](https://vlad.roam.garden/Spaced-Repetition)

[Spaced Repetition](https://vlad.roam.garden/Spaced-Repetition) in Roam
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

> When a piece is added to Readwise Reader - a Roam "block" for it is automatically created
> 
> *   It's tagged with [to/read](https://vlad.roam.garden/toread) and configured to become an SRS Card

[The core pillar of directing my attention programmatically](https://vlad.roam.garden/Spaced-Repetition-can-be-used-to-program-attention) is Spaced Repetition - I use it extensively for [inbox processing](https://vlad.roam.garden/Spaced-Repetition-can-be-used-for-inbox-maintenance), engaging with content over time and developing habits.

**How does this work:**

*   When the item is originally added to Roam - it's scheduled for a review in one of the next few days
*   During my [daily reading time](https://vlad.roam.garden/l-gZF6Ark), I review each suggested item. If I want to read it, I do so right then. Otherwise, I either:
    *   I reschedule it further into the future
    *   Or mark it as "done" if I'm not interested in the piece anymore

It proved to be a good match for reading inbox handling. The above process has the effect of:

*   keeping the things I want to read salient
*   sorting them by excitement - things that I'm repeatedly not excited to read end up scheduled exponentially further in the future

Listen to content in audio form first
-------------------------------------

> For any new piece of content I want to engage with - listen to an audio version of it first
> 
> *   This is often sufficient to get what I was hoping for from a piece ✅
> *   If not - it serves as a first-pass skim read before deeper engagement

This is one of the core pillars of my reading flow — I think [reading things in audio form](https://vlad.roam.garden/you-should-consider-reading-more-in-audio-form) is underappreciated.

Audio form dramatically extends the range of environments and situations when it's convenient for you to read.

*   I listen to audiobooks, podcasts and **TTS** version of articles when I bike to places, do chores and sometimes even while taking a shower (though [I've been avoiding the latter lately](https://vlad.roam.garden/Am-I-being-over-stimulated-by-sound)).
*   This allows me to read more - in fact it increases my reading throughput to a degree that I can first-pass read things faster than I find new things to read!

**Read it** ~~**once**~~ **mindset**

An important stepping stone to make audio form work well for me was overcoming “only read a given thing once” mindset.

What I mean by that is that when I originally started using TTS to read things - after listening to an article - I felt like "I read this, I'm done with it an and don't need to engage with it anymore".

*   I was doing a kind of [symbolic representation of reading](https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/the-thing-and-the-symbolic-representation-of-the-thing/)

And while it's actually true for many types of content (opinion pieces, news articles, fiction) - I found it that for deeper, more technical pieces - just listening to something once, often wasn't quite satisfactory. I wanted to highlight paragraphs, add notes, play with presented models.

As a consequence I was avoiding listening to all content as I had a vague sense of unease "but what if it's a piece I want to engage deeper with and by listening to it, I'd lose an opportunity to derive full benefit from it".

Eventually I realized that it was silly 🙃

***My new process is:***

*   listen to all the content that comes my way first
    *   this is sufficient level of engagement for a large chunk of what I want to read
*   for things that need deeper engagement
    *   put them on top of the queue of the to-read things
    *   read them again (likely in text form this time), highlight and annotate them, play with models they present, find follow-up reading

> [Spaced Repetition](https://vlad.roam.garden/G_0t7yGfS) reminds me to engage with the piece until I mark it as fully processed
> 
> *   See also [use multiple levels of processing information for learning & understanding](https://vlad.roam.garden/use-multiple-levels-of-processing-information-for-learning-and-understanding)

I've been previously using a custom automation setup that allowed me to create a podcast feed of transcribed articles from things saved to Instapaper ([https://github.com/Stvad/pollycast/](https://github.com/Stvad/pollycast/) ).

I've since transitioned to mostly using Readwise Reader TTS.

The reason for having custom setup was a better UX for playing audio inside the podcast apps and a better voice quality. Reader TTS got both of those things to a "good enough" stage.

In-depth reading
----------------

For items that survived this far in the pipeline - I'll read them at a [designated reading time](https://vlad.roam.garden/l-gZF6Ark) (usually)

I do most of my reading on an [iPad](https://vlad.roam.garden/klq5rm7Ne) and use Readwise Reader or [Hypothes.is](https://vlad.roam.garden/How-do-I-read-things-on-the-internet/C7lLp_KW-) for annotation purposes.

Highlights and notes sync to Readwise, then to Roam. The next day I review them in Roam, converting notes that I want to engage with more into SRS items for ongoing review.

Support structures
------------------

> Some things that I found helpful to make focused reading something that I do reliably and in a productive way

Incorporate “focused reading time” to be a stable part of my daily routine

*   I devote 30+ focused minutes to reading every day after lunch.

Getting an iPad and using it as my primary reading device

*   Having a dedicated device with good reading UX affordances elevates the overall experience considerably.
*   I've primarily used a phone or a laptop prior to getting a tablet, but both provide a subpar experience for reading.
*   I've also had a Kindle for a while, but I found it frustrating to use for web and PDF content and so it mostly languished in my drawer.
*   Physical books have nice aesthetics, but overall unsatisfactory UX, so reading a print book is something that I'd do occasionally, but it requires additional effort/accommodation for the sake of the experience.

[Beeminder](https://vlad.roam.garden/Beeminder) was very useful as a way to introduce daily reading habit

*   But when I relied just on Beeminder - it was an "effortful" habit. What I mean by that is - I'd do it because I committed to it, but it wasn't part of a routine, which constantly made me scramble to fulfill Beeminder requirements last moment.
*   [Making it into a predictable routine](https://vlad.roam.garden/l-gZF6Ark) is what made it “[effortless](https://vlad.roam.garden/Change-your-environment-to-encourage-behaviors-you-want)”, Beeminder has applied optimization pressure to help me get there though.

[Switch in mindset around listening to a TTS version of an article as necessarily a final step in the process to potentially an intermediate step of pipeline](https://vlad.roam.garden/fHGwQxRB9)

Things I'm still unhappy about
------------------------------

Taking notes alongside reading

*   I have a keyboard case for the iPad, but I read things in portrait mode and it's annoying to get it in and out of the case each time I want to take a note.
    *   Plausibly I should just have an external keyboard on-hand
*   Handwriting sucks
*   [voice keyboard](https://vlad.roam.garden/voice-keyboard)s are meh
*   [Audio notes](https://vlad.roam.garden/Audio-notes-inbox-process) are created out of context and I need to manually tie them to the original piece later

Having the SRS around what should I read to be in an external app (Roam) is a bit awkward

*   The two places are disconnected after the original SRS item creation, and so I need to mark any given article as read twice - once in SRS system and once in Reader.
*   Ideally a domain-specific SRS implementation would be a part of the reading app experience.
*   Generally - incorporating learnings from this WF into one tool would be great.
    *   Readwise Reader is getting there, but still has ways to go before it'd be an ideal reading app for me.
    *   I make due by building automations and tweaks around the core experience. But the degree to which I can do that is limited and makes me wish once again for a world with more [malleable software](https://vlad.roam.garden/malleable-software)

Conclusion
----------

Overall I'm finally happy with this workflow, which prompts me to share it 🙂.

I imagine some of its aspects are peculiar to how I interact with the information out there. But I hope that people can adopt chunks of the workflow that work well for their peculiarities. And that if you recognize some of the struggles I went through in yourself - you may find my solutions useful.

If you do give it a try or if you have your own peculiar ways of interacting with the information you find on the internet - [I'd be curious to know](https://vlad.roam.garden/rDcjBq18u)

* * *

Misc
----

> More things I do or have tried around reading

**Display highlights & notes on the page when I visit it at a later point**

When I revisit a web page that I've previously read - I want to be able to see how I have interacted with it - see highlights I've made, notes I've taken etc.

There are several tools that afford for that, but I haven't found a perfect solution so far.

*   **Readwise Reader** has a browser extension that allows you to save things to read later and annotate the web-page in-place
    *   It'd then display the highlights and notes when you visit the page later. Unfortunately it'd only be the annotations taken within the reader.
    *   I hope that eventually they'll have a better integration with "Readwise 1.0" which is what I use to manage all my highlights from different sources.
*   Hyphothes.is
    *   Inherently displayed as part of original page. But you have to remember to trigger it to see the annotations.
    *   Only highlights made in Hypothes.is are displayed.
*   [Promnesia](https://vlad.roam.garden/Promnesia)
    *   Browser extension to augment your browsing experience with additional context
    *   Theoretically this can support annotations from arbitrary sources, in practice it currently only pulls in highlights from an Instapaper export data.

**Failed experiments**

I experimented with improving [iPad web annotation](https://vlad.roam.garden/iPad-web-annotation) UX

*   [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1HJFI66b8c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1HJFI66b8c)

[spritz](https://vlad.roam.garden/spritz) speed reading

*   I was interested in reading using Spritz/RSVP (at least for the first pass)
*   It's currently redundant though, as [audio](https://vlad.roam.garden/4iNC3y_f9) serves the role of "first pass/quick skim".
*   And if the piece needs a second pass - I want to engage with it deeper.

Copying things into Roam and reading them there

*   The idea was to use Roam's linking facilities for a deeper engagement with the piece. Roam is not a great environment to read in though, and copying fidelity is subpar.

[Kindle](https://vlad.roam.garden/RAy__tq2b)