A Lifehack for Reading

By Jake • November 24th, 2010 • 2 Comments

Photo by takomabibelot from Flickr used under Creative Commons

Chatting with Rich (@rmanlan) earlier, I shared a lifehack I use to help me find time to read a longer post or article.

Here’s the scenario. I find something I want to read via Twitter or Reader, e.g. Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction, and immediately realize it’s too long to read in full given my current schedule or desire to concentrate.

I know, irony on purpose, given the example.

I used to employ tools like Read It Later or Instapaper, and although these are very smart tools, they just provide another destination where I’m forced to go. This is ultimately what killed Delicious for me too.

I already have more than enough to read thanks to Twitter, Reader and tips people send me through email and IM.

What I do now is open the post/article in a new Chrome tab and keep it open until I read it.

There’s a psychological hack here. I know that having tabs open consumes memory; in fact, closing a tab does not release the memory (this is so you can recall closed tabs), so by opening the tab at all, I’m committing a scarce resource to it.

Leaving the tab open, I know will continue to consume memory, sometimes a growing amount, which pushes me to wipe the slate clean by reading the post/article and restarting Chrome, restoring the memory it consumed.

In addition to the scarcity hack, I dislike a cluttered browser. More tabs open feels like an overflowing inbox. So, closing tabs satisfies my design sensibilities and my GTD impulses.

I’ve been doing this for a long time, and it works pretty well.

Thoughts? Do you have hacks to share? Love to hear them.

Find the comments.


Possibly Related Posts

  • http://twitter.com/ppedrazzi Paul Pedrazzi

    Jake – I do the same. Tabs until read. Instapaper is a dead zone for me as much as I love it. Only downside I have found is you don’t retweet since by the time you get around to reading it, you won’t go back and thank the source.

    Small price to pay me thinks.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Wow, a Paul sighting. I used to leave the tabs open indefinitely, but now, to conserve resources, I’m finding I raise the priority. Weird little scarcity study. I also usually retweet or h/t first to alleviate the forgetful issue.