How to manage the daily flood of digital information

How to manage the daily flood of digital information

In the digital age, I regularly look for new ways to organise my life better amid the information flood using digital tools. Do you feel the same? Newsletters, newspaper articles, online news, podcasts, reports, videos, news programmes, talk shows—the list of information sources is endless. How do you manage this daily flood? Some people go digital, as I do; others swear by good old paper, whether a book to read or a notebook for capturing thoughts. That is why I find it difficult to make a recommendation here, although tech enthusiasts among us may find this tool particularly interesting: READWISE.

The art of “wise reading”

READWISE, loosely translated as “read wisely”, is an online tool that cleverly helps you manage the daily information flood. Two examples show how it works.

Example 1: digital passages from books

Imagine reading a book—digitally, of course—in the KINDLE app. You electronically highlight passages that would otherwise gather dust on a digital or physical shelf, just like all your other daily highlights. Now READWISE comes into play: linking it with your Kindle app or Apple Books allows READWISE to collect every highlighted passage and automatically transfer it to your digital notes app. You can also configure READWISE to send a daily email presenting a number of highlighted passages of your choosing from the collection you have gathered over the years, reminding you of them. In my case, for example, that means five passages daily at a time I specify. In less than two minutes, I regularly revisit the treasures of my library.

Example 2: discoveries on the internet

You are browsing the internet and find an interesting text. READWISE offers two possibilities:

1. Read Later: Send the discovery through the browser extension to READWISE’s Read Later, a kind of inbox for everything you want to read later.
2. Read Now: Read the text immediately and highlight the passage that interests you. The highlighted web passage is transferred to your notes app just as in the first example and regularly reappears in your daily reminder email.

Incidentally, this principle also works with videos, podcasts or emails that you can simply forward to READWISE.

An invaluable tool for productivity and learning

Use the benefits of digitalisation to maximise your knowledge and efficiency. Supportive tools such as READWISE can help you manage the digital information flood and improve productivity. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Happy Learning!