Is Your to-Read List Always Getting Bigger With No End in Sight

 

There are many amazing articles that come out every single day. It is impossible to read every single one as it comes out. Fortunately, these articles can be added to a convenient list or even bookmarked to read at a later time.

Unfortunately, that read later list can often grow exponentially. Even when a person has time to read an article or two, the list is so large, it is impossible to tackle all the saved stories available. Fortunately, there are some great methods and apps available to help with that read later list.

Offline Reading

Whether for work or pleasure, there are often a lot of must-read items in that read later list, many with expiration dates. Moving these articles to an offline version can make it easier to tackle when not on the internet. Evernote is an application that can allow these webpages to be stored in an offline format or even printed for easy access.

There are often occasions where good reading material could be beneficial but the internet is not available. For example, long train trips or even waiting rooms can have spotty internet but leave a large window of time to read.

By having many of those needed articles available offline or in printed form, they can easily be accessed and read during the long wait. Most people would be surprised at how much of that read later list can be knocked out during these periods.

Organize the List

Whether it's books, stories, or news articles, those digital to-read lists can quickly become overwhelming. Attempting to work through it can often show that the list is more of a jumbled mess of mismatched and unorganized reading material that is not really needed.

The best method for getting through that list is to organize it. This may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but once complete it will make it a whole lot easier to see what is on the list. The first step to organizing is to put similar types of articles, stories, etc. together.

During this categorization of the reading materials, pay close attention to the various articles. If they are past their expiration date, delete them. For example, if a favorite actor is on their fourth marriage, is keeping the story about how they met their second spouse that important?

The next step is to be really honest about the various reading materials. Will the article ever actually be read? If the subject does not hold the same interest as it did when it was first put on the list, get rid of it. Before long, that list will get smaller and smaller.

Listen to the Stories

Although a read later list seems like something that should be read, it is not always the case. There are a variety of apps available that offer text-to-speech capabilities. Now, this may not be a good idea for the articles that require seeing pictures or graphs, but it can provide an option to help knock out some of that list.

When walking or even driving, simply click on an article and use the text-to-speech program to have the story read aloud on a mobile device. If at least one of these articles are read in this manner every day, then the list will be gone in no time.

It may also be a good idea to limit how much is put into the list as one goes forward. If it really isn't something important or that really piques interest, let it go. This will help prevent that list from getting overwhelmingly large again.