i remember when i shared with sara, her saying something like, "Here's the thing minnow. I'm crazy and I want to read everything all the time at the same time."
I'm glad you are taking your sanity seriously my friend. 😬
I use Polymail for all my email and I snooze things I want to read until later. There are some writers who I read the day they're published since I typically enjoy their stuff so much. Otherwise, I'm pretty liberal about archiving newsletter issues that don't speak to me in some way.
Lol it took me awhile to get to this point. I think being subscribed to WAY too many newsletters helped me get there. It’s impossible to read them all and still have time for my own writing
I use Meco to manage newsletters. It runs through my gmail but is a separate app that allows me to read all my newsletters outside of gmail. It scans for newsletter emails and allows you at add to its separate inbox. I prefer this as I often read newsletters on the weekend and don’t want to be in my work inbox.
Ooooh that’s a great idea. I already subscribe to readwise but have yet to check out the reader app. Thank you! Link is here for those curious: https://readwise.io/read
I use Readwise Reader for all the feeds, and then move the things I'm interested in reading over into either my inbox or my later section. Once I'm done looking through all the new stuff, I read all the stuff in my inbox throughout the day. I highlight things that seem useful and annotate it with what I want to use the quotes for, and then tag it so I can come back to it later when I'm feeling productive and in the mood to write.
Good question and I'm glad to tell my story. During first months of global pandemic lockdown when the world got the pause and reboot opportunity, I included email in my assessments of what matters in life? I set criteria and applied it. Subscriptions and newsletters went from hundreds to 25. In one week. As better writers, better newsletters ask for my attention, I keep it to 25 and the quality of my direct relationship with each writer goes higher and higher.
No longer am I giving time to people who speak at me--only those in active dialogue with me. That eliminates people using autoresponders and an immediate trip to the blacklist on my servers goes to anyone with an email address that starts "no-reply" Not a problem.... on the blacklist your IP will never see the light of day again.
I love that filter of the writers being in active dialogue. It’s a great one! And love that you send the one-sided ones directly to the blacklist. It doesn’t surprise me at all that you are not messing around, Georgia! 😃
Sara, How nice of you to show that the comment respected your question and you got something of substance to share. Hooray. When did you first realize conversation was not as complicated as some make it? You don't have to create accounts and manage apps for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TickTok, WhatsApp to find me. I've never wasted precious time on earth with those one-way megaphones. That's one-sided and not a healthy relationship. I've had my phone number on my website for more than 30 years. You just have to know how to dial a number and say hello. Then start with your first question.
Final thought, have you ever listened for more than a minute to one of the many spam calls each day? Someone is reading a script and when they start to take a breath I ask.... Was there a question somewhere in that? Then I press the Block Caller command and that phone number will never work again.
I have a folder called “READ BY END OF WEEK”... The ALL CAPS urgency keeps me from falling behind. I don’t filter, but rather choose in the moment if I want/need to scoot a newsletter over there. Why? I honestly think it’s because some writers I follow send more seldomly and I want to gobble those right away.
Aw, you were one of the people I was wondering about. You are killing the game! I love this. So you’re filing manually and then returning if necessary? A human af approach!
I start with that filter system you describe, but take it one step further (because all newsletters are not equal, even among the many I subscribe to).
Those that are both high-value and short go straight to my inbox (Seth's Blog, for example), where I read them with my morning coffee (the way I used to read the newspaper).
I filter the rest to one of three Gmail labels: my A Feed (these are generally longer newsletters that are either consistently good or sometimes really good — I read all of these), my B Feed (I try to at least skim through these, and if I have time read from this), and my C Feed (lowest priority — I occasionally look through them, but don't hesitate to delete without reading).
This is not necessarily about the quality of any particular newsletter, but about their value to me. And I really wish it didn't have to be this way (I want to read them all, just as I want to read all the books, and see all the movies, and run all the trails), but my finite capacity would be completely overwhelmed without a system.
This is so great, Jeff. I love the segmenting of labels and I love the way you're prioritizing them. Not about quality, but about value to your life. So smart. Thanks for sharing.
Alicia — Anything that you haven't made a filter for should go to your inbox. So basically, those are the only ones that I don't filter. For the ones that I send to my A/B/C feeds, I select "Skip the Inbox" and "Apply the label xxx" when I build the filter. For the B & C Feeds, I also check "Mark as Read" so that I don't have that psychological overhead of unread messages signals (but I leave A Feed items as unread so that I know those are there).
I’ve worked over the past years to unsubscribe from pretty much any advertising emails - I’m really only receiving stuff these days that I’ve explicitly signed up for. That’s been a big game changer. Also - you know how Gmail sorts your mail into tabs? Primary, promotions, and forums? I also mark all newsletters in Gmail as “forums”, so all the newsletters route there. I can see them in the top tab easily when I’m in Gmail, but they don’t clog up my primary inbox.
I also delete things that didn’t hook me early, and also delete newsletters that sit for over a few weeks unread. Not everything needs to be read!
I find that subscribing to all the newsletters I’m interested in helps me not forget about any of them. Like, before I might have stumbled upon a newsletter I was sure I’d like, and yet not subscribe, thinking that I already had a ton of subscriptions and no room for more. Subsequently, I’d forget about said newsletter. Nowadays, I just subscribe to everything I like and pick what I want to read. I archive a lot of stuff, and only read the posts I really want to, but even if I don’t read posts from a certain newsletter for some weeks in a row, I still won’t unsubscribe. When I get the time, I’ll go back and catch up. This way, I don’t put pressure on myself to read everything, either. I just read what time allows and interest dictates.
Like Stephanie Pollock I use Meco for reading newsletters. It scans your gmail for newsletters. You can group them (eg awesome people) and bookmark those that you want to keep. Like a newspaper clipping. They recently added a pro plan where you can highlight.
What I don’t like is that it’s harder to share a newsletter. The sharing-link is pointing at the newsletter in Meco and not the newsletter itself. I’ve added an example below.
i remember when i shared with sara, her saying something like, "Here's the thing minnow. I'm crazy and I want to read everything all the time at the same time."
I'm glad you are taking your sanity seriously my friend. 😬
Hahaha really?? Sounds about right 😆. Better late than never!!
I appreciate this post so much. I needed help with this, and I am so happy all these solutions have been illuminated ✨
So glad to hear it’s been helpful 🥰
I use Polymail for all my email and I snooze things I want to read until later. There are some writers who I read the day they're published since I typically enjoy their stuff so much. Otherwise, I'm pretty liberal about archiving newsletter issues that don't speak to me in some way.
So sensible! I’m envious of your calmness about it, haha.
Lol it took me awhile to get to this point. I think being subscribed to WAY too many newsletters helped me get there. It’s impossible to read them all and still have time for my own writing
That’s funny, I think we started on opposite sides of the spectrum but are converging ☺️
I use Meco to manage newsletters. It runs through my gmail but is a separate app that allows me to read all my newsletters outside of gmail. It scans for newsletter emails and allows you at add to its separate inbox. I prefer this as I often read newsletters on the weekend and don’t want to be in my work inbox.
Ah, this also looks great! Thank you! Link here for those interested:
https://meco.app
Yes! 🤦♀️ Thanks for putting the link in. Lol. I’m loving Meco though. Super helpful.
This looks super helpful! Thanks for sharing, Stephanie!
I use Readwise Reader to manage my newsletter reading. Super helpful app. I actually use it for *all* of my online reading.
Ooooh that’s a great idea. I already subscribe to readwise but have yet to check out the reader app. Thank you! Link is here for those curious: https://readwise.io/read
Aha! Is this how you also keep from having 80 tabs open? Genius!
Sanity is over-rated.
this is the most jude thing to say!
You made me laugh...out loud!
Lol! Touché, Jude. Touché.
I use Readwise Reader for all the feeds, and then move the things I'm interested in reading over into either my inbox or my later section. Once I'm done looking through all the new stuff, I read all the stuff in my inbox throughout the day. I highlight things that seem useful and annotate it with what I want to use the quotes for, and then tag it so I can come back to it later when I'm feeling productive and in the mood to write.
Wow, an active approach here. I’m impressed with the smart use of tags! Thanks for sharing your method for the madness, Eleanor!
Good question and I'm glad to tell my story. During first months of global pandemic lockdown when the world got the pause and reboot opportunity, I included email in my assessments of what matters in life? I set criteria and applied it. Subscriptions and newsletters went from hundreds to 25. In one week. As better writers, better newsletters ask for my attention, I keep it to 25 and the quality of my direct relationship with each writer goes higher and higher.
No longer am I giving time to people who speak at me--only those in active dialogue with me. That eliminates people using autoresponders and an immediate trip to the blacklist on my servers goes to anyone with an email address that starts "no-reply" Not a problem.... on the blacklist your IP will never see the light of day again.
I love that filter of the writers being in active dialogue. It’s a great one! And love that you send the one-sided ones directly to the blacklist. It doesn’t surprise me at all that you are not messing around, Georgia! 😃
Sara, How nice of you to show that the comment respected your question and you got something of substance to share. Hooray. When did you first realize conversation was not as complicated as some make it? You don't have to create accounts and manage apps for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TickTok, WhatsApp to find me. I've never wasted precious time on earth with those one-way megaphones. That's one-sided and not a healthy relationship. I've had my phone number on my website for more than 30 years. You just have to know how to dial a number and say hello. Then start with your first question.
Final thought, have you ever listened for more than a minute to one of the many spam calls each day? Someone is reading a script and when they start to take a breath I ask.... Was there a question somewhere in that? Then I press the Block Caller command and that phone number will never work again.
It’s true and it’s awful. No wonder no one wants to answer the phone anymore!
As for how complicated we make conversation, also very true! Again, I love your directness. “You know where to find me.” Simple and clear.
They’re all auto archived and then I occasionally do a guilt sprint.
wow. "guilt sprint" i never heard that term but it's instantly recognizable in me.
Ha! Yes. Yes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have a folder called “READ BY END OF WEEK”... The ALL CAPS urgency keeps me from falling behind. I don’t filter, but rather choose in the moment if I want/need to scoot a newsletter over there. Why? I honestly think it’s because some writers I follow send more seldomly and I want to gobble those right away.
Aw, you were one of the people I was wondering about. You are killing the game! I love this. So you’re filing manually and then returning if necessary? A human af approach!
Human af! 😂 Maybe the manual filing gives me a sense of agency over the deluge? I appreciate a “choose your adventure” kind of day!
We stan a high agency reader ❤️
[insert comment that makes me look like a thoughtful, intentional and organized human being here]
wow! I'm going to try that too! hahah
🤣🤣🤣
I start with that filter system you describe, but take it one step further (because all newsletters are not equal, even among the many I subscribe to).
Those that are both high-value and short go straight to my inbox (Seth's Blog, for example), where I read them with my morning coffee (the way I used to read the newspaper).
I filter the rest to one of three Gmail labels: my A Feed (these are generally longer newsletters that are either consistently good or sometimes really good — I read all of these), my B Feed (I try to at least skim through these, and if I have time read from this), and my C Feed (lowest priority — I occasionally look through them, but don't hesitate to delete without reading).
This is not necessarily about the quality of any particular newsletter, but about their value to me. And I really wish it didn't have to be this way (I want to read them all, just as I want to read all the books, and see all the movies, and run all the trails), but my finite capacity would be completely overwhelmed without a system.
This is so great, Jeff. I love the segmenting of labels and I love the way you're prioritizing them. Not about quality, but about value to your life. So smart. Thanks for sharing.
Jeff, as someone who's still a newbie to Gmail filters and the like -- how do you guarantee your high-value newsletters go straight to your inbox?
Alicia — Anything that you haven't made a filter for should go to your inbox. So basically, those are the only ones that I don't filter. For the ones that I send to my A/B/C feeds, I select "Skip the Inbox" and "Apply the label xxx" when I build the filter. For the B & C Feeds, I also check "Mark as Read" so that I don't have that psychological overhead of unread messages signals (but I leave A Feed items as unread so that I know those are there).
Thank you so much for this! Going to give it a try.
I’ve worked over the past years to unsubscribe from pretty much any advertising emails - I’m really only receiving stuff these days that I’ve explicitly signed up for. That’s been a big game changer. Also - you know how Gmail sorts your mail into tabs? Primary, promotions, and forums? I also mark all newsletters in Gmail as “forums”, so all the newsletters route there. I can see them in the top tab easily when I’m in Gmail, but they don’t clog up my primary inbox.
I also delete things that didn’t hook me early, and also delete newsletters that sit for over a few weeks unread. Not everything needs to be read!
Good call on the forum tab. I think mine might already do that? I just need to be a lot more liberal with the delete button.
I find that subscribing to all the newsletters I’m interested in helps me not forget about any of them. Like, before I might have stumbled upon a newsletter I was sure I’d like, and yet not subscribe, thinking that I already had a ton of subscriptions and no room for more. Subsequently, I’d forget about said newsletter. Nowadays, I just subscribe to everything I like and pick what I want to read. I archive a lot of stuff, and only read the posts I really want to, but even if I don’t read posts from a certain newsletter for some weeks in a row, I still won’t unsubscribe. When I get the time, I’ll go back and catch up. This way, I don’t put pressure on myself to read everything, either. I just read what time allows and interest dictates.
Very interesting! A mindful approach. I’m kinda doing the same now but without the archiving. So you can see why my inbox is out of control. 🤓
Like Stephanie Pollock I use Meco for reading newsletters. It scans your gmail for newsletters. You can group them (eg awesome people) and bookmark those that you want to keep. Like a newspaper clipping. They recently added a pro plan where you can highlight.
What I don’t like is that it’s harder to share a newsletter. The sharing-link is pointing at the newsletter in Meco and not the newsletter itself. I’ve added an example below.
Check out Foster's newsletter https://www.meco.app/share/1779af22-626d-4158-b04f-bd0fc1ba81f2 (via Meco)
Thanks for the further intel on Meco! The sharing thing sounds very frustrating.
I can’t. Especially those who post more than once a week. I love supporting writers so I do my best to read the stacks I subscribe to.
Feel ya there, CK.