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.
Oct 8, 2023Liked by Sara Campbell, Minnow Park, Lyle McKeany
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.
Oct 8, 2023Liked by Sara Campbell, Minnow Park, Lyle McKeany
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 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.
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.
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. 😬
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.
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.
I use Readwise Reader to manage my newsletter reading. Super helpful app. I actually use it for *all* of my online reading.
Sanity is over-rated.
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.
I appreciate this post so much. I needed help with this, and I am so happy all these solutions have been illuminated ✨
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.
They’re all auto archived and then I occasionally do a guilt sprint.
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.
[insert comment that makes me look like a thoughtful, intentional and organized human being here]
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.
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.
Check out Foster's newsletter https://www.meco.app/share/1779af22-626d-4158-b04f-bd0fc1ba81f2 (via Meco)
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.