So I recently wrote Doing what you can NOW post which is about productivity. And I see people have bookmarked it. This made me think. Do people actually read the posts they have bookmarked?
Because this is a very common productivity issue where people bookmark and never read. I myself have fought hard to solve this issue for me. I don't bookmark if it is not absolutely necessary anymore. It is like, I agree that this is a brilliant idea. So, I will read this later. And it never happens.
I always look at my posts being bookmarked as a not good enough writing metric depending on topics. I understand certain topics are more likely to be bookmarked. And certain combination like a heart/unicorn + bookmark means they have at least skimmed through the article. And I agree that there are valid reasons to bookmark. But I really want to know your thoughts.
So, Do you actually read your bookmarked posts?
Latest comments (27)
Yes always because they are valuable and I would go crazy if I don't reach inbox zero.
Aah. Got it. Thanks for the reply. :)
Which browser do you use? I use Firefox and I can search for the approximate title and generally gets what I want. You are right that the search is not powerful. It has some issues and hiccups. But it works without much issues most of the time.
I bookmark some posts but for me, bookmarking is more of a cluttered store which I may hopefully check out someday
For posts I'm more interested in, I save the link on a Notion page which I access regularly.
What is stopping you from making an "interesting posts" folder in your browser bookmarks and using it? Notion seems to be an extra step. Just curious.
Yes, it's the extra step that makes it worth it. And makes me a bit more responsible.
Even if I have a folder, I'll still "easily" clutter with with many interesting posts.
OK. Got it. :)
Actually, never. Upon review, my strategy seems to have been to wait for my hard drive to die. Then I start from scratch until the next time. This hasn't happened so much since the advent of SSDs ;)
Interesting. HDD has a longer lifespan AFAIK than SSD right? SSD is fast and performant. But not for ideal for long term data backup. A better HDD should also be cheaper than most SSD's as well.
NOTE: Take this info as few years old. Cos I am not sure if things have improved with the latest controllers used in SSD's and NVME drives. But my understanding with WRT lifespan is
tapes > HDD > SSD. I could be wrong. :)No~
I also have a massive collection of browser bookmark full of great stuff but I never read them .-.
Typically don't bookmark posts. At least not with the native dev.to functionality. I bookmark them from the browser or add them to different notes I've been taking on notion to know what I referenced them for.
yes I do! I pass my lazy time reading those
I bookmark posts that I have read and think I might want to read again later--posts that have some kind of specific implementation steps that I'm going to want to have in front of me in order to use them.
Have I ever actually reopened a bookmark? Oh uh sorry I'm uh getting a phone call looksimportantgottatakethisonesorry
I feel you. The urge! :D
I do bookmark a lot of posts, but, good challenge - no, I often do not go back and read through them 🤦 there's so much new content coming, all the time! I use GoodLinks on Apple platforms to save content for later, and also the Play app to manage my YouTube watch later content, but it is rare that I have a day or hour where I sit down and think, right, time to go back through that stuff i wanted to read in detail!
Try this. Before bookmarking, skim through the article. In my experience, a lot of articles fall very far from my expectation which I get from their titles. I found it a good way to clean up even before adding it to our queue. Hope this helps.
A lot of the time... No. However, it's a great search engine for stuff I may need to read. I'll sort of have a notion in my mind that I need to catch back up with something that caught my attention and if I've bookmarked it, I have an easier time finding it.
I can relate to this. But majority of those posts are things I have to re-read or re-consume. Mostly not things I am yet to read. Obviously there is a small portion which I bookmark in the hope of being useful in the future. But I have been suppressing this as much as I can recently. I will anyways search for that particular information online when I eventually need it right?
Also, wouldn't a notion means more labour from your end to maintain? Cos using something like Firefox sync means you can use it in mobile and desktop. It is also accessible within your regular browsing without the need for another app. This removes the extra middle man Notion is becoming here. Just thinking out loud here. Thanks for sharing anyways. :)
Yes, if i am working on a side project and I see that something will be of help, i bookmark it. Many times I have to go through the bookmarks, so that I can reference if i am doing the right thing.
I do the same. I used to have multiple places where I bookmark items as well. Browser's bookmark feature is better since it is centralised.
I did mean this feature. That is what triggered the thought. But it was also a general wonderment about whether you read your bookmarked articles as well.
Thanks for the reply. :)
Yep, when I see something good which I might want to read later, I bookmark it.
Then when I'm bored I just casually scroll through my bookmarked posts and see if they're helpful.
Don't you go overboard with the bookmarking?
What do you mean?
As in bookmark so many posts and never read them I mean. Either way most of them looks like champions here. :)
I barely have any bookmarked posts lmao
I do not use bookmark, because i use Pocket to bookmark post from different sites. I always have a few items on my reading list. And once in a year i 'archive' an interesting post after i had read to be able to find it later. But usually i never open my archived ones :D