Gather Your Reading Material with Wallabag
It's easy to get lost in a rabbit hole where you want to read everything, but don't remember what you've read and what you haven't. For this, I use a "read it later" app.
There are a number of apps out there you can use to read articles later, such as Pocket and Instapaper. I use Wallabag, personally. I self-host my own server, although they have a hosted version for €9 per year. Try each of them out for yourself to see what's good for you.
An important feature to look for is an extension for your browser of choice. If you're on a mobile device, simply installing the app is likely sufficient, and you can share articles using the app to load them. For desktops and laptops where you're using Chrome however, you'll want an extension. Wallabag's sits in both the address bar and the right-click context menu, allowing you to easily grab the current page. Right-clicking on links lets you grab the linked page as well.
Automatic Tagging
Tagging is one of my favourite features in Wallabag. Tagging rules exist in the Config page, and let you automatically apply certain tags to an article based on the conditions you set.
Using tagging can help you sift through what you want to read first. Looking at the content or the title of the page and matching on certain keywords can flag the articles as being related to a certain subject. You can also use Wallabag's reading time estimation to break down your reading into short, medium, and long reads. The below options are what I use for tracking reading length.
if « readingTime <= 3 » then tag as « Short Reading »
if « readingTime > 3 AND readingTime <= 10 » then tag as « Medium Reading »
if « readingTime > 10 » then tag as « Long Reading »Interests get separated out based on where the articles are from or what's in the content. Magic: The Gathering content, for example, is done based on domain name.
if « domainName = "www.mtggoldfish.com" OR domainName matches "channelfireball.com" » then tag as « MTG, Gaming »When looking for something to read, use the app provided rather than going directly to the article, if you can. Not only is it cleaner, but it will keep track of where you stop reading if you need to take a break for a bit. Adding rules aggressively can help make your tagging process easier and cleaner.
Tagging is a great way to organize your information, and the automation rules within Wallabag can make that easier for you. Less hassle to achieve the same results!