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Comment by zorrolovsky | Hacker News Reader

The trick that worked for me is to be absolutely ruthless.

I don't allow myself to bookmark "read later" pages again. I have to options: either I read the page here and now, devoting my full focus and attention, or it's gone forever.

I suggest you read about the power of focus, and also work on the damage that the fear of missing out is causing you. Yes, there are millions of interesting topics and insights out there, but you can only read one at the time. So ask yourself: "if I had to learn about one topic today (or this week), what would that be?". There is no later, there is no tomorrow... it's either now or never!

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Interesting concept. I went ruthless too, but in categorizing and leaving the scene asap instead of discarding. Discarding made me feel bad (because I was really losing things I wanted later).

I used to save everything to "see later" and get lost like you described, but instead I now host a TiddlyWiki locally where I transform what I see in a wiki reference (or discard).

Doing that allows me to filter out things that are temporary (news, opinions, etc) from things that might be useful later (book recommendations, cool projects, etc).

The big trouble remains in timeboxing this practice so it doesn't take a lot and become a problem again.

(I think the biggest lesson I took from that is that most of what we see that is important is time-insensitive. So, doing this work of saving and categorizing over a batch of content in a weekend hour is just fine)

I had to fight the urge to screenshot your comment.

Do you have any suggestions on where to read about the power of focus?

Your diary while on cannabis or mushrooms.

I’ve worked out a different approach over the years. I have Instapaper installed and when I come across something that I actually want to read but don’t have the time for I just save it there. Tabs and bookmarks are for relevant and important things. Whenever I am in a spot where I’m bored and seeking a good read, like on a train or something, I reach for and rummage through that pile. It’s a big pile, it’s for entertainment reading.

I don’t know about the whole learning only about what you’re focused on approach. I’ve often found valuable insights and lessons in places I wouldn’t have looked at if I were optimizing everything with this level of zeal.

I think that's a really valuable approach - either dedicate the time and effort now to focus on it or just forget about it. This helps relieve the cognitive burden of your attention minimally scattered amongst N number of different things.

I don't every bookmark things to read later. I bookmark them AFTER I've read them so I can share them with others, should the need arise.

Man, i feel like i'd miss so many interesting topics. Do you think this same goal might work if you limited it to, say, 10 bookmarks?

Survival of the fittest, you always compare it to the rest and if it's good enough, it goes in and something else comes out?

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