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Reading is such a complex subject. If I think about it, I have three separate "reading" areas.

The first would encompass e-mail, RSS feeds, and forums. I limit my "reading" of these to once a day -- in my "review" project. I spend a little time every day "planning/reviewing" in omnifocus and the actual reading of emails, etc is done once a day. That prevents me from checking email, etc every 5 minutes. I love planning, so my review context is almost a reward for doing other things I am not as excited about. During this time, I "star" or bookmark everything I want to spend time reading and thinking about. This is where I decide on what goes into my "third" type of reading pile.

In the second type of reading, I do have a reading context. This is my "doing" reading that moves projects forward. I really only use it for reading related to a project that I have that involves more of studying and in depth "getting it." This is almost more of a research aspect/learning aspect for me.

The third type of reading is really a someday/maybe reading. It's set up as a task on my weekly review. It's the e-mails, RSS feeds and physical papers that come in that I don't need to "act on," but would like to review and consider making projects/filing for reference etc. This is my "processed to read file." I either go through these between projects, especially when my mind is all fuzzy and I just need a boost or during my weekly reviews. I find after a week, a lot of things I thought I might want to spend my time on, I really don't anymore and just get rid of them (75%). There's a special "reading file" I have on my desk for these papers, "stars" in google RSS or tagged to read in bookmarks. These are always emptied at the end of the week. This way, they don't sit around and I don't have to wonder if I missed something. This is **NOT** a pile where I put in e-mails I need to respond to or work that needs to be done. It's a short-term pile of someday/maybe things (ideas/opportunities) that I make a firm decision if it goes in my someday/maybe pile, reference or trash by the end of the week during my weekly review. I could put them all in a someday/maybe pile or reference, but really like to keep these organized/clean and minimal.

Now that I look at it, it's somewhat complicated, but really works for me.

Last edited by anon; 2008-12-09 at 08:31 AM..