For the last year, Pocket has been indispensable to my productivity. For the unfamiliar, Pocket lets you save news articles, blog posts, and other kinds of web content for reading later.
Working in the technology field, it is important for me to constantly be learning and improving, and one way I do that is by reading blog posts from industry leaders. However, reading too many articles during the day conflicts with my need to minimize distractions in order to focus and work effectively.
Pocket allows me to batch my reading into weekly sessions saving time, increasing focus, and reducing stress. Batching is a technique I learned from The 4-Hour Workweek, and along with learning how to say no, has become essential to me not getting crushed by the daily bombardment of things to do.
Before Pocket, I would email myself interesting links to read later, which involved copying the link, switching apps, and composing an email, which was not very efficient. With the Pocket app installed on my phone, I could save links to Pocket from Safari, Twitter, or any other app via the sharing feature without having to leave the app.
Then today, I noticed a new sharing option on my phone.
That's right, I can now save a link directly to Inbox. Now I prefer saving links to Inbox rather than to Pocket for the following reasons:
- I already depend on Inbox for email, so now I have one less app to check.
- The links are bundled together, so they don't clutter my inbox. I'm not going to miss an important email because I saved a dozen links to Inbox one day.
- From Inbox, I can go to the link directly with one click. With Pocket, I have to open their reader view, then choose the "View Original" option. I save a lot of posts that contain code samples or videos, so I find myself viewing the original more often than using Pocket's reader view.
Pocket, you have served me well, but saving links to Inbox is a better choice for me. So long!
