Auto-Synced Reading Highlights in Notion via Readwise (Kindle, Pocket, Instapaper)

[@vicencgomez4759]

I don’t know how this video only has 54k views, it’s a gold mine, specifically 10:59 minute. I find myself coming back to August Bradley videos on Notion even thought 3 years have passed. I am trying to use the native Readwise database as my main capture knowledge bank, I need to change a looot of stuff and it’s going to take time, but it seems super useful when done

[@williammorris7279]

I have been watching quite a few Notion videos recently, as it seems to have the flexibility that suits me, and I have started dabbling with it, somewhat daunted at moving from my existing "systems", but nobody else has even hinted at this amazing functionality, which has completely sold me. Thank you so much for this clear information. If it were not 23.36 here just now, I would start straight away.

[@augustbradley]

I'm glad you found us, William. Yes, Notion has unparalleled flexibility for customization and building your own personal software applications without coding. That's a pro and a con, but if you start with a strong proven system foundation, you can then build on that and customize to your liking. Dive in-there's a whole world of unlimited possibility here!

[@suigenris]

I won't lie, I was low-key getting very upset everyday you didn't show up in my timeline. I'm not even sad to admit these videos and this project is the highlight of my week. Kudos for helping clean up readwise- appreciate your insights and time my friend. 🤙🏾

[@augustbradley]

Had some computer/software tech slow this one down, hope to get back on faster track soon!

[@reynnor]

In complete agreement. Your content is one of a kind!

[@dgalloway]

@@augustbradley please consider hosting a once-a-month Q&A Livestream.

[@augustbradley]

@@dgalloway I'm planning on it, when I launch my new learning platform in a few weeks.

[@dgalloway]

August Bradley Excellent! If you need any beta testers who are familiar with everything you’ve put out until now, let me know. I’m a poor grad student as of just now, but prior to that I was an IT project manager and technical writer.

[@eusouoleonardo]

One video better than other! You have my total admiration! I'm learning a lot from you, I consider you one of my best mentors.

[@augustbradley]

Happy to hear that Guri! Lots more to come, thank you.

[@ruampimentel883]

Hey August, new subscriber here. I've passed my last four days studying and learning every content published on your channel. I'm not sure why I did this, I guess I felt something that related me to this content, a real and possible change that I'm looking for. I'm not sure whether it will help me or not, but I will definitely give it a try. I will start this week 100% in this system, I'm committed to pushing myself to the next level. I'm a Ph.D. student, so I made several changes to incorporate my papers reviews, classes, research projects, and teaching. I still need to integrate it into my weekly/monthly/quarter reviews. I'm excited about this system and with your channel. This is the only channel I decided to activate the notification because I really fell that I'm adding value to my life watching your channel, not just consuming content. Thank you for all your work!

[@augustbradley]

Amazing to hear this Ruam, I am super happy you have joined us. Amazing things to come, I'm so excited to finish them and share them with the community.

[@declandaveywork-lifebalanc4986]

August, the Notion king!

[@coachdan007]

I am a huge fan of Readwise. I am glad you took the time to show this. I have the beta running, too, but didn't know how to fold the Readwise DB in the workflow. Thanks, Austin.

[@augustbradley]

Great to hear it was helpful! isn't this a great addition? I'm very happy about it. Thanks Dan!

[@heyjennylee]

August-thank you SO much for this! This workflow will be a game-changer for my personal knowledge management and especially for my new job as a health tech copywriter.

[@maxlin5998]

It's good to know that something like this is out there! I appreciate how you bring in a whole range of tools for this life OS and create a masterpiece out of it. Personally, I might hold off on this because I like to think and process what I read, then put down my digested version in the notes. I rarely quote for that reason, so for now I probably won't implement it. Really insightful though!

[@stephens2217]

One tip for using Readwise with Paper Books. For any paper book I have, I download the free Kindle ebook Sample into my Kindle library so it shows up in my media vault. The only thing is you have to make a highlight in the book for it to be sent to Notion (which is true with any Kindle book). I have found that you can highlight sample books in Kindle PC (but not some platforms like Kindle Cloud reader for some reason).

[@cactuschris11]

Any thoughts on the best way to synch notes from PDFs?

[@douglasw6496]

Thank you. This changes my workflow for sure. I love it. I wanted both tools you covered, and my world is so much better. I got Airr and paid for Readwise.

[@Sunny-uf5nd]

This is amazing and i love you for this stranger! Subscribed!

[@JonnyMatthew]

Brilliant. Again! Thank you, August! I'm already thrilled with the book and media vaults I created following your last videos. Now to the next level! 👍🏻Cheers, Jonny. 🇬🇧

[@augustbradley]

Awesome Jonny! Congrats on your progress. it's going to get even better!

[@dannaulty9930]

I keep clicking on your link for notion templates but cannot find the media vault template. Can you supply it to me? Thank you for doing all the work. This is great.

[@stephenmoten4017]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, and keep-up the new work.

[@augustbradley]

Excellent Stephen, will do!

[@mryong4021]

Thank you so much for the thorough video!! Unfortunately,my Readwise does not sync automatically to my notion 😢. Please help.

[@katiestone1174]

YES! This is similar to what I was hoping to see to support graduate level research work. THANK YOU!

[@ThadySenior]

Mine seems to break when I try to add an additional category (e.g. video) - not sure why but it removes all tags from the list (even from tagged content already in the database) other than the one I've tried adding and, bizarrely, 'podcasts'.

[@svetogled]

For highlighting print books I highly recommend the vFlat app for Android users. It allows you to quickly take nice photos of your pages and then extract the text. Great accuracy so far even in Bulgarian language. I am amazed!

[@verinxo]

Thank you! This video was very useful. Keep up the good work.

[@charles-emileanne9931]

Hi August! Hope you're doing well! Thanks for the video and the series, it's so helpful. I was wondering after watching this video and the last few ones, are you still using Roam in the way you talked about it in the Keep Productive video? Between Notes & Ideas in Notion, capturing the highlights and notes in the Media Vault and Roam, isn't that too much now?

[@tejasrao5372]

Another great video! Also, I've noticed a huge change in how I rank entries in my vault by removing the value 3 under Future Value Rank. I instantly decide if the content is really valuable or not for the future. Doing so has allowed me to really think about how important things really are because I noticed I rated a lot of things 3 even if they weren't important at all.

[@augustbradley]

Great tip!

[@tery08]

The biggest issue, though no fault of yours August, is the lack of LIBBY-app integration with Readwise! Not being from the U.S, many of the world's libraries uses the Overdrive / Libby platform to deliver ebooks services to people. Unfortunately, we also lack the kindle-integration thats limited to U.S residents only. The only other way to use Readwise (and as an extension the Notion integration suggested here - which I am very keen to take up, having followed your Notion series since inception) is to pay for a separate Kindle service. I simply don't consume content / read as much on Medium / Instapaper or Pocket (but perhaps I could start). Many of our library services are very good and makes borrowing/reading ebooks a joy so I don't see how paying for a separate kindle subscription economical at the moment. In the meantime, keep the Notion videos coming :)

[@minkirax]

Hi August, Thank you for yet another amazing video. Similar to how you integrated pocket with readwise, is there any quick and efficient way to take notes from KZbin videos while watching them instead of opening notion and creating a new page? Thanks

[@DBDesignAndCode]

Is there a way to move the old media while still maintaining notes and Ideas link to the media?

[@johannesbentzon5186]

Bump

[@levittperez]

What does master table view mean? Mine says books, articles, tweets, podcasts, all.

[@garethelliot]

Hey August! Would you combine the book vault and the media vault together in this case of the new system? Or would you keep them both separate?

[@augustbradley]

Hi Garreth. I suggest you combine them together in this new setup.

[@garethelliot]

@augustbradley you're a gent, thanks so much for replying. You're changing my life day by day!

[@Enacaus]

@August I have a question Won't it be a struggle to redo everything in notion once the API comes out? I will literally be overwhelmed with all the different ways you can implement the API!

[@sim9955]

This is AWESOME! I watched your "critical" videos playlist, learned ALOT. Wondering, though, should I watch your videos from the beginning? Is that how it works? SUBED!

[@bidailloux]

Definetly recommend watching everything!

[@adeelhashmi145]

You can change the Tags and filter by going the three dot with new and find filter. Edit filter according to your tag. So it will work. I have added 15 tags so far.

[@dgalloway]

I see you've been reading How to Take Smart Notes - I'm curious to hear your thoughts on Zettlekasten in general and what I suspect would be your preferred hybrid approach to utilizing your Media Vault and Knowledge Lab to perform a similar function within Notion. Right now, I'm planning on a grad school approach to use a strict Zettelkasten system within Obsidian for reading/writing related to my field and adjacent fields and using Notion for everything else. I suppose I could achieve the same effect by having a separate Notion workspace just for ZK, but I'm waiting for backlinking, a true offline mode, and easily exported markdown files if I ever want to go elsewhere. It's hard for me to put everything I want as a permanent ZK Knowledge Base within Notion since by keeping that information as Md files using wiki-links, I can easily use a folder with multiple apps for different purposes (Obsidian, RemNote, IAWriter, 1Writer, etc) kind of like how iOS' calendar DB can be used with Fantastical, BusyCal, etc for different purposes.

[@SantiYounger]

Very nice, I have a similar set up using zettlekasten in obisidian for teaching others, but after years of learning the right tool for zettelkasten, in my opinion nothing beats a package from emacs called org-roam. I highly recommend it! I use an easier version of emacs called spacemacs which does take a learning curve, but since it's open source it's the single most future proof way to create a zettelkasten. Plus org-mode (which is a powerful file type used in emacs) is amazing! It is a massive world of learning, but in my opinion is competly worth it for something as powerful as a zettlelkasten. For things such as making org-roam work great with markdown (since you already use .md) there are ways to do that, if you need any help feel free to reply to this comment!

[@5708R]

@@SantiYounger hi, this sounds really interesting, thanks for sharing. What sources would you recommend for a) looking more into this org-mode system and deciding if it's a good personal fit b) learning how to use it?

[@skaya6838]

For those who want to get the highlight of kindle books without readwise, you can use calibre to fetch annotations

[@Fallen701Angel]

Is that via a pluggin? And how do you get calibre to send the highlights over to Notion?

[@kylelafontaine368]

Great videos! Clear, efficient and very well structured.

[@purgatoriprytania5382]

It's a game changer for me.

[@LachezarDzhogov]

Thank you for the shared knowledge and insights! This is all great content and I am eager to get everything up and running for myself. I would like to use this comment to ask a question unrelated to this specific video, since I am guessing you are more likely to see it here. My question is: once the whole system is ready and coherent, do you start inputs from the Pillars down and then Knowledge as you go? You have mentioned an upcoming video which would take a look at the life operating system as a whole, and I hope this includes some examples of how you introduce a new pillar and how it all trickles all the way down to Actions & Projects, basically some organic daily use illustrating how it all works together as opposed to isolated exampled of each component. And on the note of actions, I am wondering if all the Status property's options are really useful. As I see it, the most important option there is "waiting on", designating tasks which do not require my actions. As I experiment with some action tracking, and check tasks off as "done" I noticed the Status property "active" does not make sense after a task is complete, but would be a chore to change in addition to checking off the Done checkbox. I never found myself checking tasks as "next up" since as it rolls into my today view I would be wasting time switching the Status to "active" and it does not make sense. I was wondering how you envisioned these additional options for "Status" to be used and if maybe some of them can be removed all together if they do not get used a lot. I was also thinking that this would be a good place to designate "Recurring" tasks as well. Would be great to hear your thoughts! Again, thanks for all your content and teachings!

[@stapizo]

Hi August ! Again, amazing job for this video, i can't wait for the ones on mindset, business etc. I have a quick question : in my pillars i have as a relation all the action items that were linked to each pillar. Although it seems like i can't filter this property to only show action items that are not done yet. I can imagine that after several months the action list for every pillar would be huge and i was wondering how do you do to make every action disappear from the pillars list once it's done ? Thanks a lot again, Take care, Theodore

[@juliannesympson6416]

Love this! Can't wait to take advantage of this!

[@orlandosalazar9295]

Here is a Question : Does it work with Google Books?

[@GoonerBuller]

Hey August, thanks for all your videos, I've integrated so many of these elements into my own setup. Have you read 'Don't Overthink It' by Anne Bogel? There are so many parallels with your system, I think many of the ideas would resonate with you.

[@augustbradley]

I have not read it, will check it out. Thanks for the tip!

[@hkay1368]

Hey August. Bang up job as usual.. cant get enuff of the life changing system that you have introduced...really looking forward to your take on the mindset routine..keep em coming!..I did have a question on the quarterly reviews though ...bit off topic here..but I really need to know how to proceed with it..in the 'Process' section of the quarterly review workspace, you mentioned to review projects to check if they are on track with regards to the quarter and if necessary update them..but since the review will be at the end of the quarter, there will be no time left to make any modifications in the same quarter... unless..by update ..you meant to assign any unfinished projects to the next quarter..or is there something else that i'm missing??..Looking forward to your feedback..thanks

[@augustbradley]

Great to hear! Mindset videos(s) coming soon. Your Projects question got cut off, I don't see the full question.

[@hkay1368]

@@augustbradley I wanted to ask you about the quarterly reviews..In the process section of the workspace..you mentioned to review projects to check if they are on track with the quarter and then update as necessary..but since I'll be doing the review at the end of the quarter, there wont be any time to put a delayed project back on track..unless by update..you meant to shift any unfinished project to the next quarter..

[@NachoGonzalezNappa]

Hi August, thanks for sharing this. So basically you merged both your media vault and your book vault into the Readwise system? I'm having a hard time migrating the old Book Vault to the new Readwise system. For some reason, the books are not being recognized, and I've to copy paste manually. I tried having the exact same columns with the exact same names. Any idea why? Any suggestions? It seems that in your case you managed to integrate everything smoothly.

[@tomdavey1887]

This guy is a god

[@susanpearson-creativefibro]

After watching this I think I will get Readwise and use the synced database for all my consumed media and keep my existing book and media vaults as my library of materials to read. I only have 4 books I have highlighted so it will be setting up a new system. As someone who bookmarks tons of articles and grabs deals on so many books I find I have a 80% to read vs a 20% read. Having the To Do database and separate Done database should help me to actually read more! Not to mention the use of Readwise should remind me to highlight the important stuff. My only concern was the comment from Walter Terry below. It is not so much the having to pay to try the functionality (I agree it should be flagged as a partially functioning trial but that is not a dealbreaker) or even that they have access to what I read. It is more the suggestion they are selling this information on. Having checked the Privacy declaration though it is clear that is not the case so I think I have a plan 😃

[@levittperez]

My new highlights do not sync into my media vault database. I thought this system would be good for me instead I have spent more time trying to set it up than I have actually studying. You do a great job explaining the theory and reasons but not enough time teaching how to execute it. Maybe Im just dense and need to revisit the videos.

[@severnhale5176]

Thank you very much for your content! I'm reorganizing my Notion now based on your tips and self-reflection that you touched upon in earlier videos is helping a lot. So thanks. Also, I have a question: will all these videos stay on KZbin or are you planning to delete them eventually? (Because you're building your own course and platform). Is it safe to rely on these videos being here so we can come back any time for interesting features? Good luck!)

[@mattpen7966]

instapaper -> readwise -> notion is not working for me. the connection from instapaper to readwise cant import into readwise for me. Says i have no highlights when i do...

[@kyfisher3662]

i wish notion had pdf intergration with highlighting in a similar form to remnote. remnote pdf work is so much smoother but the ui is far better in notion.

[@Fallen701Angel]

Hi! I'm having a little trouble 🤔 When I sync my readwise to Notion all good no issues. However, when I try to add a category (Videos), the database categories column, the all original options sent by readwise are deleted and data that was initially set removed. Any suggestions or workarounds for this?

[@sriramvecham4369]

My copy to the clipboard is not working. Can anyone help me. It is asking me to have a flash player, but I cannot find a way to download it.

[@bluecry2000]

how can i take notes from Play Books? Is it the same? I have kindle and play books but using them is far worse than BETA vs VHS times

[@KabsatLa7am]

I’ve signed up and found the other templets but not the reading and media vault😭 Also would you please consider doing a detailed Notion course for beginners, I’d happily pay for it ! I feel it can greatly help me as a student if only I know how to adjust the templets to my needs. Thank you for all your effort! شكرا جزيلا 🙏🏼

[@augustbradley]

The Mind Expansion dashboard and related DBs is not out in template form at this point. I am developing a course to take people from scratch to a full Life Operating System. Coming soon!

[@toumir.]

Go to the playlist and watch episodes in order. You will understand everything

[@moorescience]

@@augustbradley Your neophyte Notion fans --can't wait!! You are incredible.

[@katievolkers9175]

I love this! I’m getting stuck when I try merging my book vault with the Readwise vault. When I click the 6 dots and move to Readwise, it adds just the title of the book as a separate link to a new page below the database made by Readwise sync. I’m sure there is a simple step I’m missing, but I can’t figure it out. Any ideas? Thank you again for all your excellent work!

[@katievolkers9175]

Nevermind! Apparently I just had to sleep on it... it wasn't working because the database made by readwise is actually titled 'library' within a page that has a different name. Is there an easy way to change the cover that we had in the previous book vault into an icon like the readwise db does?

[@derbirra8370]

Hey August! Often when I highlight a Heading and add a note for example ".h2" it doesn't export the highlight as a heading. It just adds a Note "Note: .h2" below the highlight in notion. It just works sometimes. What am I doing wrong? :(

[@SandrineDavinBlanc]

Hello, same problem here, do you find a solution ?

[@raolauar1]

August, how can I turn a table inline (generated by Readwise) on a database page?

[@jacopoabbate3564]

You can click on the three dots icon beside the 'New' toggle on top of the database and there you will find the 'Turn into a page' option that will turn the inline database generated by Readwise into a dedicated database page.

[@raolauar1]

Thanks Jacopo! It works, this imperfection in my system was really boring me! Lol

[@timbushell8640]

So - go back one step... ... I think I am right in that you also saved "bigger" or whole items into Evernote, those for a "some-day-maybe" basis, and then migrated to Notion as and when they became project useful. If you are still using Evernote as the infinite filing cabinet - how is that going to continue to work? As reading the Evernote capture back into Pocket doesn't seem sensible, etc., etc. But that said - great step forward and a great vid with its explanation - and clearly a neat idea. One thing wasn't explicit - the auto sync - is continuous as you may go back to a publication, and add more and even pull up a highlight with an additional note connecting to a read of another article? Finally - at the end, I thought you were also going to show the capture of a 'dead tree' book reading highlight/note from the margin - via the ReadWise "camera" icon, does that follow all the same formating?

[@shannonhonadle857]

Sorry to come in here so late. But I created a trial account in Readwise but I do not have the option to export to Notion. For the record, the dashboard is completely different from the one you show (even though the URL is the same). I believe they redesigned it and it's been simplified. I attempted to go to just the URL that shows up on your browser to try and force export to Notion but it comes back page not found. Do I have to pay for the account to get this to work?

[@shannonhonadle857]

Oh sorry, finally found it. It's under exports. Thanks.

[@JimManicad]

Anyone here has an idea how can I find the notes / highlights I saved on kindle integrated from instapaper? Since my kindle is synced with my Readwise, notion, and instpapaer account. Does it show anywhere automatically in any of those accounts?

[@conlomerate4841]

Your old method which is using Notion as your read later vault was a better idea. I am not sure why you switched to this method which seems like a step back. Also, your older method was free too without needing to pay extra to Readwise.

[@JenricAquino]

Do you use scripts or do you free style?

[@augustbradley]

I free style for everything except the closing final few sentences, the last few sentences in the closing are scripted. The first 3 videos in the series were scripted, and they lacked the energy and human touch so I dropped that approach.

[@JenricAquino]

@@augustbradley great to see you improve! Keep up the good work!

[@TacoMental]

This seems to be broken on chrome. *Note I got the import to work but moving from the old media vault to the new one is just adding the entries as notes that subnest as pages under the page.

[@SG-lj8uu]

The Readwise to Notion sync has already stopped working correctly for me. I don't know what I've done wrong and can't seem to fix it. Super frustrating :(

[@SG-lj8uu]

I think, I fixed it. It seems you can't move the table to a different page it needs to stay on the same original page.

[@daviddelgadovendrell]

Can anyone suggest me how to Link (or Duplicate+Move) the Notion Readwise DB items to my single P.A.R.A.-based Resources DB? I just want to use include those articles, books, etc... and their highlights as any other Resource Item within the single P.A.R.A.-based DB.

[@nicolasmaheuqw8055]

first

[@bidailloux]

[@augustbradley]

Nice! 🥇