How I remember everything I read with Readwise

How much "return on attention" are you getting from reading books, articles, and even social media? Readwise helps you capture and preserve every nugget of wisdom by sending it automatically to your notetaking app. It's the essential Second Brain companion!
In this video, I'll walk you through my Readwise setup and workflow. And you'll see how I use Readwise's read-later app called Reader.
Get 60 days of Readwise or Reader for free (that's double the usual trial length):
Readwise: readwise.io/basb/
Reader: readwise.io/tiago/
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Chapters
00:00 - 05:53 Intro
05:54 - 17:00 Readwise demo
17:01 - 21:41 Reader demo
21:42 - 22:15 Behind the scenes

[@ToddBryantsr]

People send me things to read all of the time. I send them to Readwise and then use the GhostReader to create a summary and then I decide if I want to know more. If I do, I highlight them in Readwise and then when I am preparing to talk to that person about the subject, I open Obsidian and use my highlights and notes to construct a document that is engaging and fun. My friends think I don't sleep. I tell them that I free up more time by #1 not spending more time than necessary looking for things and #2 using tools that greatly simplify my life.

[@Will-ty5gt]

I will have to check out this process! Thanks!

[@gloriamattei1809]

Da provare

[@manonymus]

We need a video explaining this xD

[@dushanbilbija]

Reader is an excellent complement and does a great job for note taking as well as various imports (e.g., KZbin link with video transcript).

[@mbwiedemer]

You missed a couple of the features in Reader/readwise that I find really valuable. I imported from Goodreads, and I can now see highlights that other people made for books that I found valuable, but may not have made my own highlights (even books where I read the physical copy instead of digital). The email Readwise sends of highlights is so helpful. According to a specific algorithm, it resurfaces highlights you’ve made. This to me is the real value in remembering what you’ve read. Having those highlights in my notes, as you’ve shown, is useful when I want to use the highlights in something I’m writing.

[@brucequinn]

I'm extremely happy with READER you get along with READWISE. It's better than others I tried for capturing subscription content (e.g. Wall St Journal). I'm finding I really like the audio reader function, as well. READER also has a button for AI summaries, which is nice.

[@guaje]

Hi Tiago, as always, it was a very insightful video. Do you happen to know if there is an alternative that offers a wider variety of export and import options? Otherwise, we could start an open-source project that allows everyone to use whatever apps/services they feel comfortable with.

[@marandaroth5604]

Thanks for the insights. I've always wondered how you use Readwise.

[@arturites]

Hi Tiago, I just want to give you a complement for your videos. I myself come from Germany and speak only school English. Nevertheless, it is easy for me to follow your calm manner and understand everything. Thank you very much for this! 🙏You are a very big inspiration for me.

[@TiagoForte]

Thank you! 😃 Very happy to hear that.

[@MireillevanDriel]

I love Reader wáy more. The snippets are reminders, but the ability to look at it, highlight and label, then archive and find it later(!) I use every day

[@matrix0897]

Hey Tiago, could you please do one more video on the UX for mobile use? I mean I use mobile probably 95%. I have found it more difficult to use especially the reader as it had issues with login for pages. Also if you could elaborate why Microsoft One Note is still not available to export. With their ai upgrades and having used one note for work as well for years I hesitate to change the note taking tool.

[@dconrad33]

I love Readwise and use it all the time. I've exported to both Notion and Evernote for a while as I keep trying to make my brain work with Notion (but fail miserably). I like the Notion interface since you get to see the cover art of the book in the note but realized I greatly prefer just sticking with Evernote. So, to your point about the notes being editable, I copy/paste the artwork from Amazon into my Readwise notes in Evernote to remind me of the book from which the notes came. Thanks for the video and keep up the good and important work.

[@pagenari]

I was in the same boat with Notion too...stil using Evernote for multiple things ,but this days in combination with the new app called Go2Mail we recently discovered and used to save articles to email and then archiving pdf from mail to Evernote and making fleeting and permanent notes, and email inbox for staying up to date with newest urls and web finds, thankfully by Go2Mail simple options. 😊

[@nurijanian]

these 2 apps changed my life, I even use them in a product assignment when asked about my favorite product 😂

[@mickmel]

That was a fantastic video, but I feel that he overlooked a major feature -- the Readwise Daily Review. It pulls all of your highlights (and even adds others that you might like) into a daily review where you can dig back into them. I often use it as my default "I'm bored" app instead of social media just to resurface those highlights, which often brings ideas to mind for new blog posts, or things to share with our team, etc. Keeping highlights is great, but immersing yourself in them is better, and Readwise does that in a fantastic way.

[@manonymus]

Thanks for sharing!

[@KiwiMoto72]

thx you as always. Ive been a fan of readwise for a long time. I also started using the native Notion reader. Its not as deep, but decent.

[@guirob]

Thank you Kyle, very interesting 👍😉

[@frankvet1]

Sir, may I ask what mic you are using? You have the best audio I've ever "heard"/seen on youtube. I would so appreciate a list of the equipment you use for the channel if possible. I so appreciate your channel and thank you for improving my organizational skills.

[@GamerofKonoha]

perfectly timed video i downloaded Readwise today imported my pocket saves and downloaded the PC Kindle app

[@velanche]

It really took me some time to wrap my head around Readwise, especially trying to work it around Apple Notes, my preferred notes app. So far, I'm able to make it work. I do wish that Apple Notes is one of the export options. As it is, I am finding Readwise to be essential, especially with both Kindle and Apple Books. I have Evernote and maybe I can use it to automatically export highlights, but then I still need to get that content into my Apple Notes, which I ponder if it's duplication of effort. I am working on the Read-It-Later next to learn how best to highlight and capture. Great overview video. Love the PARA system!

[@gtd-addict]

How do you manage to do this ? I gave up on Readwise because this doesn’t allow automatic import from Apple Books and Kindle (using my own EPUB files)… 😢

[@velanche]

@@gtd-addict There's no automatically import to Apple Notes from either Apple Books or Kindle. I just end up collecting the highlights sent from Kindle to Readies via its automatic sync, select them in Safari to copy, then paste into a new note in Apple Notes. Same thing for Apple Books, except I have to manually sync the highlights from there to Readwise with its Readies iBooks tool. Not the most elegant, but gets the job one.

[@craigrobertmartin]

My second brain is in Apple Notes so I use Readwise for regular review (daily) of my notes from books, and then those that are really special I use the Share/copy text from the Readwise app and then paste to a new note with a hashtag in Apple Notes

[@Stonewood345]

Hi Tiago, I know you said that apps are interchangable but I'm curious if you have ever used Zotero? I would be really interested to see how you would go about utilizing its functions to help organize information. As an engineering researcher, I have to go through tons of information in papers or videos and I have found Zotero to be easy to upload to but not easy to organize as it is so vast. I'd love to hear what you think! - Lauren

[@savannacirilo1960]

I would love if you review Zotero too Tiago🎉

[@lasal7820]

This is awesome!

[@loricat5606]

If only I had Readwise for physical books... Any recommendations for ways to implement a similar system for that? (I've already seen the "create your own table of contents from physical highlights in the book" posted on this channel; that's not what I'm looking for. I want a better way to get it into my actual second brain, which is primarily hosted in Obsidian, efficiently)

[@ciceroinvest6604]

Readwise also works for physical books. There's an Add Highlights via photos button. Works great.

[@mattarmstrong187]

I use Readwise all the time for physical books! I don’t do much ebooks so this is quite helpful. Just take a picture of the page and highlight your quote. Saves quite quickly.

[@chiyungwong3774]

Tiago is the human form of Readwise it seems!

[@robertcurtispro]

Great video TF. Do yuo think Readwise can also work like Instapaper so you don't need both. Trying to keep platforms to a minimum.

[@TiagoForte]

Their read-later app Reader is basically an improved version of Instapaper.

[@LucianVintila]

In the Android world, what do you think of the Google ecosystem in relation to building a second brain? I'll tell you what keeps me in their system: Automatically creation of Google docs for books read and highlighted in Google play books app. And what's even better, every paragraph highlighted or bookmark added has a link to the book at that specific page and you can go back very quickly to better understand the context. Then it plays nice with google Keep - as it allows you convert notes in documents and viceversa, you can insert "chips" for linking other documents (sheets, gdocs, etc) or different locations, projects, etc... You can also make the google docs to be by default pageless for a "canvas" looking. And of course, the best feature is that it has universal search and you can search in all documents if you remember for example a few words from a book, but don't remember where you read it. For me personally this works better than everything I tried. I switched from notion to obsidian and then came back to Google docs, where I organized based on the PARA method a homepage with links to specific documents or folders from my Google drive. Thank you for promoting this second brain ideas...

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

Can anyone explain me about PARA method ? Even though this video is about readwise. I see people having two different storages of PARA set up 1) one in APPLE notes. 2) another in evernote . Does people maintain two difference second brains ? - both apple notes and evernote. How can we manage two different second brains ?

[@TiagoForte]

You can apply the PARA Method to all places where you store information e.g. your notetaking app, your Google Drive, hard drive, etc. My question for you is: Why are you using two different apps? Are you storing different kinds of information in Apple Notes vs. Evernote? My general recommendation would be to simplify and only have one place that you maintain.

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

@@TiagoForte Thanks a lot Sir for your reply & advice🙏. I will use only one app going forward 🙏. The reason i was using 2 different apps was because of using each app best features eg: In apple notes the PDF annotation feature was very nice and quick compared to evernote. The Feature of apple notes, drag and drop in reminder app was good. This is not possible in evernote. Thanks again for your guidance 🙏

[@sethdaemen]

What mobile device do you use with readwise reader?

[@iScanibal]

Where do you store the "notebook" Readwise? Is it Resources?

[@TiagoForte]

I store it outside of the PARA categories, actually. But it's really up to you.

[@vivekchatrath8905]

Great video thanks for sharing @tiago

[@leonardoluna5090]

Am I able to use OneNote for Readwise or is there a workaround? I'm so ingrained in that ecosystem and have a Onedrive subscription for the 1TB storage

[@robinjordin5929]

Did you find out?

[@topdirect4286]

is there any zotero replacement workflow？

[@rvrgrrl]

Your comment about discovering later that you may not want to consume the saved information at all at a later date made me think of the hundreds (literally) of tabs I have open on my phone. I wonder what would happen if, instead of seeing a headline and thinking - Oh! I want to read that! and opening a tab, I were to save it to Reader. I have a suspicion that most of them would be deleted because, really, do I have time for all of it? Do I want to make time for all of it? I just started using Reader a few weeks ago and am feeling more hopeful about the internet than I have in awhile. I do think it will help me focus.

[@cooluser23]

Does it work with Onyx Boox Neoreader, or at least Moon+ Reader?

[@loonloozook]

Unfortunately, Kindle limits the amount of exportable highlights significantly(

[@leoceoliveira]

it does? really? by how much? do you have the source of this info? genuinely asking because if so I might move on to kobo or some other...

[@davemcghee9468]

Tiago, how do you deal with truncated notes from Kindle notes to Readwise? I feel like many of my highlites are not making it into Readwise.

[@jonathangoodman9751]

I consume so much content in video or audio form… is there something you’d recommend for this?

[@2snipe1]

Man i wish i can find it in my budget right now for the monthly fee. Its small but im trying to prevent any lifestyle creep. This sounds like it would aolve my youtube addiction well.

[@rinleeds]

Hey there! Wow, that video really nailed what Readwise is all about, didn't it? 😄 So, let me get this straight: to access both the Readwise reader and app, we need to opt for the full version, right? Now, Tiago, I've got a burning question for you, and I'd love your take on it. I can't shake this worry that I'll end up with a trove of information, but only end up using a fraction of it-like, 70% of it just gathering digital dust. I mean, becoming a curator of knowledge sounds fancy, but if most of it isn't put to good use, is it worth it? What's your take on this? Would love to hear from someone who's been there and done that! I am have been curating information for years with a less efficient method, but the problem is theres is a lot of wasted effort in curating.... Thanks Ramesh, Leeds, UK

[@robinjordin5929]

Wouldn’t it be better to access the curated information if you needed to as opposed to needing it and not having it? As Tiago said, it’s preserving that focused attention. I’ve found many insights along the way but lost them with the constant overriding information. I suppose if you access the said information then perhaps you would be able to put it to good use.

[@rinleeds]

Thanks robin for this thoughtful reply. I would agree with you in principle and in theoretical terms but I find that pragmatically I'm just being a curator of knowledge which when we'll organised am still only really using 30 percent of it and the other 70 percent is just interesting archived stuff. So a lot of time wasted curating and not using! And even with my old system, I perhaps still managed to get 85 percent of the info in needed for a project as opposed to 95% which in my view is good enough. Is the extra 10 per cent worth it? Yes I have had additional insights during curating but I had those before too in other ways. But would still value yours and others continued thoughts on this matter

[@ernestojavierarmasmartinez4702]

For me it's the most useful app for highlight and make your own notes on the way

[@ernestojavierarmasmartinez4702]

And as a collage student, this is really helpful most of the time

[@ernestojavierarmasmartinez4702]

Thanks for sharing Tiago 😁

[@readwise-official]

Thanks for the kinds words, Ernesto 💙

[@Dodo96OMG]

About the "broken link" you talk about. Actually is not working: If I upload a pdf of an article on Readwise reader and I tak enotes on it, they are normally stored in the new page created for Readwise in my Notion. If I move the pdf page on Notion from the Readwise folder to another page, Readwise is creating a new page in its dedicated folder with the new notes or highlights. Maybe what you shows is working just with Evernote?

[@ludando2019]

I'm missing Readwise being able to export highlights to Apple Notes. Hope they can do something about it at some point T_T

[@articleclub]

Reader is great. It's got everything. Plus it's on Android, too, unlike Matter.

Thank you, Tiago for this and for everything, but i use Samsung Notes, and i don't need to pay.

[@ScotttheCyborg]

Unless Readwise actually copies the page and not simply a link, it's not trustworthy because you can't be certain that the page will remain there or won't be edited. Because so many pages have code that makes it hard to save the page intact, I find myself either copying to Word or doing a lot of screen shots.

[@Daniel_Ilyich]

20:53 That probably came in handy for this video.

[@Grievas85]

I really don't understand all the fuss around Reader, probably because I usually don't read very long articles or pieces of text that requires me half of the "cool" options that Reader offers. And when is about saving for later, there are so many tools in the world for that purpose - even Google Chrome - that I really can't find Reader so sensational. Readwise, on the other hand... well that's useful. Pity that paid 10$ for w graphic designer 🤣

[@aleks0_o879]

i dont get why it limits you to only 15 highlight reviews per day. i find that number arbitrary, whos to say we dont want review dozens of more highlights ?

[@wolfich4684]

Readvise accumulates citations...and that's all?

[@sdnnvs]

Merchandising, are you?! 🤣

[@kurtmichaelson]

If this could only be used with Apple Notes it would be great.

[@marcotestani5863]

I like readwise but I think they need to add something else to justify the current price.

[@toomanybarts]

The new Reader app is what got me to subscribe especially as Instapaper doubled its annual charge.

[@aleks0_o879]

this app came to the rescue since diggo is letting itself die, and they have an import option

[@user-tb2zl4jv3g]

Ab sub kă business kă inisar samjha gaya yahi hâ awaaz jis kī chaho as kī hoyaa gì shakal bhi bolay dhoka nahi tacnoligi kă andaz aply kari hâ bas bhano ko zara hoshyar rahna padha gă ko kisi say dhoka nâ khayae azaat koi hath nâ kar jayaa jo kabhi joray khaya hoga piyar kă rop nâ dharay number conform karna zarori tó hogae

[@tinyentropy]

This app doesn’t make sense, because most notes make little sense outside of their original content. And when you bring it into the context of many other unrelated highlights, it just will not provide value.

[@339lenny]

dude looks like elon musk! Great video but 10$ a month is not worth it. Is there a free alternative?

[@peachmango5347]

This demonstrates why I struggle having my own KZbin channel. You need to step over your conscience and allow bullshit headlines. You gotta have an "say anything for the click" approach and then you lose yourself and the point of your messages. Who knows maybe AI wrote this one.

[@englishwithmuzammal3596]

I thought you would be serious about the topic, but you turned out to be no exception but a source of advertisement as a typical interlocutor.

[@stickoutofthemud]

I’m two minutes in and you still haven’t gotten to the point. Moving on.

[@banjohead66]

The pricing for Readwise is ludicrous. The arguments "justifying" their pricing on their site are pathetic.

[@nurijanian]

if anything they are undercharging 😅

[@dhiadidia3519]

Elon musk twin?