Dual using Pocket and Instapaper in one workflow

I’m an absolute Instapaper fan

So much of what I’m about to write feels a bit like betrayal. Betrayal to Instapaper, betrayal to Marco Arment, whose 5by5 podcast I try to listen to weekly.

Still, I’ve recently integrated Pocket into my workflow, where it replaced a function I intended Instapaper for, but I never figured out how to make it work. So Mr. Arment, it is not your fault. It’s mine.

Instapaper usage

I’ve not abandoned Instapaper. On the contrary, the way in which I use it now makes it, in my view, more what is has always excelled at. A calm place for long reads. Instapaper has always been a learning tool for me, as bizarre as it may seem. And much like University books, I cannot delete stuff from my Instapaper queue. The content of what ends up in Instapaper feels too sacred. And the fact that I cannot delete it means that I get frustrated by the fact that I have so much unfinished reading to do. Some of those articles are really no longer relevant.

Enter Pocket

Which is why I like Pocket. I don’t feel bad at all about eliminating stuff from Pocket. The interface is good, but it doesn’t make me feel like I’m committing a sacrilege by not reading all the articles that I find. don’t get me wrong, Pocket is a great tool which allows me to quickly scan through selected articles and review whether or not I want to read them. But although the interface looks wonderful does not invite me as much as Instapaper does.

The workflow

So what’s my workflow? First I identify articles in Reeder or when searching the web. I use Pocket to put them in a single place where I can revisit later. If an article is relevant to actually read it more in detail I will send it to Instapaper where it will be waiting in the queue for me to read it later.

The bottom line? I actually use Instapaper to “read it later”. And Read It Later, now Pocket, as a capture device for new information which I need to review or process.