Wonder Tools 📚 My favorite reading tools
Apps and newsletters I rely on every week
Reading tools I rely on
Readwise Reader I use daily to save articles and newsletter posts for later. Here’s why I find Reader so useful for reading saved stories and highlighting them on my phone.
Kindle app is where I read free library books on my phone, iPad and Kindle. It’s free, flexible for changing fonts, text size, and lighting, and has a great X-Ray feature that shows where any person or place appears in a book.
Remarkable Paper Pro is a new paper tablet I’m testing that’s great so far for reading and annotating PDFs. More on this in a future post.
Mailbrew for generating my personal daily and weekly briefings customized with the specific sources and topics I prefer. Here’s why I like it so much.
Meco is great for organizing your newsletter subscriptions by pulling them out of your inbox and into a well-organized app. I also like the free Newsletterss.
Letterly for dictating observations while reading a book. It transforms my impromptu verbal rambles into structured notes I store in my Day One book journal.
Newsletters I rely on
I subscribe to more than 200 newsletters, a fraction of which I manage to read consistently. Below are ~25 I particularly enjoy.
✍️ Explore the world outside the USA
Global Post Explanatory non-partisan reports about countries around the world. I learn something every time I open these well-reported, well-written emails.
🤩 Discover delightfully curated links
Dense Discovery by Kai Brach. The most elegantly-designed and creatively curated email I get. Check out the last issue of 2024. Read a case study we published at CUNY featuring Brach’s unique take on newsletter writing.
⚡️ Be your best self
3-2-1 from James Clear One of the world’s most popular newsletters — with 3 million readers, with consistently insightful ideas, quotes and questions.
🎯 Challenge your thinking
The Pink Report by Daniel Pink An engaging author in a distilled email format. To get a flavor for his approach, here’s a helpful 3-min video he made about the best time of day to exercise, related to his book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.
💫 Gain insight from accountability reporting
Popular Information by Judd Legum Impactful independent reporting.
✍️ Strengthen your work as a creator
Dan Oshinsky, Josh Spector, and Ciler from Newsletter Circle A great trio to start with if you’re a newsletter writer looking for helpful guides.
🎨 Learn about design and delight
Why Design Is Hard by Scott Berkun and The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker are eye-openers. Add the terrific 99% Invisible podcast for a great mix.
🖊️ Gain perspective on this moment in journalism
American Crisis by Margaret Sullivan, Second Rough Draft by Richard J. Tofel and Breaking the News by James Fallows are strong starting points to keep up with this moment in media & journalism, helping put it in perspective.
💵 Dive into the business of media
The Rebooting by Brian Morrissey, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, and Inside the Newsroom by Daniel Levitt are helpful for catching up with the biz side of the industry, along with Mediagazer’s curated links.
🧰 Explore new tools
JournalistsToolbox.ai by Mike Reilley, Tools for Reporters by Samantha Sunne, Curated AI Tools and JR Raphael’s Intelligence newsletters are consistently useful sources of great tools.
See how leading educators are using AI
🧑🏫 One Useful Thing by Ethan Mollick offers practical insights and examples of creative ways to use AI. The Wharton professor is author of Co-Intelligence, one of the most popular recent books on AI — (join our upcoming discussion).Dr Phil's Newsletter, Powered by DOMS™️ AI by Dr Philippa Hardman is also useful, with helpful input on how teachers can fruitfully explore AI. I also recommend Breana Bayraktar’s Tips for Teaching Professors.
📌 Concise news updates
NextDraft by Dave Pell is my preferred source for concise daily updates when I’m not staying away from news for mental health. I also like WTF Just Happened Today for well-curated news summaries, and Techmeme for tech news.
Sponsored Message from Griff Foxley
Feeling creatively blocked? Dreaming up a life transition that’s overwhelming? Your internal mindset plays a crucial role in your success. As a coach, I help seekers, creatives, and solopreneurs overcome limiting beliefs, build confidence, and achieve big goals in a program tailored to you. Let's navigate the challenges of today's competitive landscape together.
Book a free discovery call!
Wonder Tools 📚 Find terrific books
Books offer a compelling, slower alternative to the onslaught of negative news. With terrific new free tools, it’s increasingly easy to access print, digital and audio books. Read on for an update on my favorite book sites and apps.
Books worth every minute
Philosophical and thought-provoking
I Didn’t Do the Thing Today - Madeleine Dore’s compassionate exploration of productivity without perfectionism is one of the best self-help books I’ve read. It helped me cope with the guilt of never-complete task lists. (She’s now on Substack too — On Things.)
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman pairs beautifully with Dore because he blows up the idea that we can ever catch up with all our email, tasks and reading. Instead we should make peace with our limited lifespan — roughly 4,000 weeks in a typical lifetime— and shed productivity guilt. His newest book, Meditations for Mortals, is also excellent.
Practical and tactical
Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky offers practical strategies for picking a daily highlight — your most important work — and protecting time for focused work on that in our distraction-filled world.
Atomic Habits James Clear's guide to building better habits changed the way I think about developing skills and adopting new behaviors. Clear taught me why tiny behavior adjustments matter more than ambitious goals.
Rational and logical
The 80/20 Principle Richard Koch demonstrates that 80% of our most impactful results come from 20% of our efforts. He offers a useful framework for identifying and prioritizing the work that matters most.
Work Clean by chef Dan Charnas provides a unique view of productivity from a culinary wizard. It turns out those of us who sit at desks can learn a lot from how deftly pro cooks juggle multiple simultaneous responsibilities.
https://join1440.com/ is another great newsletter where they provide what they describe as "fact-driven" news
It's a refreshing change from all the more opinionated "news" these days
Good recomendaciones!!!