Readwise Reader

Readwise Reader is a service for "power readers", letting you save things like web pages, PDFs, YouTube videos, Twitter threads, RSS items, and email newsletters. You can read, annotate, and organize your items.

What can I beemind with the Readwise Reader integration?

You can beemind whittling down the number of articles you have in various sections of your Readwise Reader account: Inbox, Later or Shortlist. You can use this to keep your backlog of saved items under control -- or to get it back under control if things have reached epic proportions!

What's "Inbox"? What's "Shortlist"?

You might not have these locations! Readwise Reader has multiple library configurations or library locations, which can be chosen in your Readwise Reader preferences. Different options create different locations for your items. We can track your "Inbox", "Later" or "Shortlist", depending on how you have things set up.

I want to beemind something else about my Readwise Reader account!

Let us know what your dreams are! We're always keen to hear about this kind of thing.

Why aren't you able to fetch data from Readwise Reader right now?

Sometimes, we get rate-limited by Readwise! We've done our best to ensure that we won't hit those limits by fetching data in a sensible way and limiting your ability to re-check too soon, but it may still happen. If you check again in a couple of minutes, everything should work again.

Readwise Reader sample goal setup

  1. Head to create a new goal.
  2. Click the Readwise icon to start a new goal using Readwise Reader data.Icon showing a R against a peeling sticker type design
  3. The first thing to do is get us set up with access to the info we need from Readwise. To do that, you'll need your API token. You can click the link highlighted in the blue box in the screenshot below to find your access token, and then paste the token (a long alphanumeric string) into the "Access Token" box I've highlighted in red.

    Beeminder+Readwise Reader: "Enter your Readwise Reader API Token". Below that is a box for pasting your API token, and a link with the text "find your Readwise Reader access token here", which should allow you to easily find it.
  4. Next up, you need to choose which section of your Readwise account you're going to beemind, and the number of items you want to whittle it down to. In this example, I've chosen "Later", and I want to get that down to 10 articles (and keep it there!).

    Then, if you want to delay your goal's start a few days (maybe you're traveling this weekend), be sure to tick the "Start this goal with extra leeway" box. Enter the number of days you want to delay in the new box that appears!

    Before you can continue, you need to click the "Count Later" button, which will check how many articles are currently saved in your "Later" category and show you that number.
    "Beeminder + Readwise: I pledge to get my read reader Inbox/Later/Shortlist down to X items and keep it there!" The X items is customisable, and you can also add extra leeway to control when your goal starts being due.Now you can click "Continue".
  5. Give your goal a brief name. If you want, you can also write a short description with more information.

    Shows the "Give your goal a name" page, with "readwise" entered in the first box, showing how it creates the goal's URL. Below there's a box with the description entered, saying "Chipping away at my Later category"
  6. Finally, choose your initial pledge. This is the amount you will pay the first time you derail on the goal. After derailing, the pledge will increase by default — use the dropdown below to control how high it goes by selecting the cap. In the example below, I have chosen to start at a $5 pledge, which will increase each time I derail, until it reaches $270 — the pledge cap. (To read more about pledges and payments, check out some FAQs!)

    If you want to start out with a sort of trial period, you can choose to start the goal at $0. If you do that, the pledge will automatically increase to $5 after seven days. If you derail before that, it will also increase to $5.

    Screenshot of the "Starting Stakes" screen. The text says "Your pledge will increase each time you derail until you reach your pledge cap (which you can adjust below)", with a demonstration below showing the pledge progression: 5, 10, 30, 90... to the pledge cap, which currently shows $270. Below, a checkbox button allows you to choose to "Hold the pledge at $0 for 7 days while I get my feet wet"
  7. Step through the preview and payment confirmation screens, and that's it! I'll need to read one article from my Later category in the next 4 days to avoid paying Beeminder my first $5.
    An example Beeminder goal showing Nicky needs to clear one article from their "Later" category in Readwise in 4 days, or lose $5
    By default, Beeminder sets up a gentle rate for your goal, but you might want to make it go faster. Read more about how to do that here: How do I change my goal?


Keywords: autodata integrations, backlogs of articles to read, productivity kind of, reading

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