Use Refind for Taking Notes on Articles, Discovery, and to Save Money

A few months ago when I found Refind I was not a convert. The idea was slick: it would send me 5 curated (read: an expert on the topic selecting the best articles) links a day on topics I'm interested in. I mean, how many times on Medium have I been hooked by an article title only to read a watery opinion piece?

Still, I decided to give it a go. I thought it might introduce me to articles and topics from unusual place. I set my topics and used it for a week or so and suddenly the algorithm got notably better, responding to what I liked and didn't like. Perhaps there was an algorithm upgrade: I couldn't say. It started sending me articles on my new favorite topic, remote work, that were aspects of remote work that I had never heard of, such as Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE). Yes, I know it sounds like a horrible means of squeezing that last bit of blood, sweat and tears from employees, but that's the opposite of what it is. Here's the first article I read that got me started: How to Achieve Sustainable Remote Work.

As I dug into that topic with glee, I was frustrated by hitting paywalls where the best articles were: New York Times, Howard Business Review, etc. I'm not against subscriptions, I just honestly can't afford subscriptions for all those sites that I only go to for 5-6 articles every few months. If they were on Scroll, I would do it, but even that hasn't reached a tipping point for me yet.

Anyway, that's when I hit gold: Refind's Reading View. This is the button that looks like lines of text or a stack of pancakes with a bite out of the lowest one, depending on how hungry you are.

This button is where you get some of the best Refind features, as follows:

1. Bypass paywalls: Yes, it may not be as glossy as the actual site, and some images may not show, but the text will all be there, minus the paywall. Note that you won't see this option for all sites, but it is for many.
2. Save your highlights: Select parts of text that you like and click the "Highlight" button to, you guessed it, highlight the parts that interest you, and the highlights get saved in your library. How cool is that? I mean, when I pay a subscription for a site, I can't do that and I always have to copy-and-paste it if I will need it for my research. This is big time saver! The highlights are displayed underneath the article in your library, which is also where you can add any overall thoughts that you had on the article.
3. Read text out loud to you: This seems to only be available on mobile devices at this time. It does work using a built-in player that shows the total time to listen to it. For me, it's not something I'll use until they use Morgan Freedman's velvet voice.

Disclaimer: I'm on a subscription version, so it's possible some of these features are not available in the free version.

Interested in giving it a try and helping me out the free version of Refind? I'd appreciate you using the following link to sign up, which will contribute to extending my Refind subscription and cost you nothing. That is also why I'm offering this article for free. Give it ago --- I think you'll like it. Refind Invite: Refind Invite