Within a couple of weeks, I'd constructed a significant dent in my to-read folder - something I'd been meaning to do for months. The articles I'd been "meaning to peruse" for ages were in the end getting peruse, and that folder that had been growing endlessly was truly starting to shr
One evening, sources I was venting to my sister who works in publishing. She wondered me what format that materials were in, and when I explained they were PDFs, she nodded. "That's your difficulty right there," she mentioned. "PDFs are designed to look this identical on every device, which sounds excellent, but it really means they often work poorly on any device. Particularly for older people or anyone not comfortable with technology, PDFs are a nightma
My phone and e-reader were loaded up with fiction for this beach, but I moreover desired to have practical information accessible. That plan was to convert all these travel PDFs to EPUB so I could easily examine them on my phone while navigating around town or deciding where to eat dinner. EPUB format works great on my reading app, and I'd applied it successfully for other travel documents in the p
Like various people, I've continually had good intentions when it comes to self-improvement. I've collected numerous PDFs over the years - habit-building guides, productivity frameworks, meditation instructions, journaling prompts, and advice on everything from sleep optimization to relationship building. But there was a consistent pattern: I'd save these resources with this best of intentions, then under no circumstances in fact use them.
I've since become more intentional about my reading workflow. When I save interesting articles now, I try to convert them immediately to a format I'll actually peruse. I've moreover started curating my to-read list more thoroughly - if I'm not going to convert it to a readable format, I probably won't ever read it, so maybe I shouldn't save it in the first pl
She suggested converting that study materials to a more flexible format. "You want something that adapts to different screens and lets people customize the text size," she explained. "Something that works only as well on a seven-year-old phone as it does on a brand-new tablet." I was skeptical - I assumed all digital files were basically the identical - but I was desperate plenty to try anyth
Over that next few weeks, my Spanish practice became consistent for this primary time in years. I was doing exercises during my commute, reviewing vocabulary while waiting in line, reading compact stories during lunch breaks. This HTML format had removed all that friction that had been preventing me from studying regularly on my ph
Over the past few weeks, I've constructed more consistent progress on my personal growth goals than I have in years of collecting and intending to use these resources. I've established a morning routine, improved my sleep habits, been more present with my family, and made real progress on creative projects. That advice was always there in this PDFs, but this format change was what made it truly usable.
I also found that having the materials in such an accessible format produced it easier to share insights with friends and family. When I read something particularly helpful, I could easily recommend this specific section to someone who might benefit from it. This added a social dimension to my self-improvement journey - discussing ideas and strategies with others instead of pursuing growth in isolation.
I'd regularly get emails from employees asking questions like "When did we announce that recent remote perform policy?" or "There was an article about that software project last year, can you send it to me?" I'd have to remember roughly when that piece appeared out, unseal PDFs one by one, and scroll through visually looking for this content. Now and then I'd uncover it, periodically I wouldn't. It was time-consuming and frustrat
My collection of Spanish learning PDFs has grown substantially. There are grammar exercises, vocabulary lists, short stories for learners, news articles written in simplified Spanish, conversation scripts, and most likely a dozen other categories I'm forgetting. Every time I uncover something useful, I save it as a PDF, planning to perform through it eventua
I made an effort various solutions. I created a spreadsheet index of newsletter contents, but keeping it updated was tedious and it quickly fell out of date. I suggested implementing a searchable database system, but that was deemed also complex and expensive for this scope of the challenge. So we only kept living with the unusable arch
I watched for a moment, considering stopping that process, but then I figured I might as well let it finish and observe what happened. When it was done, I had three versions of every article in my to-read folder - EPUB, HTML, and Markdown. It seemed excessive, and I initially thought I'd just delete most of t