With the fast-paced and ever-evolving world we live in, staying informed is not just a choice, but a necessity for legal professionals. Staying up to date on everything from the law in a particular practice area to up and coming technology can assist those who not only want to maintain their competence, but also want to maintain a competitive edge in practice.
For many of us, turning to articles that have been written or videos that have been posted to platforms such as YouTube can be beneficial to our learning. It not only helps us stay updated on recent developments, but it can also deepen subject matter expertise and broaden our knowledge across different fields and other areas of interest. Reading articles with diverse perspectives and backgrounds can challenge us to think critically and consider multiple angles, which can ultimately enhance our critical thinking skills and assist with building cultural competence. Additionally, because we expand our knowledge and skills through the practice of reading articles or viewing informative videos, we can also positively impact our intellectual and occupational well-being.
If you are like me, however, the sheer volume of information that I come across or receive in my email inbox from colleagues, subscription services or just surfing the internet, can be overwhelming. Depending on what I am trying to accomplish at the time, it can also be distracting. The other thing that many of us can probably relate to is trying to remember which articles or videos you wanted to go back to at a more convenient time, and likely forgetting them altogether despite there being a benefit to taking the time to read the content. As I thought about these issues and solutions, I decided to try the bookmarking app Pocket.
Pocket is an app that allows you to save articles, videos and other content from across the web directly within the app. The benefit of using a bookmarking app, like Pocket, is that it allows users to save and organize web content all in one place, making it easy to revisit information without having to search for it again later. It also makes it easy to organize the content within the app, rather than trying to find something in a long list of bookmarks in your browser folder or hunt down the exact email with the correct link to the article in your email inbox.
While the idea behind Pocket is pretty simple, saving web content in one place, the simplicity of the app also made it easy to use. I just copied the URL and selected “add” to save it in my Pocket app. Once the content is saved, users can also mark favorites and create tags for content. If a user comes across a quote or a section and wants to mark the content, there is a highlight option available, making it easy to go back to the highlighted selection later. If it is an article, users can also listen to it via audio, in addition to having the ability to read the content later. Although the audio option is not the most pleasing to the ear to listen to when compared to something like an audiobook, it could be a useful tool in some circumstances.
Saved content can also be organized by creating named collections, called Pocket Lists. For instance, I created a lawyer well-being collection where I saved articles and videos relating to this topic. This feature could be useful for research purposes, allowing you to name the collection of articles and additional content to easily go back to later. This feature, however, is only available over the web version and not within the app.
In addition to having the ability to access content while offline, another useful feature is the readability of the content through the app. For most articles, it removes the clutter often associated with content on the web—think no ads featured in flashing banners or pop-ups. Users can also adjust the size of the text and the color background from light to dark to sepia. The interface for viewing saved videos is also clean with no additional distracting content.
Pocket is available for both iPhone and Android. Users can also download an extension for Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Logging into an account on the web is easy by going through getpocket.com. Pocket also automatically syncs, if loaded on multiple devices.
There is a free and premium version of the app. The premium version ($4.99 a month or $44.99 a year) adds a permanent library of everything you’ve saved, in case it disappears from the web, as well as full-text search and other features such as unlimited highlighting and suggested tabs. The features mentioned above, however, are available on both the free and premium versions.
In addition to Pocket, there are several other bookmarking apps out there. Alternatives include apps such as Raindrop and Anybox––both offer free and paid plans. Omnivore is an alternative that has paid premium add-ons. Mymind is an artificial intelligence (AI)–powered alternative that categorizes, organizes and tags your saves for you. This AI alternative, however, does not have a free version.
Whether you decide to give Pocket a try, or use one of the alternatives, these apps might just help you get a bit more organized with your read-or-view-later content. Ideally, these apps can increase the likelihood that you will remember to go back and read that next interesting article or view the video you saw come across your feed or in your inbox.
