Five ways to make reading masterful

With almost 40% of web-browsing now happening on mobile devices, it makes sense that they are our portal to the world’s daily output of news, periodicals, blogs, and articles.

In fact, it’s highly likely you may be reading these very words on a smartphone right now. If this is the case, then congratulations! You’re already employing one of the guiding principles of mobile mastery – purposefulness, by varying your technological toolkit and applying the most suited device to the purpose at hand.

With their lightweight, robust bodies and touchscreen interfaces they are more suited to sailing through reams of text than an unwieldy, ink-smeared, broadsheet newspaper. The addition of RSS feeds and bookmarking means you get only the most relevant content, direct to your handset in real-time.

Because mobile mastery is all about being smarter, faster, and better in our relationship with technology. Whatever your industry, it’s vitally important in the business world to stay in tune with the cutting-edge of your chosen field.

Finding time to read can be hard, especially at the million-miles-per-second pace of modern mobile business. Managing your schedule can be tough enough, without fitting in reading sessions between meetings.

But technology wants to make your life easier, expanding your knowledge and awareness with a virtually infinite world of information. You just have to show it how.

You may already be familiar with the concept of RSS. It may be that you use it every day, or you have tried it before and decided it wasn’t for you.

Without rehashing too much old ground as a brief introduction for the uninitiated, RSS, (helpfully standing for “Really Simple Syndication”) is a free digital news feed you subscribe to by inputting a link into an RSS reader, thenceforth adding any new updates to your reading list, automatically.

Browser bookmarks provide another easy pathway to fitting in all of that reading that you never have time for. If you come across a long-read but can’t afford the drain on your schedule to mentally absorb it properly, then tagging it with a bookmark via your browsers interface is a useful technique for collecting “memos” together. That way, when you do manage to set aside some time for reading, you have all of your articles tagged collected together in one place.

Of course there are hundreds of great readers, apps, and web-services for your smartphone that will bring your reading to the next level, but below is just a small selection of some of my favourites.

1. Nextgen Reader

Nextgen Reader is a Windows Phone app that synchs beautifully with your Feedly account to bring all of your RSS feeds together in a simple mobile display. Scroll through the latest articles with the flick of a finger, share interesting items via email, and organise feeds by keyword. The trial mode is free, and features extensive tutorials to help guide you through its intuitive functionality.

2. Modern Reader

Modern Reader is a simpler alternative to Nextgen Reader. It’s a great way to view your RSS feeds on the go and keep up to date with breaking news and real-time posts from the most relevant outlets for your industry.

3. Windigo

Windigo is an application for displaying your Diigo bookmarks and tags on your smartphone, working perfectly alongside your browser-based Diigo account to keep track of the articles you’ve flagged for reading later, sharing with colleagues, or annotations you’ve made relating to specific projects you may have in mind.

4. eBook Reader

eBook Reader is an app that works alongside eBooks.com to let you read your favourite eBooks right on your device, either streaming via an internet connection, or downloading them directly from the web store to enjoy wherever you may find yourself.

5. Bookmarks Manager

Bookmarks Manager lets you import your bookmark collection from a desktop browser via a Skydrive account, opening the way to create, organise, and enjoy your full set of bookmarks and favourites on your Nokia Lumia without trouble or confusion.

We hope you take the time to explore some of these ideas and apps, and as always, if you’d like to learn more on the topic of becoming a mobile master, then why not download our Mobile Mastery ebook here.

This article is part of Nokia’s Smarter Everyday programme, which aims to inspire you with the latest ideas on productivity, collaboration and technology adoption.

Image credit: kirandulo