How I read 200 sources a week without drowning

Readers ask me this more than anything else: how do you read so much? The honest answer is that I do not read most of it. I skim a lot, read a little, and throw almost everything away.

Here is the system, in the order I use it every week.

Step one: a wide, cheap net

About 200 sources come in each week. Newsletters, research papers, earnings calls, a few forums, two dozen blogs and whatever readers send me. All of it lands in one reader app, sorted by nothing at all.

The rule at this stage is speed. I give each item a few seconds: headline, first paragraph, who wrote it. If it does not make me curious, it is gone. Roughly four out of five things leave this way.

Step two: a slow, short shortlist

What survives goes into a shortlist of thirty to forty pieces. These I read properly, usually on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, with a notebook open. I write down one sentence for each: what is actually new here?

Most pieces do not have a good answer. That is useful information too.

The question is never “is this interesting?” It is “would I explain this to a friend over lunch?”

Step three: five things

By Thursday I pick the five ideas that make it into the letter. The test is simple: each one has to change how a reader might do their job, even slightly. If it only makes them feel informed, it does not make the cut.

Three habits keep the whole thing manageable:

1. One inbox for everything, so nothing hides in a different app.

2. A hard limit on the shortlist. When it is full, something has to leave.

3. No saving for later. If it is not worth reading this week, it is rarely worth reading next week.

It is not a clever system. It works because it is ruthless about the first step and patient about the last one.