Great, but at least you need a folder to put on the articles and keep the things done!

I’ve been doing the same thing with magazines that I want to cover for work/study/etc. I still can’t bring myself to do it to pleasure reading, but for everything else it is gold! This is especially true of the weightlifting/exercise magazines that I read, and it’s even saved me money because I kept the articles that were important and realized that I didn’t need the subscription any more! I’d gathered enough material to make the subscription itself unnecessary! :)

Wouldn’t it be better to simply scan the pages and save them as pdf? You would have the reference materials with notes whenever you need them…

Great tip. I’ve been using the rip-n-read method for years. What I do is first go through the magazine and skim through it. As I scan the pages I rip out any pages that have advertisements (carefully checking that I don’t rip out an article). After I do this I scan the magazine a second time to see if there is any relevant article that I may want to read – then more ripping. What I end up with is a much “lighter” magazine holding just the articles I want to read and I usually don’t have to worry about putting loose pages in a folder.

Here is another suggestion: Simply write down the title of the article, publication, date of publication, and URL of the publication. Case in point, I love the New Yorker. Even though I am not a subscriber, many of the New Yorker’s articles that come out in print can be found online for free. I read the New York Times online. The New York Times (www.nytimes.com) allows users to archive articles.