WOW: I Read and Listed Nearly 300 Stories in the Past Few Weeks!

Do you use the list feature to help monitor what you read?

Writing on Medium requires more of us than simply writing and publishing our stories.

That is why, over the past 9 weeks, besides writing and publishing 60+ stories myself, I also devoted time to reading more than 300 stories from other Medium writers

I know this because I added the stories to a list, after reading each one. I’ll tell you all about it in a moment.

The ability to grow and improve as writers on Medium, requires taking steps to gain full membership, so you can not only write and publish on the platform, but best of all, you can read without limits [Author referral link].

That is how new members can truly begin to enjoy worthwhile engagements with other members in the community.

If you think the 300 stories I remembered to add to my list during these past few weeks is a lot, you’d really be impressed with the actual amount.

There were at least several dozen more that I simply forgot to click and list. This process of mine enables me to read more stories, and not feel compelled to leave a comment right away — although oftentimes, I still do.

What I’ve done, is create an effective method that provides a convenient way to recall the recent stories I’ve read, so I have another chance to comment or share some highlights.

Let me tell you more about it…

You can use the list feature to keep track of what you read

The way that I’ve personally discovered as an effective form of engaging with others, is through the use of my “What I Read this Week” publication feature.

Even though I’m not having a one-on-one, back and forth discussion, like when leaving comments on various stories; I’m actually doing something better.

One huge benefit of my “What I Read this Week” feature, is that it allows me an opportunity to compile all the stories I read, so I can easily refer back to them.

I’ve observed first-hand how this can seriously come in handy.

• It makes it super easy to locate a point you read and want to comment on, or even to just share offline with someone.
• It also makes it convenient to single out a story and share quotes and important details from the story.

For example:

I was blown away when I read what Medium writer Jo Ann Harris had to say about hard to comprehend stats, in her story, asking that her 13,000 followers please step up! This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned it, because I can’t stop thinking about it.

Thanks to having added her story to my list, I was able to locate it right away, when I first decided to mention it in a recent story I wrote about boosting the morale of Medium writers.

Once upon a time, I’d have to hunt and search through the gazillion comments I’ve left, just to locate a story or writer I wanted to promote.

Trust me, this was a time-consuming task, as you might imagine, with my 1857 responses (to date).

But using the list feature made things easy peasy!

A re-cap of my reading list for the past nine weeks

Here are the stories I’ve recently wrote, which contain my previous reading lists over the past nine weeks [From: 12/26/21–1/20/22].

The number of stories I read amount to nearly 300 (270 listed), although as I actually neglected to list lots of other stories that I read and enjoyed during that time (sometimes I forget).

That means my story intake is actually much higher. It’s really well over 300 stories for that particular time period.

This first week that launched the feature, I wrote the related story that contains 11 highlights, selected from my List of 25 stories.

The weeks that followed, I pretty much used the same format of choosing to write certain highlights about a few of the stories, plus I quote a statement or mention what I may have commented on the story.

I also give shout outs to several other writers included on my reading list, especially those whose stories were really noteworthy.

This week’s story contains 5 highlights and my List of 30 stories. My first week providing this feature did well enough to make me enjoy another round.

This week’s story contains 7 highlights and my List of 25 stories. There’s also a few mentions of additional writers included in the story.

This week’s story contains 0 highlights and my List of 15 stories, following my bout with COVID.

This week’s story contains 2 highlights and my List of 25 stories, as I tried to regain my strength and both my reading and writing momentum.

This week’s story contains 10 highlights and my List of 30 stories, as I was finally recovered, and beginning to get back on track.

This week’s story contains 10 highlights and my List of 40 stories that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

This week’s story contains 10 highlights and my List of 50 stories. I managed to get a lot more reading time in this particular week.

This week’s story contains 5 highlights and my List of 30 stories. I purchased a car this week, so my time was tied up, which meant my usual reading sessions had to be postponed.

Final Thoughts

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times — well, not really that many, but a lot — STOP SLEEPING on using that darn list feature.

Maybe you don’t see the need to use and apply it in the same way that I did, but if you’re smart, you’ll find some other way to benefit from using it.

Here are two cool suggestions:

• I Used My Medium LIST Feature to Create this Awesome Promo!
• What Can Help You Evaluate Your Monthly Writing Progress?

THANKS FOR READING 😄 Not a Medium Member yet? Join now with my referral link: https://justissgoode.medium.com/membership

I’ll earn a few bucks when you do, plus I can HELP YOU START EARNING MONEY TOO! 😄