Set up your morning tech reading in 10 minutes

You can set up a reading routine that covers what matters in tech in about ten minutes, and maintain it in five a day. Here's the setup we'd suggest.

1. One daily brief (2 minutes to set up)

Pick a single daily summary as your base layer. It should merge duplicate coverage and link to sources so you can go deeper when needed.

With ReadKernel: subscribe, or build your brief to choose topics, length and format. Prefer a quieter inbox? Choose the weekly email.

2. A feed reader for the few sites you love (5 minutes)

Some writers and company blogs are worth reading in full. Put those, and only those, in an RSS reader (Feedly, Inoreader, NetNewsWire and Reeder are popular choices). ReadKernel has an RSS feed too, if you'd rather read the brief there.

Rule of thumb: if you skip a source three times in a row, unsubscribe.

3. One or two deep newsletters (3 minutes)

A daily brief tells you what happened. A good weekly newsletter tells you why it matters. Pick one or two that match your work. Our newsletter reviews can help you choose.

4. Turn off the rest

Mute news notifications on your phone. Unfollow accounts that only repost headlines. If something big happens, your brief will have it tomorrow morning, with the facts settled and the sources attached.

Your daily routine

• Morning (5 min): read the brief, open one or two stories.
• Weekly (15 min): read your deep newsletter, skim the week's archive.
• When it matters: follow one story to its sources.