Information: My how, when, what

Written by: Greg Baker Date published: February 1, 2023

Any kind of innovation role (whether at a law firm or in-house) will involve keeping up to date with the latest developments and opportunities.

For my role, it’s important both for the firm and our clients that I keep my finger on the pulse of advances in practice and matter management, legaltech and other areas.

Relying on emails and bookmarked websites means being exposed to a firehose of information in an already busy inbox, or relies in setting aside time to browse and read. I have become more strategic about what information I consume, how and when - relying on some new and not-so-new technologies to do so!

Below are my (evolving) notes on how I keep up to date, when and what I consume.

How I read

Almost everything I read is funneled through Inoreader, which is a modern RSS/newsfeed reader but has a few superpowers, principally the ability to subscribe to emails and read them alongside all my other news feeds, and filter and alert based on keywords.

Here’s a good description of the benefits of Inoreader:

If you’re feeling media burnout from overfed social feeds, Inoreader is a news tool that still sparks joy. It’s a research tool, intelligence briefing portal and social media filtration system. - CNET

Inoreader have a good primer on RSS feeds here. Other services are available, Feedbin is another well-regarded platform.

I receive a handful of email newsletters via my firm’s subscriptions and they are filtered using Rules in Outlook into a Newsletters folder for reading later and preventing noise in my inbox.

When I read

I bookend my day with times set aside for catching up on web content. I try not to dip into Inoreader during the working day as it knocks me off my schedule, unless I have some downtime (e.g. travel, time over lunch). I find it valuable reading content in Inoreader in chunks, as I can draw comparisons and connections between stories - e.g. a variety of perspectives on a recent law firm or legaltech announcement.

What I read

Here’s a breakdown of my principal sources and a note on how and when each category is digested.

General news

For general news, discovery of longer-form content and subscribing to a few specific services (e.g. The Times/The Sunday Times and The WSJ) I use Apple News+, part of our Apple One Premier subscription. I use the Save icon quite liberally to bookmark longer-form content for the train etc. When not using AN+, I tend to gravitate to FT.com and Sky News (either their websites or dedicated apps on iPhone & iPad).

Technology News

Law, Innovation, LegalTech

Other topics

  • The Behavioural Insights blog Link
  • IDEO Blog Link
  • Exponential View Link

LinkedIn

There is plenty of useful activity and reading materials shared on LinkedIn. What follows is a list of people I follow and find their writing useful:

I update this regularly. This list was last updated on 6 January 2023.