How to Revolutionize Your Reading Workflow with Readwise

Drowning in digital highlights and scattered notes from books and articles? Readwise is your all-in-one reading companion that syncs and resurfaces key ideas across Kindle, Notion, Instapaper, and more. Whether you’re a student, creator, or lifelong learner, Readwise transforms passive reading into active knowledge retention—helping you build a system that works long-term.

The Origin of Readwise

Readwise was founded by Dan Doyon and Tristan Hume, who were frustrated by the common problem: we forget most of what we read.

They noticed that knowledge workers and avid readers often consume a large volume of content but struggle to retain or apply what they learn. They believed software could solve this.

Around 2017, combining their interests in technology and learning psychology, they launched Readwise with a simple but powerful idea: use spaced repetition to help readers review and retain knowledge over time.

The initial product? A daily email that resurfaced past Kindle or Pocket highlights—low-friction, high-value. This email model attracted a loyal following of power readers and creators.

As user needs expanded, Readwise added integrations with Notion, Obsidian, Twitter, and eventually built Readwise Reader in 2022—a full reading, highlighting, and note-reviewing platform. Today, Readwise is a cornerstone in many personal knowledge management (PKM) systems.

What Makes Readwise Stand Out

Image source: Pexels

1. Auto Import from All Your Sources

Tired of highlights scattered across Kindle, Kobo, Instapaper, and Medium? Readwise automatically syncs them all. Just highlight or annotate—and Readwise handles the rest.

No more manual copy-paste. You save time and stay focused on your reading.

2. Smart Review System

Worried about forgetting your notes? Readwise uses spaced repetition to remind you—via email or app notifications—to review your most important highlights.

Spend just a few minutes a day, and your knowledge sticks longer.

3. Cross-Platform Syncing

Use your phone, tablet, or desktop—Readwise syncs across devices. It even integrates RSS feeds, YouTube transcripts, email newsletters, and web articles.

Pair it with Heptabase to turn raw highlights into structured knowledge cards.

Core Features

Highlighting & Annotating

Highlight anything—books, articles, transcripts, tweets. Add notes. Tag. Organize.

Use the Inbox feature to manage new highlights daily so you never miss a key insight.

Pro tip: Use the Readwise Reader Chrome extension to highlight directly on webpages—including social media.

Powerful Search

Looking for that perfect quote? Just type a keyword—Readwise instantly finds your highlights, notes, and tags.

• Use AI summaries for faster skimming.
• Filter by tags or source.
• Review only what's new via the Inbox.

Note Exporting

Want to build your second brain in another tool? Readwise supports automated exports to:

• Heptabase, Notion, Obsidian, and more
• Custom formats (Markdown, JSON, etc.)
• Scheduled daily syncing

Bonus: AI summarization compresses scattered notes into bite-sized insights you can instantly use.

Getting Started: Quick Setup

Step 1: Sign Up

• Visit Readwise.io and create an account (Google/Apple login supported).
• Connect your preferred reading sources—Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Feedly, etc.

Step 2: Enable Syncing

• Turn on Auto Sync for supported platforms.
• Use Readwise Reader to view web articles, RSS, YouTube transcripts, and highlight on the fly.

Step 3: Export Your Notes

• Choose your destination platform (Notion, Obsidian, etc.).
• Set a sync schedule—daily or weekly.
• Select your preferred format.

Advanced Use Cases

Integrating with Heptabase

Turn scattered notes into a structured knowledge map using Readwise + Heptabase:

• Sync highlights into Heptabase cards.
• Organize them into visual boards.
• Build daily review routines to deepen your understanding.

AI Summaries for Quick Recall

No time to reread everything? Use Readwise’s AI feature to summarize your highlights instantly:

• Great for students preparing for exams.
• Useful for teachers to prep key teaching points.
• Powerful for researchers needing fast overviews of long PDFs.

Team Collaboration

You can also use Readwise with your team:

• Share notes and highlights.
• Tag by topic or project.
• Build a shared reading culture that scales with your team’s learning.

Pricing Overview

Free vs Paid Plans

You get 30 days free to explore everything.

After that, choose:

Some advanced features like export to Heptabase or AI summaries are exclusive to paid plans.

Tip: Start with the trial—decide later if the upgrade’s worth it for your workflow.

Who Is Readwise For?

• Avid readers: Centralize all highlights from across platforms.
• Students: Retain more with less effort via smart reviews and summaries.
• Knowledge workers: Sync insights across tools and avoid forgotten ideas.

Readwise isn’t just a productivity tool—it’s a knowledge multiplier.