What’s the Best Readwise Workflow?
June 25, 2025
A good workflow starts with reading well. Tools help, but the real gain comes from how you move ideas from the page into a system you can return to.
1. Read first, note later
Margin notes while reading; real notes after the session. The pause forces recall and keeps the reading experience intact.
2. Use Readwise as the capture layer
It gives you clean article text, handles PDFs properly, and syncs with Obsidian without ceremony.
3. Let Obsidian be chaotic
Daily notes are the anchor. No pruning, no “knowledge garden.” Just tags like #inline/inspiration or #inline/topic to make future retrieval possible.
4. Let the LLM do the light shaping
Claude can cluster fragments, clean up rough notes, and surface threads worth developing. It adds structure only when you ask for it.
5. Treat notes as future context windows
Your highlights and fragments become raw material. You can load them into a vector database or use an LLM to assemble idea boards when you need them.