A year ago I wrote a post about blogs that I had flagged for follow-up. Since then I have flagged hundreds of more blog posts (literally hundreds – I just found the easy way to see all my flags in my RSS feed and it was overwhelming to view!), hoping to remember to go back and use them for a variety of purposes later.

I have recently heard a lot about the organizational tool Pocket, especially from my friend and colleague Barb. So I decided to give it a try.

For anyone unfamiliar, Pocket is very simple. You set up a free account. Then anytime you are online reading something you want to save, you click your “save to Pocket” button (easily installed as a Chrome extension on my browser or an app on my phone and ipad!). When you click to save, you have the opportunity to add tags. What I quickly realized is that I would have to create a useful tagging system if this was going to help me later.

Here was my thought process as I reviewed posts I had previously tagged for follow-up:

• What is the topic of this post?
• Would I want to share this with others? If so, who: teachers, coaches, leaders, friends, PLN?
• Does this post inspire a blogging idea for me?
• Does this post make me want to research a topic or read more?
• Have I commented on this post? Would I like to comment or tweet out this blog to share it with others?
• What tags (key words) will help me remember the answers to all the questions above?

So far I love the convenience of Pocket. I am still testing out my tagging system and I have not yet had a need to go back to get something specific from my saved posts. However, I am hoping that as I continue to refine my saving technique, that it will be useful to me.

• Do you use Pocket or any other online curation tool?
• How do you save things you “flag for follow-up”?