Hi there,

I love automation.

One of the most recent automation I did was automating the read time calculation for the articles I recommend here in the Hulry newsletter.

Here's how I did it:

I was already using IFTTT to save any article I like on Instapaper to an Airtable database.

But while preparing this newsletter every week, I had to do this manual labour:

Visit the article page I'm recommending, copy the content and put it into a read time calculator to get its read time.

To automate this tedious task, I created a read time calculation API that calculates and returns the estimated read time for a given URL.

On IFTTT, I added a step in the middle to query my API for the read time of the article the applet is saving to Airtable, like this:

With the read time value calculated, the IFTTT applet adds this additional data to my Airtable database while storing the article details.

I save a lot of time and effort every week while preparing this newsletter with this bit of effort. Automations are fantastic.

Do you use automation too? Let me know your use cases by replying to this email.

Now, grab a coffee, sit tight, and enjoy this week's issue:

Book to Read

Company of One

In this book, Paul Jarvis will take you on a convincing journey on how you can build a profitable business by staying small. A company of just one person. P.S.: Hulry is a company of one too.

Buy it on Amazon
•••

Apps & Services

Search Bar Shortcuts ➔

Bookmarks on steroids

This is a browser extension that I had wanted for so long. With this extension, you can create shortcuts for different web pages in your browser. You can then quickly access them by typing the shortcode in your browser's address bar. Available for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari.
Shareful ➔

Supercharge your macOS share menu

Shareful lets you enrich the macOS share menu with options like Copy, Open in and Save to Downloads. It's handy to quickly download files or copy something using the always accessible share menu.
TinyVid ➔

Compress your videos to a target file size

TinyVid takes a new angle into video compression. Instead of tweaking the quality to compress a video down to limited file size, TinyVid lets you choose the max file limit. You set a file size for your video, and TinyVid will compress it down to under that limit. Super helpful for uploading videos to blogs or other services which have a size limit.

Taking the Shortcut

⌥

Backspace

Delete an entire word from your cursor position on macOS instead of a single character.
•••

Interesting Reads

Easily Track Paid Subscriptions using Bobby ➔

9 min read

In issue #22, I featured Bobby, which helps track paid subscriptions. In this post, I'll take you through the various reasons I use Bobby to track my subscriptions and how you can apply my techniques to be more mindful of your paid subscriptions.
68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice ➔

10 min read

Kevin Kelly, the author of The Inevitable and a WIRED journalist, shares 68 valuable life lessons he has learned over the years. I like how this post is filled with short but actionable advice which you can pick and apply to improve your life.
How to Read Books When You Have ADHD ➔

7 min read

Don't let the title mislead you. Even if you don't have ADHD, the technique highlighted in the article will help you make the most of your time when reading a book. I found the ONE Thing approach that this post mentions beneficial.
The Biggest Lie in Personal Finance ➔

7 min read

Everyone in the personal finance sector talks about how cutting their daily coffee made them a millionaire. However, the real growth comes when you focus on keeping your spending low and raising your income. Nick debunks the biggest lie in personal finance with statistical data from the US.

Thread

Quick Feedback

What do you think about this week's newsletter?

Loving the Hulry newsletter? Please forward this issue to a friend who might enjoy it too.