Reading List Hotkey: Save Web Pages to Apple Reminders Using Shortcuts App |<br>Damodar's Log
Reading List Hotkey: Save Web Pages to Apple Reminders Using Shortcuts App<br>August 22, 2026  711 words<br>4 mins read <br>Join the Discussion<br>productivity<br>macOS<br>Apple Reminders<br>Shortcuts App<br>Hotkey
Ever find a rather good article while browsing, but not quite have the time to dive into it right away? Instead of letting it slip through your fingers, why not add it to a reading list? This way, it won’t get in the way of your usual tasks or require you to navigate through your browser’s history. Most browsers, including Safari, have a reading list built in. But, over time, it can get a bit cluttered. There are some apps and browser extensions that appear to be a good solution but they’re often not free and require a subscription. A better solution is to save the article to your Apple Reminders app, where you can organize it into a dedicated reading list and even set reminders for when to read it.<br>With macOS App Shortcuts, you can create a dedicated hotkey like Cmd+Option+Shift+S (⌥+⌘+⇧+S) that only activates when your browser is the active window. This allows you to instantly save the current page to your Apple Reminders app.
Here is exactly how to set it up in the macOS 26 or later:<br>Step 0: Save the Shortcut to Your Mac<br>First, you need to download the Apple Shortcut app from the Mac App Store if you haven’t already. Then, download my shortcut file from this link and open it. This will add the shortcut to your Shortcuts app.<br>Step 1: Prepare Your Reminders App<br>Before diving into your Mac’s system settings, you need a destination for your saved links.<br>Open the Apple Reminders app and create a brand-new list. Name it exactly Reading List . This exact naming is critical because our shortcut will look for this specific list to drop your saved links into.<br>You can add notes, even set reminders for when to read articles, and more; it syncs on all your Apple devices. There are many more features available too.
If you right-click the “Reading List” in the Reminders app, you can choose “Auto-categorise” to have your saved links automatically sorted into categories based on their content ;)
Step 2: Assign the Hotkey to Your Browser<br>Now, we need to tell macOS to trigger your save shortcut only when you are actively using your web browser.<br>Open your Mac’s System Settings .<br>Scroll down and select Keyboard in the left sidebar.<br>Click the Keyboard Shortcuts button on the right side of the window.<br>In the left sidebar of the popup that appears, select App Shortcuts .<br>Click the + (plus) button to create a new application-specific rule.<br>Change the Application dropdown menu to the browser of your choice (e.g., Safari, Chrome, or Brave).<br>In the Menu Title field, type the exact name of our Apple Shortcut “Add URL to Reading List in the Reminders App ”. Make sure to match uppercase and lowercase letters perfectly.<br>Click into the Keyboard Shortcut box and press ⌥+⌘+⇧+S (or whichever key combination you prefer).<br>Click Done to save your new hotkey.<br>You can repeat this process for any other browsers you use, assigning the same hotkey to the same shortcut name. This way, no matter which browser is active, pressing your chosen key combination will always trigger the same action.
Now, whenever you press ⌥+⌘+⇧+S inside your designated browser, macOS will immediately find the shortcut with that exact name and run it. If you accidentally press that same key combination in another app like Pages or Notes, nothing will happen (or it will just trigger that specific app’s default action).<br>If you would like to export your reading list from Apple Reminders to a CSV file, you can use my other shortcut, which can be found here.
If you use Apple Mail, you can use the ‘Remind Me’ option to save emails for later reading. Alternatively, you can create an ‘Inbox’ list in the Reminders app and select the text from your email and share that to it. This will save the email link in your Reminders app. You can also set a reminder for when to read it, and clicking on the link will open the email in your Apple Mail app. This is a great way to save interesting emails for later reading.
I hope this guide helps you streamline your reading list management and makes it easier to save interesting articles for later!
Any feedback?<br>If you guys have some questions, comments, or suggestions then, please don't hesitate to shot me an email at to[At]rDamodar.com.np or comment below.<br>Liked this post?<br>If you find this post helpful and want to show your appreciation, I would be grateful for a donation to ariv , which supports open science and benefits the global scientific community.<br>Want to share this post?
Written by Damodar Rajbhandari , who is working on a PhD in Mathematics at the School of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Melbourne, Australia.
We welcome relevant, & respectful comments. Please read our...