How to Organise Your Bookmarks With Collections

Why browser folders don't scale

Browser bookmark folders have two problems. First, they're flat - you can only nest them so far before it gets unmanageable. Second, there's no way to search across them properly. Finding a bookmark from six months ago means scrolling through lists of folders hoping you remember which one you used.

Recallio replaces folders with collections - a more flexible system that's easier to navigate and much faster to search.

What is a collection?

A collection is a named group of bookmarks. Unlike browser folders, collections can be filtered, searched, and shared. Every bookmark belongs to at least one collection.

Recallio creates three collections automatically for every account:

• Unsorted - where bookmarks land if you don't pick a collection when saving
• Read Later - for things you want to come back to
• Archive - for things you've finished with but want to keep

You can add as many custom collections as you need on top of these.

Step 1: Plan your collections

Before you create anything, think about how you actually use bookmarks. Most people fall into one of two patterns:

By topic: Work, Personal, Learning, Recipes, Travel, etc. By project: Client A, Side project, House renovation, etc.

Either works. The key is to use categories broad enough that you don't end up with 50 collections of 3 bookmarks each.

A good starting point is 4–8 collections. You can always add more later.

Step 2: Create your collections

1. Open the Recallio sidebar and click New collection
2. Give it a name - short and clear works best
3. Click Create

Repeat for each collection in your list.

Step 3: Use sub-collections for depth

If one of your collections is getting large, you can nest a sub-collection inside it. For example:

Work
├── Client A
├── Client B
└── Internal

To create a sub-collection, find the parent collection in the sidebar, click its ⋮ menu (or right-click it), and choose Add sub-collection. Recallio supports one level of nesting - deep enough to be useful without becoming unwieldy.

Step 4: Move your existing bookmarks

If you've already saved bookmarks into Unsorted, you can move them in bulk.

1. Go to Unsorted in the sidebar
2. Select the bookmarks you want to move (tick the checkboxes)
3. Click Move to collection in the toolbar that appears
4. Pick the destination collection

You can move dozens of bookmarks at once, which makes the initial sort much faster.

Step 5: Use Smart Collections to automate

Once your manual collections are set up, Smart Collections can do the ongoing sorting for you. A Smart Collection is a rule-based collection that updates automatically.

For example: all bookmarks tagged "article" saved in the last 7 days becomes a Smart Collection called "Recent reading". Every time you save an article with that tag, it appears here automatically.

To create one, go to Smart Collections → New Smart Collection in the sidebar.

Tips for staying organised

• Tag when you save - tags make Smart Collections much more powerful, and they're faster to add at save time than to go back and add later
• Clear Unsorted weekly - treat Unsorted like an inbox, not a permanent home
• Archive don't delete - if you're not sure whether to keep something, archive it instead of deleting it; you can always find it again

Ready to get started?

Create your free Recallio account → and start building a bookmark system that actually works.