Hasta La Ideas

Reader Lucia submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

I like following a lot of websites in a RSS reader — I use Google Reader — but sometimes it’s too much. I check it and there are more than I can read. Now the count is 1000+. Help!

This is a great question and a problem that I’m sure many of us have faced in our online lives. Here are two tips that I hope will help:

1. Declare RSS Reader bankruptcy. If you have more posts than you could possibly read in two hours cluttering up your RSS reader, it’s time to start fresh. In the left-hand column of your Google Reader homepage, click on the link to “All items.” Then, in the middle column, click on the “Mark all as read” button. Poof! Instantly you are all caught up with reading your RSS feeds.
2. Create prioritized categories. Once you are out from under the slew of unread posts, you can set up a system to prioritize future readings. Instead of organizing your RSS feeds by content, order them by priority. I have three: Must Read, Really Like, and Fun. My “Must Read” category is filled with blogs I need to read every day for professional reasons. For instance, my Unclutterer feed is in this category so that I can make sure our RSS feed is functioning properly. “Really Like” is filled with close friends and favorite business, writing, and organizing blogs. And “Fun” is filled with silly, but low-priority blogs.

   When I’m pressed for time, I go to the “Subscriptions” list in the left-hand menu and then click on the “Must Read” folder to only see the most important posts. If I get through this list quickly, I’ll click on the folder for “Really Like” and get through as many as I can before my scheduled blog-reading time has expired. Whatever I don’t get to, either gets marked as read (see tip #1) or just sits unread if I know I’ll have more time later in the day to do some reading.

   To create categories, click on the blue “Manage subscriptions >>” link in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen. Select the “Subscriptions” tab in the orange menu bar. Then, click on the drop down menu next to one of your feeds and highlight the very last option “New Folder.” Create your Must Read, Really Like and Fun folders and then assign all of your blog feeds to those three categories. When you’re finished, choose “<< Back to Google Reader" in the orange settings bar to return to your feed reader. Whenever you add a subscription, you need to manually assign it to a folder.

When reading RSS feeds, I like to set a timer and only read blogs for a set amount of time. If not, I can spend hours cruising through the internet. Obviously, I hope that Unclutterer makes your “Must Read” list! And, for anyone reading this post who doesn’t know what an RSS reader is, be sure to check out Matt’s post on this subject “RSS feeds: A primer.”

Thank you, Lucia, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column.

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