A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting up with Heather for lunch. In addition to yummy food and a nice break from the hardcore shopping that Brian and I were in the midst of, Heather and I had an awesome conversation about blogging and blogs in general. If you ever want to have a conversation that really makes you think, I suggest you schedule lunch with her.
Heather mentioned that she’s reducing the number of blogs she subscribes to via Google Reader to 28. Mind=blown. There was no way I could reduce my Reader to that few. But then I was unable to stop thinking about the way I use Reader and how I might change that.
First, some background about Google Reader and how I use it. Reader is a RSS feed aggregator that brings all the content from my favorite blogs to one place. Despite the theory held by many that blogs are meant to be read on their actual sites and not in readers, I read almost all the blogs I follow using Reader. I only go to the actual sites to in order to leave comments. I look at all the titles of the posts in my Reader in collapsed view, star the ones I want to come back to, mark everything as read and, when I’ve got time, click on "starred items" and then read the posts I actually want to read. This method allows me to sort out a lot of the stuff I don’t care about, such as a NY Times recipe for beef brisket, which I’ll probably never make. On the day that Heather and I talked, I had over 200 blog feeds coming into my Reader. How did I manage to not get completely overwhelmed? Well, I didn’t, really. My Reader was a constant source of stress. I spent the better part of last summer trying to get to the bottom of my starred posts and, though I was successful and have generally kept it that way since, I’m constantly looking to see if I have new posts and trying to get time to sort through the influx, leave comments, save recipes, get links for Highlights posts and find inspiration for Relishments.
Heather’s idea about slimming down her blog intake resulted in the following observations on my part:
- I was ignoring a lot more posts than I was marking with a star.
- I was so busy trying to stay on top of my reading that I didn’t spend much time commenting on blog posts that I liked
- It’s silly to have feeds for blogs I only skim. There are a handful of blogs that I always read immediately, but even more that I always skim and a few that I rarely read. Why were those blogs still in my Reader?
- I shouldn’t be guilted into reading blogs because they’re popular or I might miss something. That’s what Twitter is for. (Confession: this is almost an exact quote from Heather)
- I should be reading and promoting quality content (ditto on the above note). In other words, I should be helping really great bloggers get more attention.
- The amount of time and effort I was spending trying to keep up prevented me from creating good blog posts. Time I should have been writing my own posts was spent skimming other peoples’.
Still, I felt a little nervous. Reducing my intake too much would have a serious affect on the Highlights, which I really do like writing. I didn’t want to miss anything. There are a million great blogs out there. My interests keep widening (decorating blogs, teaching blogs, friends blogs) and I want to keep a diverse collection…
Nevertheless, my talk with Heather convinced me that I was probably overindulging. So, I did a bit of a subscription purge. I got rid of 16 currently posting blogs from my unread items right off the bat. The initial purge contained news aggregate blogs that were mostly repeats of info I’d already gotten elsewhere, several couponing blogs, some company and product status blogs, a couple food blogs that rarely posted recipes that interested me, comics I no longer follow and humor blogs that aren’t funny. Then I went into my subscriptions settings and deleted all the blogs that haven’t posted in forever and/or had little interest to me.
When I was done, my blog subscriptions were down to 134. Still a lot, but much much better than it was. In the couple of weeks since I’ve made the change, I’ve also made some mental changes. I’ve tried to put posting first, followed closely by leaving thoughtful comments on interesting posts. I’ve also felt a lot less stressed about the state of my Reader. There’s nothing wrong with not reading every single post someone writes; there’s nothing wrong with ignoring posts. It’s okay if it takes a few days to get to the bottom of my starred items. I’d rather be creating my own content or doing something else with my time than trying to stem the tide of new posts. Thanks, Heather, for helping me get out from under my Reader.
PS. Even if you’re not suffering from a Google Reader addiction, you’ve probably got some silly thing eating your time. Matt just wrote a great piece on No Meat Athlete that ties right in to all this (he must have been reading my mind!): You Have All the Time You Need: How to Find an Extra Hour and Start Something Awesome Today.
Love these concepts, and they’re things I’ve thought about for the last six months.
Back in November I cleared out a lot of blogs from my reader, and felt calm. But I noticed that I was losing touch with many of my blog friends. I find that I comment on blogs more than I use Twitter or Facebook, so when I stopped subscribing, I missed people.
I keep 60 or so blogs in my feeder now, and sure, I skim plenty, but I like to keep up with certain people’s lives, and their giveaways and news. But I definitely don’t read through everything like I did when I started blogging.
Lisa Fine´s last post …Honey Lime Green Tea
thanks for all the v. nice things you say about me in this post :)
also – am SO SO SO proud of you!!
again, I want to state here, for the internets to see, something I said to you at lunch that day: I count on my internet communications (twitter, google reader people following, and emails with blends) to update me on posts I may have missed.
For example – I read SEVERAL posts a week that other people have shared in one way or another because THEY found them valuable. Through out time, I have made note of which of my blends/twitter followers find similar themes valuable and pay special attention to links they RT (i have a post coming up about this, i promise!).
I also TRULY BELIEVE that as a blogger I take responsibility for sharing information I believe my readers/followers will find most valuable – so I am often a SHARING MACHINE!
also – just because a blog isn’t in my reader doesn’t mean I never read it! Now that I spend LESS TIME with my reader, when I have extra “blog reading” time I search through on twitter, or go to a favorite bloggers blogroll to “surf through” to other posts I may find interesting.
ok. i am now done rambling.
xoxox
Heather´s last post …Promenade
Thanks for rambling and clarifying your side of the story :)
And, even more so, thanks for helping me find more time in my day!
ahh i just had to say how honored i was to see my blog on this list!!! thank you :)
my reader has about 100 feeds too, but i don’t feel pressured to finish them all. i have one set called ‘a list’ that has about 10 and i do read those every day, but otherwise i dabble :)
sarah (the SHU box)´s last post …good morning
Sarah, I love reading your blog. It’s one of the feeds I look forward to seeing updated every day. Keep up the good work!
can i post part of this, and link back to your original post for the remainder, for an upcoming blog tips thursday post on HLB?
Heather´s last post …A Jane Austen Education
Wow 134 blogs! I’m a newer blogger, that makes me nervous that 130+ blogs may be in my future Readers lol!
Yeah…134 blogs is a little ridiculous. But I’ve gotten a lot less obsessed with making sure I read everything and everyone and I’m pretty quick at filtering out the posts that don’t interest me.
Thanks for all of these great tips. I can relate because I feel the pressure to get through my reader too and actually just got control of it today. I am guilty of rushing through writing my own blog posts so I have time to read other sites. Definitely not a good habit to get into!
I actually starred your post via google reader (Healthy Living Blogs) and had been meaning to go back to it for a while. I like the starring feature too.
Lisa @ Fit in the Midwest´s last post …Biking, bugs, and bungalows
I completely hear you-I’m really working hard to prioritzing my blog before other people’s. Sometimes it’s just so much easier to read than to write!
Thanks for the post. I’ve since taken a few feeds out of my Reader and will continue to ween off some feeds.
My problem is that I have unsubscribed to several that I realized I was never reading, and they KEEP COMING INTO MY READER! I can’t stop them!
Leigh Ann´s last post …Artistic prodigies
Yikes! I’ve never had that problem. Have you checked your subscriptions list and made sure they deleted? That would drive me crazy.
I saw this on the cleverist- I definitely need to do a reader purge! Thanks for the insights! Cheers :)
Thanks for stopping over! Best of luck with your Reader purge!
Great article! Sometimes I feel like my Google Reader owns me, but like you said, it’s hard to let go! I’m inspired to go do a google reader purge now. Thanks for the tips!
Kelly @ View Along the Way´s last post …DIY Herringbone Art
Glad you enjoyed the post–hope your purge goes great!
Cleaning out my google reader is something that happens a couple of times a year. I’ve found that there are some blogs I’m interested in for a while, but not for the long term.
This was a great post!
Amanda {A Royal Daughter}´s last post …#PrayerDare
I completely agree. It’s so easy for me to keep reading things I don’t really care about unless I make myself stop and clean out my Reader once in a while. Definitely worth the time.
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