Guess what people: I don’t read my RSS feeds every day. And I’m still alive and employed.
Like every self-acclaimed web designer that respects herself, I keep an ambiguous folder in my RSS reader (namely Google Reader) that is named ‘Web Design’. In there you can find some of the best blogs in my professional field and a bunch of others that I’ve felt that they were insteresting.
There are tons of awesome stuff posted in there every day – but the sheer amount of information that I must consume every day just to say I’m cool terrifies me. So I don’t read them every day – I sometimes skim through them during the lunch break and that’s it.
What’s my solution? Newsletters, people. Yes, that ’90s thing that works through e-mail, ya know? I’ve subscribed to some great newsletters that compile the best web design links every week to an easy list – so once per week, tada! I have a short list of the latest and greatest in my field.
Easy, no?
So my advice is this: outsource your RSS reading. Really. Put a filter between you and information and let people guide you to the best out there, without having to check daily a ton of feeds. You can use my approach and subscribe to a newsletter – or you can use a service like Mento and a good friend with similar interests and will to help you.
You’ll feel loads better, believe me.
6 comments on this post
barak #1
25.Jul.08
There goes web 2.0
adamo #2
25.Jul.08
I never really liked newsletters. Lately I find myself unsubscribing from most of them, or even redirecting them to /dev/null.
OTOH, I do believe that when I was using Technorati instead of Google Reader I was spend^H^H^H^H^Hinvesting less time in reading favorite blogs than I am now. But now, with Google Reader occasionally I delete feeds on stuff I monitor (Technorati was really a heap of feeds for me).
But hey, if newsletters work for you bravo! I wish I can find the time to build an RSS reader with 80% of the functionality I want.
george tziralis #3
25.Jul.08
thumbs up sugar, shall you give us some sources for these newsletters, too?
Svelon #4
25.Jul.08
That is probably one of the major problems of our times: information overload.
Your solution, letting other people make the selection of what you’ll read (no matter the medium, newsgroups or whatever), is perhaps the best solution. Unfortunately, it is the most dangerous one, too, as you can easily lose information that might worth your attention, not to mention the control you grand to others…
Sugar #5
25.Jul.08
@george tziralis
Most of my subscriptions are web design anyway – but I really enjoy the “Links for light reading” newsletter by the Web Standards Group.
» Showcase: Creative Characters newsletter - sugarenia.com : Web Standards, Accessibility & other Girly Stuff #625.Jul.08
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