If you love to read blogs like I do, you have probably subscribed to a lot of them. I have my family’s and friends’ blogs in my Google reader as well as blogs in areas of interest to me. Subscribing is easy; reading them all is hard! But I’ve found a solution that works for me. Maybe it will work for you, too, regardless of which reader you use.
- Purge all blog posts from your reader. Yep, you read that right. The only reason I wouldn’t suggest you do this is if you haven’t subscribed to many blogs and you’re keeping up with what you have. But if that’s the case, why are you reading this post? Start fresh. I know some of those posts may be life-changing, but be strong and click “mark all as read.”
- Set up folders based on day of the week, subject, or both. You can keep up with your blog reading by dividing and conquering. Using your reader, create folders labeled for days of the week that you know you have time to read. If Mondays are never a good day to read, don’t create a Monday folder. Alternately, you can simply create subject folders that you will then assign to days of the week. I suggest using subjects that correspond to the first letter of the week day to help you remember (Money – Monday; Teaching – Tuesday; Food – Friday). That way you don’t have to include the day in the folder label. I use both day folders and subject folders because sometimes I have a hankering to read more on a given subject, even if it’s not the day for it. I’m like that.
- Assign each blog to a day and/or subject folder(s). I assign most of my family and closest friends’ blogs to every day folder. Why? Because then I won’t feel guilty when they ask, “Did you see my post on…?” Ree Drummond will never ask me that so I don’t assign Pioneer Woman to every day. Her food blog posts get assigned to Recipes and to Wednesday which is when I do my meal planning. Not sure a blog is for you? I assign those to a Try It folder.
- Schedule a time to read your daily blog folder. If you don’t think about when you can and will read, you just won’t. Of course, if you’ve decided that this is all too much bother, and you don’t want to read blog posts, I’ve just done you a favor. Unsubscribe from blogs and do something more productive, like pin pictures to Pinterest. If you do want to read, then make a habit of it. The best time for me is at lunch on my iPad. I love Flipboard.
If you haven’t added Wonder Women to your reader, I’d be honored if you did! Do you have any other suggestions for keeping up with blogs?
I’m applying these tips this afternoon. Still not sure I’m brave enough to purge all past posts, but will give it a try. Holding my breath . . . Thanks for your great suggestions!
Hey Melanie! Somehow, I’m keeping up with all my favorite blogs… God has me in a huge reading/writing mode right now! My baby boy’s naptime is when I hit them up… and sometimes at night in the comfort of my laptop and bed (like right now)! Thanks for sharing! You’re a smart woman! -Blessings, Amy
Here’s what I do, although there’s probably a lot of room for improvement.
I have one folder for bloggers that I’m friends with. I have another folder of blogs that I particularly love and always enjoy reading. About every day, I’ll go through these folders and read, comment appropriately. For distant friends, I may skim the headlines – but for the others, I know that the posts in here are ones that I will want to read.
Everything else is just left in the general folder.
Every few days to a week (I don’t really have a regular schedule), I will just go through and skim the headlines of all the blogs in my general folder. Anything that catches my attention, I star. I don’t read at this point.
Then I go back to the starred posts and read them more deeply. Anything I want to save for some reason I send to Evernote.
It really helps to know the Google Reader keyboard shortcuts. In expanded view, J is to move to the next item, K is to move back, and S is to star/unstar an item.
Oh, and another thing that helps: for the blogs of friends, rename the subscription. Instead of the name of the blog, I put the name of my friends. Helps me remember who’s who.
Apparently not smart enough to keep up with blogs without a system like you, Amy! 🙂 You have a great strategy of having a set time. Thanks for your comments.
Loren, thanks for these excellent tips. I seem to star blogs and never return to them. I send things I want to save to Evernote, too. I am terrible about not using keyboard shortcuts and I’d like to get better. Maybe you can do a post on that?
Or you could always signup for BlogListener.com. It’s launching in the next couple months and you’ll be able to listen to your favorite blog posts on the go in audio format. Right now I listen to audiobooks and I find it’s easier to do my workouts in the morning knowing I can get some of my reading done at the same time.
Great suggestion, Casey! I will check it out. Thanks for sharing.