Ken’s 12 Things

I use RSS everyday, and it is a crucial aspect for my daily information consumption. I learn something new everyday through my RSS subscriptions. RSS also helped me manage my flow of information, and helped clear out a lot of things from my other sources, like my e-mail inbox. I am a veteran of the RSS world, and the most important lesson I have learned about RSS was this:

“You don’t have to read every single RSS item!”

When I first started using RSS feeds, I started off small, a few feeds here and there, but eventually it adds up as you pick up feeds along the way. Pretty soon, you have over thousands of new items waiting in your RSS reader every day, if not every hour. It was overwhelming to the point where I would actually get stressed about keeping opening my RSS aggregator. That’s when I realized it was time to turn to Google… and search for “RSS management tips”…

Now I’ve learned to use the “Headlines only” view to quickly scan the news items, and picking a choosing what I want to read. This post from 43 Folders also helped me manage my RSS feeds:

Sink or Swim: Managing RSS Feeds with Better Groups

The important thing was to pick up what you can, and not worry about anything you missed. If it was worth NOT missing, you usually see it pop up in another blog your following.

For everyone starting out on their RSS journey, good luck!

New things I learned: I just added the Infomancy, 2 Cents Worth, and Webblog-ed feeds to my aggregator.