I like RSS feeds because they help me to read articles when articles appear on a publisher's web site. I do not have to visit each site to check for new articles. They all are under by hand in the RSS reader.
Currently I have 19 feeds. Some of them are listed on my 'Recommended reading' page. Half of these feeds are updated frequently and sometimes I do not have time to read them. This causes a lot of unread messages in by feeds folder.
Today I decided to clean up all unread feeds. I quickly scanned all subjects in every feed and deleted most of them without reading. They were worth reading but it would take too much time to read them all. So I decided to read only the most important articles. If I ever have time, I always can come to those sites and read articles there.
So, why am I writing about this on the blog? It seems to be a personal matter, not anything that may interest others.
Actually it should be interesting to others too!
I have seen people who have several hundreds unread messages in their Inbox. I always wondered why do they keep these messages unread? Most problems or queries described in these e–mails become obsolete after a week or so. Having a full inbox does not let to focus on current issues. It is like having a house where a person stocks everything he could come across (even candy papers). It is just a big mess, where the person can't effectively navigate.
One of the principles of efficiency says that there should be no mess anywhere. All items should be cleaned up regularly. I stepped away from this principle with regard to RSS feeds and they immediately inflated in size and became a mess. I had to spend time cleaning up.
So the story is: do not leave anything to "later". Read it now or clean it up. Keep it organized and simple. Be responsible for your personal organization. Be efficient. Be happy.
Comments
dont fall into the GTD (Getting Things Done)trap and efficiency hell. People know what they do (or don't). I have currently 656 unopened emails. Some of them escaped our rather efficient anti-spam checking but the majority? It is email that does not need answering (or opening), all in-house. User get pretty savvy at realizing which emails needs attention. As of now, I never missed a relevant email, even after weeks of vacation. Somehow (not somehow, but after almost 20 years of training) , people know in milliseconds whats relevant (if you have a good admin).
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Jens
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