5 Tips to Managing RSS Information Overload

I am often asked how I monitor news from many sources. As soon as I mention RSS and Google Reader people’s eyes usually start to gloss over. RSS is short for Real Simple Syndication but it does not always come across as simple.

RSS is a mechanism to allow users to subscribe, for free, to a blog or other news sources and then receive new posts as they are published. This reduces the need to visit numerous sites just to find out that they have not been updated.

Over the years I’ve developed ways of processing this information. My workflow has been tweaked and massaged to meld it into a system that works for me.

I use Google Reader as a news reader on the iMac but I use Reeder on the iPhone. Today, I am going to focus on how I use Google Reader’s web interface. The general ideas are the same but the interfaces are different.

Know Your Tools

I have feeds categorized into folders based upon content type. This is useful since it lets me, for example, see just tech news or world news. I like to view news stories in ‘List’ view which gives me the ability to scan headlines to see if something catches my eye.

The ability to navigate Google Reader quickly comes via keyboard shortcuts. You can see all of Google Reader’s keyboard shortcuts by typing ‘?’.

A few shortcuts that I use often are:

• j/k: next/previous item
• space: next item or page
• s: star item
• shift + s: share item
• shift + d: share item with note
• shift + t: open “send to” menu

Process and Move On

I select a folder and then keep tapping ‘j‘ as I move through the news stories. When I see something interesting, I stop and read it.

I “star” posts about something I want to look at in more detail. Later, I go to my starred items folder and take a longer look at those posts, then remove the stars. If there is still something I want to keep, I save it on Delicious.

I send posts to Instapaper via “send to” that are interesting but too long. To do this you will need to set up an Instapaper account and then configure it within Google Reader as one of your “send to” items.

I “share” posts that people in my social networks might be interested in. Posts can be sent out to Twitter using Reader2Twitter and to Facebook by adding #fb. I explained more on how I connect social networks with Google Reader in a previous post.

Lean and Mean

One hundred, RSS feeds might not look too lean. However, to some, it will look slim. I used to subscribe to close to five hundred feeds. I realized I was getting many duplicate new stories in Google Reader. Furthermore, 500 feeds take a long time to process.

With just over one hundred feeds, I find I have to sort through less in order to find interesting posts. This means I spend less time processing the information flow.

Probation

I wouldn’t suggest subscribing to a few RSS feeds and then never exploring what else is out there. I am constantly subscribing to, and unsubscribing to, different sites all the time.

I put all new feeds on probation. I leave them un-filed until I feel that they are worthy of a spot in my newsreader. This gives me the chance to see if they are actually a source of interesting content. If they are, then I categorize the feed into a folder. If I find it to be uninteresting then I just unsubscribe from the feed.

Bankruptcy

When unread count gets too high you shouldn’t feel the need to read all those posts. Just declare RSS bankruptcy.

If the unread count gets too high, I select “All items” in Google Reader’s sidebar and then click the “Mark all as read” button on the top of the news pane. Problem solved. If there is something really important, I will hear about it from a friend, on Twitter or on Facebook.

So, what’s your method for processing and consuming the fire hose of news and information available every day?

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Image Credit: cc licensed flickr photo shared by Joseph Robertson

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