Keep up with forum and blogs

..

Thanks.

Any one else...
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Newsfeeds from the blogs are in a tab on my Netvibes account :) Some forms even provide an RSS feed of the most recent topics as well. I think Leo set up ZH forums to do this too.

How do you keep up?
How much time du you spend on blogs and forums per day?
How many blogs and forums do you keep up with and participate in?

-"into_se"

#1: Lately, my technique seems to be DON'T try to keep up. There is a lot of information out there, but a lot of it is the same old thing over and over again; and very little of it is vital. Some of it will convince you to buy or do things you don't need to buy or do. There are almost always better things you could be doing than keeping up with blogs or forums.

As someone above said, Mark All As Read is your friend.

#2: I try to spend less than hour. Lately, since I've had a bad case of insomnia, it's been more like 2-3 hours *winces*

#3: I read 22 blog feeds, but only two forums regularly (this and a perfume forum).

ETA: Oh, and I read LJ. I have about 60 people on my friends list that I read pretty much daily.

I just went minimal (sort of like going postal) on my RSS feeds - I hit mark all as read!

have you tried RSS?

Are you aware of using RSS feeds and readers? Here is Wikipedia's definition of RSS:

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel", contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.

RSS content can be read using software called a "feed reader" or an "aggregator." The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.

You can add your favorite sites to your "feed reader" (the most popular are Netvibes, iGoogle, and Google Reader) and then whenever your blogs post a new article, it will appear in your reader. This saves a lot of time because instead of you going to the blog content, the blog content comes to you!

I have been using Google reader som a cople of months ant i works fine. Though i tend to "Star" some of the prosts so I can read them later but i cant find the time.

/T

I only have a couple of blogs and forums that I visit. I just try to limit myself to the best ones since I've found that the others aren't really adding anything valuable (to me) anyway.

Yeah...I read (and participate) in about a dozen blogs and a couple of forums, and to be active it takes a lot out of your day :( !

I am terrible at this. I have a 1000+ posts in my Google Reader. I feel bad for not keeping up with these things. I am also active on 2 different forums. Sometimes though I get more then two weeks behind. I think I might try just spending a hour a day on them, so I don't get way behind. I don't really have a strategy, because I am struggling the same.

Why feel bad? It's your RSS feed and you've chosen to do other things with your life. Just "mark all as read" and start with a clean slate. You're not losing a thing.

I've severely limited my blog and forum reading ... although I'm going to try to be more active on this forum now.

Read my Haiku Productivity post on Zen Habits for more on this ... basically, you have to restrict yourself ... just choose the top 10 blogs that are most valuable to you, and choose like 5-6 posts to read per day. Same thing on your forum ... just choose 5-6 posts to read and respond to, and mark the rest as read. You can't read everything! :)

The haiku productivity post was excellent.

I don't restrict the number of blogs I read, but I do place restrictions on how I read blogs. Now, whenever I read, I make sure I have a specific goal in mind. Once it's accomplished, I mark everything as read even if I haven't gone through everything.

I have a half dozen priority blogs that I always go through, to keep up to date with the latest buzz in my area of interest. Than I skim through my other feeds, looking for headlines that grab my eye and that might offer a solution to whatever problem I've decided to tackle.

I think the kind of approach you should take will depend on what you want to get from your reading.

Less is more, though.

I have a reader, but it is completely out of control!

How do you keep up with a reader???

I just asked that same thing elsewhere. I have google reader. I use labels. But I'd not check in over a weekend and come back to 100 "reads". I just skim quickly, prioritizing by label group for work/passion#1/passion#2 and so on, have become more critical of what I subscribe to and started weeding out anything that didn't make me want to star a post in a couple weeks. Figured its like snacking - which I'm eliminating lol. For blogs that I really like but don't want to/have to read consistently I saved them as links in my fave folders sorted by topic so when I really want to dive into a topic I'll remember the blog.

I allow myself 3 15min periods to check in on forums/day. So that really makes me limit where I choose to register and spend my time.

I tried doing the same with reading my reader feeds but it wasn't working because I'd frequently get sidetracked with links and such. But since I switched to mozilla firefox I just open every 'intriguing' link in a new tab and save all tabs in a folder called "to be sorted later". When I have "on hold time" or anything like that its something I can do to kill time and still be productive. Click on the links, since its now 'later' sometimes things don't look so wonderful or necessary or sometimes they do then they get sorted into folders to search when I need something re that topic.

Like others here I use Google reader. I have a number of strategies for keeping it manageable:
1. I use the Google Reader gadget on iGoogle and limit my feed reading to 15-30 minutes in lunch. Also, on weekends I'll sometime access reader on my mobile if I feel like relaxing with something simple to read-this will limit some of the extra bulk in the week.
2. Except for really excellent feeds that have 100% awesome stuff all the time, I filter my feeds through AideRSS (http://www.aiderss.com/) to keep the sheer volume down.
3. When I notice that I'm skimming all or most of the items for a feed day after day, I unsubscribe.
4. I "Mark all as read" when I reach the bottom of my list. Also, if I haven't checked feeds in a couple of days, I'll sometimes just "Mark all as read" after just a few items. Missing a few feeds won't kill me :)

Seriously, as mentioned by others, "Mark all as read" is your friend. You really, really don't need to read every single thing that comes through :)