Mike MacLeod

How To Organize Your RSS Feed Reader

// January 7th, 2009 // Comments // Journal

I currently have 326 feeds in my reader (I use Google Reader but there are many other good ones). To some, that many feeds is scary huge. To others, it’s not many at all. Whatever.

I’ve talked to others that follow a lot of feeds and many of them have very complex folder schemes that include subject matter, rankings, and the lunar calendar. They also spend way too much time processing them.

I usually review my feeds between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning. My dad used to read the newspaper. I read my feeds. And I keep it simple.

I only have three folders – Essential, Trial, and Occasional.

My Essential folder is the first one I go through every morning. It contains the feeds I enjoy the most and they are all updated quite regularly.  I have 122 feeds in this folder.

When I first start following  a new feed, I put it in the Trial folder. This is the second folder I read in the morning – if I have time.  If I find myself enjoying the feed on a regular basis, I move it to the Essential folder. If I don’t enjoy it, it gets the boot. I have 95 feeds in this folder.

My Occasional folder contains feeds that are either updated less often or are about subjects that I don’t want to read about every day. This includes Photoshop tutorials, new releases on Netflix, and some guilty pleasures. There are 111 feeds in this folder and I generally read them once or twice a week.

That’s it. Nothing complicated. Sometimes, being too organized slows things down.