In my previous post I reviewed RockMelt. For a time I thought that the new browser was going to be the holy grail in my constant quest for information since it features an RSS reader sidebar. As it turns out it, it made my internet browsing less efficient. At the time I had about 15 different websites that I tried to review on a daily basis.
Before RockMelt my approach for keeping up with these 15 websites was to launch them every morning with my coffee and every night after dinner. This took up a good 2.5 hours out of my day, reading news articles and “trying to keep up with the times”. But RockMelt, with it’s constantly updating feeds, changed that. Every 30 seconds another piece of content would be posted on one of the 15 sites, and I would stop what I was doing at the moment and check out the new content – constantly distracted. My browser turned me into a virtual pinball machine – bouncing off various sites and hopelessly trying to keep up with all of the information I “needed” to consume.
This soon became a hassle for me, so I switched back to trusty old Chrome. At around the same time RockMelt was released, Chrome released their web app store. This intrigued me, and I began my next quest to uncover every cool app that was available. I found a few very neat plug-ins such as HootSuite, NY Times Reader, and Huffington Post Reader. I also decided at this point to focus on using Google Reader as my primary means of keeping up with websites.
How did I find myself in this situation of trying to keep current with about 15 websites? I suppose I found myself in this situation because I have a voracious appetite for information. Combine this with a slightly addictive personality and the unlimited amount of information available on the internet, and I have found myself in a situation where I am voluntarily overloaded with media. Google Reader couldn’t solve my problem either. This vain attempt to keep up with content via Google Reader was the final straw. I experienced a moment of clarity and realized I had to do something about this quest to keep current that was spiraling out of control.
To conquer this problem I first had to change my perspective. I asked myself “what news is truly important to me?”, “what do I consume out of mindless enjoyment? Am I willing to give up the more “tabloid” type of information”? I do not read tabloids, but I consider sites like Engadget, Gizmodo, and others to be somewhat of a tabloid for geeks like me.
After thinking about what I truly valued, and how I wanted to spend my time consuming information, I made a drastic cut to the websites I track. I cut out all of the, what I call “geek tabloids”, except for two that I simply can’t go without, and one that is relevant to my work. I cut out the reddits and diggs since they are mostly filled with entertaining content but mostly filled with just popular culture of the day. Finally, I removed all but one news media site from my RSS feed. Now instead of hundreds of articles per day, I sift through about 100 articles.
Now I can spend more time gaining knowledge in areas that truly improve my understanding of things that I value intrinsically as well as for my career. It has also provided me with more time to spend reading books and fulfill my recent passion for reading history and historical fiction.
