Organizing Feeds - A Great Tip

Note: I am starting to write and curate on tools and processes related to information management. It's initially addressed in my book and it's just becoming an ever growing need. Organizing your information so you can find it is truly a time management and needed productivity tip, as well a 21st century professional competency!

A Brilliant Way to Organize Feedly or Your Favorite RSS Tool

September 24, 2013 · 9 comments

Find yourself too busy to read all the blogs and publications that interest you? Don’t have time to keep on top of the news in your industry?

RSS is a great tool for keeping up with all the blogs you know you should read, without spending all day on your computer. While RSS sounds complicated, it’s actually really simple, and it goes a long way toward making your life easier. It also saves you time, and we can ALL use more of that.

Let’s be honest: Being smart about RSS makes you look good.

So what is RSS, exactly?

Before we dive into today’s hack, here’s a quick RSS explainer.

In simple terms, RSS allows you to aggregate new posts from all the blogs and publications you want to keep up with in ONE place. Rather than hop around to a million different URLs to catch up on news while you sip your morning coffee, you can hang out in your aggregator and easily browse new entries. Think of it as a sister to email but without the spam; all the important stuff comes right to you.

I used to recommend Google Reader because it was the simplest RSS tool around. But Google has eliminated its Reader, forcing us Google Reader disciples to find an alternative. My Socialexis team now uses Feedly — and for more than keeping up with industry news. We also use it to find blog and social media fodder for every one of our clients, making it a vital part of our workflow.

If you’re new to Feedly, here’s an easy-to-understand guide from Jessica Lawlor about how to get started.

My favorite RSS hack

But my goal here isn’t to convince you to set up RSS. Instead, I want to give everyone who’s already sold on the value of aggregation a better way to use Feedly or whatever RSS tool you prefer.

Most of us typically set up our RSS tool haphazardly, just sort of throwing lots of blogs and news sites into our reader. If you’re savvy, you might organize your Feedly into folders by topic.

Here’s a way to take it even further, a tactic that’s especially important for those of us who are so busy that we’ve gotten into the habit of neglecting our Feedly: organize by importance.

You can do this in two ways.

Brilliant Option No. 1

The first is my preferred method. In addition to organizing feeds by topic — I have folders for careers, journalism, social media, entrepreneurship and marketing — I also create a folder called “Don’t Miss.”

That folder includes all the blogs I absolutely don’t want to miss, the ones I want to see even when I have a lot of other tasks on my plate. Feedly allows you to put blogs into more than one folder, so you can file your top choices both in a topical folder and in your “Don’t Miss” folder.

That way, even during weeks where you’re running from one event to another, you can easily pop into your Feedly and browse new posts from the publications that are most important to you. This is a great way to ignore a lot of the noise on the Internet and focus only on what you care about. Kind of like the Notice-Me List you create to wade through Twitter noise.

Brilliant, right? (If you think so, click to tweet this idea!)

Brilliant Option No. 2

The second way to do this is to avoid topical folders altogether and organize by importance only.

Create several tiers of folders — Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 — and file all your publications wherever they belong, with Tier 1 being most important.

Whenever you have time to pop into your reader, start with Tier 1, to make sure you get through the important information first. When you have extra time (or, let’s face it, are procrastinating), you can move onto Tier 2 and Tier 3.

No matter how you approach it, this system of prioritizing will help you be more efficient, so you can accomplish the big things that really matter.

Would you try organizing your Feedly this way? Do you have another way to organize your RSS tool that we should all know about?  

Source http://alexisgrant.com/2013/09/24/organize-rss/#sthash.S5Mnonma.dpuf

If you haven't yet got your version of Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed - have it your way - Kindle - The Book - Nook - Audio Book - The Seminar - click here to access

Other readings on Kindle: Declutter Your Life From The Inside Out  | Your LIfe Through the Lens of Time - The Interview

20 Cool Home and Life Tips

I don't know about you, but i am crazy about tips.  Anything I can get my hands on to make even one thing easier -- I'm all over.  It goes with my premise of the 1% edge.

In that spirit here are 20 cool tips that you can use at home or in life in general that can save you time and/or money. They are pretty neat - enjoy!

Honestly, I don't know how I ever lived without these life tips. Never get a mosquito bite again!

20 Cool Tips => http://bit.ly/1bgdsVj

If you haven't yet got your version of Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed - have it your way - Kindle - The Book - Nook - Audio Book - The Seminar Other readings on Kindle: Declutter Your Life From The Inside Out Your LIfe Through the Lens of Time - The Interview

Managing Email is Managing Time

Coaching Question:

Are you managing email or is email managing you? I do believe this is another of the competencies I mentioned in the introduction of my book that needs to be developed.  Effective email management is a skill!

If you can manage your email 1% better - you’ll create more time to get more work done. With the suggestions to follow, find your 1% edge.

Email can be an effective way of communicating, but I believe and have experienced, that the lack of skill in using it just creates more work. A lot of time is wasted with email.

With that in mind, I recommend you adopt this mindset regarding email:

Email is a tool to manage the virtual experience. It is a tool to work with people through a process to get to a result --(so is text and the phone for that matter).

Key point=>You know there are a lot of expectations when people communicate virtually that are in their head but don’t get put on paper.

Here’s what I mean. How many times have you gotten a request for something from a colleague and there was no indication of when it’s needed - no time and date?  How many emails don’t have enough information in them and therefore requires 3 or 4 more email exchanges just to get from point A to point B.

Because most people do not use email effectively, I recommend developing this skill:

Be more specific, informative, & directive when using and writing emails.

So what is specific, informative and directive? Tell people what to think, how to behave, and what to expect as specifically as possible.

For example - have a format or template that you use on a regular basis. If someone sends a request for something and it doesn’t have all the information, send it back with specific instruction on exactly what you need at the exact time and date you need it.

In some cases you already to do this. When I’m conducting a seminar I ask, “How many of you have your out of office reply on?”  Many raise their hand. Then I ask then to share what it says. Many will say, “I’ll be out of the office on x day returning on x date. If you need assistance call x at extension 3560.”

That is a great example of instructive, informative, and directive. It clearly illustrates tell them what to think – what to expect – how to behave.”

Here’s the overriding point to remember: e-mail like voicemail is a tool to manage a virtual experience and relationship in the context of trying to execute work.  It’s about managing behavior, results, and expectations.

It’s useful to think:  “I’m managing my relationship (or experience) with this person and I’m communicating with them through e-mail, and that’s a part of a relationship.  This person has a personality.  This person has a work style with certain characteristics that are either helping me or hindering me and I need to communicate in a way to coach that person so that I get the results I want in the most efficient and effective way.”

This is an excerpt from the time & organizational management book: Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed - available at links provided:

Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed - how to manage your time, space, & priorities, to work smart, get results & be happy -  Kindle - The Book - Nook - Audio Book -  The Seminar -  3Cdset - Pdf-ebook - Mp3 Download