RSS Feeds were created to keep you from bouncing all over the internet looking for updates on your favorite blogs, while building an audience for blog sites. If you are overwhelmed with the posts cluttering your feed, it may be time to set up some to integrate a few clutter management techniques.Say Goodbye to Dead Relationships
While you may have been attracted by the first post that you read on a blog, if you find that you avoid reading one particular site’s updates, then it’s time to reconsider. Does this site represent your interests? Are you keeping up with the updates to this particular blog's feed? If not, you may want to simply take it off of your feed. No harm, no foul. Doing so will give you more time to focus on the blogs you still enjoy.
Create Categories
All of us have our favorite topics, so you want to make sure that these are separate from topics that pique your interest less frequently. If you love to cook, keep all your recipe blogs together. Blogs about books, politics, internet marketing, and humor can all have their own space. Creating categories will make it easier for you to find the information you really want.
Delete Old Posts
Let's face it – you were busy, sick, or maybe you took a vacation. During that time, you neglected your RSS feeds. You might have an interest in some of these articles, but there’s no way to get a fresh start without pushing out the old. Your life will not end because you missed a couple of posts. Start fresh and you'll be up to date in no time.
Control Your RSS Time
If you’re spending more that an hour a day reading your favorite blogs, you may need to thin your feed some more. Are there blogs that you’d be happy with reading once a week rather than every day? Which sites are as much a part of your day as coffee and the morning news? Mark the other posts as read and keep moving.
Use Your RSS Feed Reader's Tools
Some feeds provide keyword searches or statistics to help you find what you’re looking for and figure out what you read the most of. This can help you sort through big chunks of information quickly. Others have keyboard shortcuts to help you cut through material. Learn about your RSS feed reader's special features and use them to organize your reading time.
With a little bit of organization, you can keep your RSS feeds free of clutter, ensuring you’re spending time on the blogs and articles that are best suited towards your tastes. If you employ some of these tricks every few weeks, keep organized, and change your sites as your interests evolve, you’ll find that your RSS feed is indeed the time saver that it is meant to be.
