Vertigo / Group

Analytical Approach to RSS Efficiency

Being an avid news hound, I subscribe to a lot of news sites and blogs. I do keep tabs on how many newsfeeds I subscribe to, but in general, I have about 20 at any given time.

Everything from LifeHacker to The Wall Street Journal, in essence I try to keep an eclectic and broad spectrum. Two concerns I have been having over the last few months are (1) how much of my time is being occupied by reading said feeds, and (2) how much of the information is really useful or pertinent?

Being a Millennial, I’m always looking for a more efficient and simpler way of doing things. Like mentioned before, I have a lot going on in my life, and I like to keep it that way, but in order to perform on a consistent level I must use my time wisely, and efficiently. Removing unnecessary clutter—both mentally and materially—is critical to my success.

This brings me back to the question; “how much of the information I read is useful?” Since I use Google reader to manage my feeds, I used their excellent built-in analytics system. Below is the breakdown of some of my feeds:

Reading Trends

Subscription Trends

These above trends do not show the whole picture. When reviewing the items read, I noticed that there were 1,911 items, however, I only clicked on 35 of the items in the last 30 days. Meaning, I technically read one article per 54.6 posted or about 1.8% of the feed. Moreover, I am shifting through about 147.1 items each day; talk about a time suck!

With data in hand, I needed to determine from which sites I clicked the most frequently versus the total number of posts. Here is the breakdown:

Click Trend

The first thing that needs to go is MacUpdate. Not because its not a useful website, rather most software on my machines know when they need to update, ergo let the machine do it for me. I will continue this exercise down the list. I do not let the numbers do all the “thinking;” I look at a feed that is questionable and ask; “do I really need to be reading this?”

Based on the findings above and my own personal/professional interest(s), I concluded that I only need to read the following feeds:

Feeds to Keep

As Thomas Jefferson famously wrote, “I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.” Based on my simple modifications, I reduced the daily articles in my “inbox” from 147.1 to 44.6.

Now, the hardest part; sticking to the game plan. How will I possibly do this? Since all feeds I now read average less than 20 posts per day, I can move away from Google reader, and embrace Pulse for the iPhone and iPad. Furthermore, by limiting my usage to only a mobile device, it eliminates the tendency to want to “see” the latest news.

I hope this assists others attempting to reduce their daily intake of information. In an upcoming post, I will address the art of written communication; specifically quality vs. quantity; frequency of posts, and how to continue to make your online written communication more efficient.

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