I love reading great blogs. It kick starts my morning, provides reading material at lunch, and is a great way to end off the day. However, reading the 123 blogs that I subscribe to could be quite time intensive.
But it’s not. I use Google Reader (a type of RSS Reader) to help me skim through all the blog posts in about 5 minutes. (Note: time varies depending on length of blogs I click on to read. I’ve never spent longer than 20 minutes reading blogs though.)
This weekend, I went through my digital life and made it a bit more organized – which included renaming and reorganizing my blog subscriptions in my Google Reader. The trick to fast blog reading: a really great folder system!
I organize my blog subscriptions into 10 separate folders:
- Must Reads – The blogs that have posts worth reading every time. (e.g. Steph Corker Irwin, Jason Mraz)
- Creativity – The blogs that get my creative juices flowing – a mix of marketing, advertising, design, music (e.g. Canadian Marketing Association Blog, Creative Criminals)
- Change Makers – The great companies that blog about how they are changing their world (e.g. Brains on Fire, All Things McNak, Inc)
- Personal – The personal blogs that follow the lives and ideas of great individuals (e.g. Callum Ng, Justin Ritch)
- Movements – The bloggers who write about ideas bigger than themselves or their company (e.g. SuperForest, Five Rules for Life)
- Digital – Blogs that keep their finger on how the changes in the digital world affect our offline life (e.g. Mashable, Community Organizer 2.0)
- UBC – Blogs about the inner workings, events, great ideas, and people that make UBC worth reading about (e.g. Student Blog Squad, Terry*, UBC Admin Blog)
- Vancouver – Like my UBC folder, but expanded to check out what’s going on in my lovely city (e.g. Vancouver Observer, Beyond Robson)
- Travel – Great people who are traveling around the world and writing about their experiences (e.g. Backpack with Brock, Geoff Cox)
- Perspectives - Blogs that share news and views on conversation starting topics (e.g. Overcoming Bias, TED)
With one click and I can search through them all or just get a dose of the info I need (a jolt of creativity, a thought to ponder, etc). It takes reading over a hundred blogs from a daunting task to a enjoyable past time.
Good systems to organize your online life help you get the most out of your offline one. Happy reading / living!
Pick of the post: MSTRKRFT – Heartbreaker (official music video)
6 comments
Taylor Loren says:
April 2, 2010 at 1:26 am (UTC -7)
sure hope AMS Confidential is a part of that UBC folder…;)
Matt Corker says:
April 2, 2010 at 5:00 am (UTC -7)
Of course it is!
Anthea Song says:
April 6, 2010 at 4:38 pm (UTC -7)
regarding that photo with the news on 20,000 a day start a blog, i wonder what’s the data on those who start a blog and never carries on with updating it…
Jackson Nash says:
April 6, 2010 at 9:01 pm (UTC -7)
Yay! Glad to see SuperForest made it onto such a rad blogger’s list among such auspicious bloggy company!
Matt Corker says:
April 7, 2010 at 12:00 am (UTC -7)
Yah – that would be interesting. I assume the number is staggeringly different.
Matt Corker says:
April 7, 2010 at 12:01 am (UTC -7)
C’mon now! On a scale from 1 to rad, Superforest tops the chart! Of course it makes the list!