How I successfully manage my feed reader with subject folders

[Image: Google reader folders]Reading RSS feeds is a mess. No matter how much you try, you’re not going to get through everything you really want to get through.

The past few weeks, I’ve been working out a new system for managing my input (and my output). I think it works pretty well.

One of the things that you’ll notice if you spend enough time in the blogosphere is that unofficial communities exist all over the place. They’re often somewhat self contained, and they almost always center around a certain topic, regardless of whether or not each blogger writes exclusively about that topic or not.

So for example, the videogame blogging community that I consider myself part of consists of, among several others I will undoubtedly forget: The Buttonmasher, Corvus Elrod, JaySlacks, The Brainy Gamer, The Grumpy Gamer, etc, etc.

These topic communities are great ways to organize your feed reader. I know, I know - using folders is not that original. What works is making rules for how you read them.

I use Google Reader, which lets me create folders for my feeds. I can then look at each folder as a digest of items in reverse chronological order, or I can view each feed within the folder individually.

If you need more help setting up and using Google Reader, you might check out the video tutorial I made on monitoring the blogosphere.

How I divide my feeds

There should also be two folders that do not conform to topic communities. Those folders are called the “A-List” and the “B-List.”

My “A-List” folder contains only the blogs that I read religiously. Every day I read everything in that folder. It’s pretty small; it consists of my close friends and a few consistently amazing bloggers like Fred Wilson, The Ferrett, and Scott Adams.

I would suggest not including blogs like Engadget (30+ posts daily) and limiting your folder to 7 or 8 blogs at the most.

The trick is in keeping it small. Giving yourself a manageable chunk of feeds to complete every day---one that you actually do read completely---will go a long way towards reducing the feed-stress that happens when you see the giant number next to “unread items.”

The “B-List” folder is for vetting. If I come across a new blog that I can’t place immediately into a category, but that I know I am interested in, I will load it into the “B-List.” Every day I check through the B-List, and every now and then I move the feeds based on how often I feel like I’m reading them.

During the course of a normal day, I have to be aware of things that are happening in a number of different spaces. For work, I have to keep tabs on everything going on with Facebook, MySpace, and Social Media for my consulting work and for my blogging at Web Community Forum. So I have a folder dedicated to that. I don’t feel obligated to read everything.

The same rule goes for the other topic-centered folders that I’ve constructed. I make sure to cruise the headlines regularly, and spend some time reading the really interesting posts, but I trust in my friends to share things with me on Facebook or via Email when I miss them.

I may not catch everything, but I get a lot, and I don’t feel stressed about the pile up of unread items. I suggest you give it a try, and of course, add my RSS feed to your A-List.