Organizing Memories Monday: Corralling the Information Flow

I love my news feeds.  Let me just say that first.  If I can read someone's blog or website via a feed, so much the better.  Otherwise, I have to go to all of their sites individually.  Yes, news readers are gold.

I can't think of a better way to stay on top of all the information on the web that I'm interested in, that helps me with writing, inspires me, provides such useful tips and education.  If you're a wise subscriber, it's all there for you on one awesome page.

There's a problem, however, if you use Google News ...Google's refusal to allow one to cancel a subscription.  

Oh, sure, it looks like you're cancelled, but if you've tried it, you know it doesn't work.  I venture to say I cancelled some of my subscriptions a dozen times and finally gave up and decided it was just a lot easier and quicker to delete them every time I read my news.  Still, I love Google.  

I only use Google now to collect all of my subscriptions, and I read them on Feedly , an attractive magazine-like venue that's easy on the eyes.  It  also places a feedly mini strip at the bottom of most sites you visit allowing you to click various options for saving the site, including adding the site's news feed to Feedly.  

So every few days--I wish I could do it everyday to keep up better--I'll pull up my Feedly to see what info is out there that I need to either read or save.

The first thing I do is go through and delete every subscription I would opt out of...if I could.  

Then, with a clean list of possible feeds, I to through them quickly.  After you've used a news reader for some time, you learn how to do this.  A quick scan sometimes lets you know you're not interested.  If I'm not sure I want to read the feed, I "save it for later" along with the sites I know I do want to read.  

After culling the articles, I pull up the saved ones.  This time I stop and read certain ones right then and there and then delete them.  If I want to hang on to the article for later quoting of reference, I send it to EverNote. If I don't have enough time to read all m saves, it's easy to come back later and finish them.  They stay safe in the "save-for-later" folder.

Also some get liked on Facebook, or tweeted for followers.  

This is the best solution for me at this point to read all of the good stuff on the information highway.  

Please leave comments on other tips and tricks,  I'm always open to new ways to stay efficient.