RSS Organization

A tip I read somewhere was you can’t try to organize going backwards. This was about magazines and newspapers I believe, but I’ve decided to apply it to google reader. So, I went into google reader, exported all of my feeds into a spreadsheet and then deleted them all.

I then went to the actual page for each one of the links, categorized it and considered whether I want to continue subscribing to it. Then, I took my much abbreviated list of feeds and imported them into google reader each into their pertinent categories.

I’ve kept the file that includes the feeds I eliminated them in case I find I’m missing something. If I don’t realize I’m missing it though, I don’t need to have it and won’t be adding it back in.

The hardest part of accepting that I can’t organize going backwards is that I marked all of the posts as read and didn’t plunge into any of the feeds despite the temptation.

I think I will also create a tag to add to feeds that I am considering removing. That way, if I’m reading a post and I really think that there’s a good possibility that I don’t need that feed, I can add a tag that indicates I’m considering removing it to help me consider this decision. That way I’m not just stuck with the black and white options of subscribe or don’t subscribe.

I’ll see how this goes over the next few days and then weeks and will plan on reviewing and revising as necessary to make this a useful tool that adds to my happiness and productivity rather than a cluttered source of stress.