My RSS Feed Process Flow

I subscribe to over 60 RSS feeds using Feedly.  I made the switch after years of being on Google Reader.  I Feedlychose Feedly mostly because of the bridge they created from Google Reader, but I’ve stuck with the service because of the easy-to-use interface and the ease of connecting to other services (e.g. Twitter, Evernote, Pocket).

All of those feeds equal several hundred posts every weekday, so it’s a lot to process. I have a workflow  that works pretty well, and makes sure I don’t lose myself in the black hole of new content.

  1. I pick 2 times a day to review my feeds, usually early morning and before I wind down at the end of the night.  Each review session is only 10-15 minutes.
  2. As I’m going through Feedly, I pick a category (or a single feed if it has a lot of posts), and go through the following decision:
    • If it will take me less that 30 seconds to read/view, then I look at it immediately.
    • If it will take me longer to read OR it leads me to a task (e.g. checking out a new app, exploring a website), I will add it to Pocket.
  3. When I have dedicated time to read, I use Pocket.  I treat Pocket like Feedly, as a temporary spot for reviewing information. As I’m reading in Pocket, I identify anything that I want to keep.  I have Pocket connected to Evernote, which is where I keep anything that needs a permanent home.  I’ve found that it much easier to store and find things if you pick one place (Evernote, OneNote, Google Keep) to keep everything.

I’ve been using this process for about a year.  I find that it minimizes the amount of time I take sifting through content that interests me, and I don’t overlook the content that I’ve found helpful or important.

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