When Yale librarian Rutherford Rogers said "We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge," he could have been talking about Chris Schroeder. In a speech at the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) conference recently, Schroeder, CEO of Health Central Network, said RSS feeds are a great way to keep up with what’s new in your field. He then showed a slide of his own RSS feed inbox, and noted that it had 2,000 items awaiting his attention.
Mr. Schroeder, I have news for you. If you have 2,000 unread items in your RSS feed, it is anything BUT an ideal way of getting information. Over-subscribing to free content via RSS feeds is an invitation to information overload disaster – equivalent to getting a Sunday New York Times delivered to your door every day of the year.
Schroeder and many other people I know subscribe to so many data sources, their RSS feeds deliver hundreds or thousands of items a week – more than they could ever hope to read. I believe Mr. Schroeder either over-estimates his own need for information or is unable to distinguish between what he needs to know vs. what he would like to know.
These days, more information is published online every 24 hours than you could read in five years. The key to managing it is to be more selective, not less. So ruthlessly unsubscribe to e-zines, RSS feeds, etc. until you get only what you absolutely need.
Even then, you won’t have time to read even a small fraction of what you get. But at least your inbox will be somewhat under control.
[Ed. Note: There's no doubt you need to be super-selective when deciding what is valuable - and what's a time stealer. Learn how to take control of your life - and even create time for yourself - right here.
Make sure you check out the Direct Response Letter, Bob Bly's e-zine, filled with useful strategies for improving your marketing. Sign up today and get over $100 in free bonuses.]
Similar Articles:
- Really Simple Set-Up for RSS Feeds – We’ve told you before how RSS (really simple syndication) – a technology that allows Web users to re…
- A Simple Way to Make Today More Productive – You can quadruple your productivity and efficiency at work, just by doing one thing: Cut back on the…
- Dear ETR: “How can I cut back on Gmail spam?” – “In your article about getting rid of excess spam, you stated that Google’s e-mail service has excel…
- The Language Perfectionist: A Roundup of “Confusables.” – It’s easy to mistake one word for another, especially when they look or sound similar. Here are five…
- ETR Insider Report: What the ETR Revolution Means for You – When ETR arrives in your inbox on Monday, it will look different. Clean. Focused. Easy to digest. St…
- Using Daily Task Lists to Accomplish Your Goals – I didn’t always plan my days. For most of my career, in fact, I didn’t. I had written goals. And I r…
- How to Find High-Demand Products That Sell Like Hotcakes – You can’t sell a product if you don’t have someone to sell it to! In ETR #2065, I explained how onli…