Keeping Up

I subscribe to 65 blogs, which is less than half compared to a few years ago. I follow 176 people on Twitter, which is more than it used to be.

I sometimes find it hard not to read everything that comes in. Clicking on “Mark all as read” when I haven’t read everything is strangely difficult. I have a theory that those of us who are task-driven see unread subscriptions as a sign that we haven’t completed something on our task lists.

I can’t keep up. I shouldn’t.

Here’s what I’m learning.

• We need to be clear about our roles and responsibilities. Joe Thorne had a great post in this yesterday. We can’t do everything, but we can be faithful in the roles that God has given us. Getting clarity about this allows us to purposefully drop the ball in other areas and be ok with it.
• Find some good curators. Honestly, if you read Justin Taylor, Zach Nielson, and A La Carte by Tim Challies, you’re pretty much covered in that category of blogs. If you want to keep up with Mac news, Daring Fireball covers most of what you need to know. A good curator is worth 100 blogs.
• Prune. I prune a couple of times a year. It’s never easy, but once I’m done I never feel like I’m missing out.
• Use tools. I like Feed a Fever. It helps me discover posts that are “hot” and therefore worth reading. I run it once a week and find stuff I otherwise would have missed.
• Relax. I’m not great at this, but I think I’m getting better. There are many things that matter more than reading blogs and tweets.

I’d love your ideas on how you manage these – both the glut of information and the guilt that comes from thinking that we’re supposed to keep up.