If you missed my previous post on organising my reading, I suggest you take a peek first, otherwise you may get confused.

All done? Great. Well, in short, it’s a little better. I actually managed to get my must read articles to zero this week. That is something of a breakthrough, and proof enough that separating out your most valued feeds is a great idea. And this folder has been refined since the initial batch o’ blogs was entered, which helps. One or two have been ruthlessly cut from the list, either to go into the “posts often” or “not that bothered” folders. This kind of refining will constantly improve the process.

There are two problems I am having at the moment. One is that pesky “posts often” folder. It’s massive. Over 1000 posts. Still, at least those posts are not getting in the way of my must reads. Just to reduce the numbers, and make sure I don’t miss out on some other favourites, I may separate the folder out into two tiers depending on which heavy posters I like most. But I’m not sure.

The other problem is the batch of ungrouped feeds sitting around gathering dust. I see a blog, like the look of it, and subscribe straight away, vowing to read it properly later and then decide where it goes. But now there are sixteen feeds that remain unread, and I have some catching up to do.

The solution here will be to put new feeds straight into “must read”. It sounds like a terrible abuse of the system, I know, but I figure it’s the only way of ensuring I will definitely read the posts. If I then decide they’re not that important after all, I’ll move them then.

So far, so good.

I’ve now had a look at each one of those sites to see if I like them, and have subscribed to a fair few. Guess what

Nooo! Its happening again! I know what you’re thinking -what’s Matt going to do? How does he know which ones to read? Surely he can’t read through all of them? Oh the humanity!

I know. Tense, isn’t it.

Don’t worry (as if), I have a plan! It’s something I heard on the Boagworld podcast and seems guaranteed to boost my blog subscription reading productivity (and other mouth-watering keywords)! In fact, my boss is using it to organise his subscriptions to business and marketing blogs (I’m currently subscribing to business, marketing, writing, science and videogame blogs, just so you know).

The trick is folders

A revelation, huh. Okay, not really. I had folders before of course, but I used to organise by subject. Now though, I organise in such a way that the ones I am most interested in get read first. This is lifted pretty much wholesale from the Paul Boag method, but here are the folders I’m trying:

Must read. My absolute favourites, that I just can’t miss out on, and where I will always go first.

Frequent posters. I like these posts too, but there are just too many of them! Still, once the count for Must Read hits 0, I can sift through these to find interesting entries. By the way, as I was adding to Google Reader, I saw that some bloggers post as frequently as 9 times a week! I mean, it’s just not happening, is it? What’re they trying to do to me?

Not too bothered. Let’s be honest, I am probably never going to read these, but they may very well be good if I am researching a particular topic and want some reliable sources to search through. Other than that, they’re not really on my radar.

Finishing touches

Now here’s the bit that makes it all work – my trusty iPod! The regular reader’s wifi enabled dream device (or at least, until the iPad takes off)! Want to read what you’ve subscribed to on the train; while you’re walking (watch out for that curb); while your other half has some godawful trash *cough*dancingonice*cough* on telly? There’s an app for that.

In fact, there are probably around fifty, but the one I use is MobileRSS, because it’s free, and I can save the money to buy games *cough*timewastersthatdistractmefrommywriting*cough*.

And what about ones I want to keep? Well, I also have an account with a handy dandy thing called Instapaper, which will strip my favourite articles of clutter, and allows me to store them in topic-based folders (because I’ve already read them, you see).

In addition, I can also save any individual article I happen to come across when browsing the web. And guess what, there’s an app for Instapaper too. And you can save to Instapaper directly from MobileRSS. Brilliant!

As I said, Paul Boag goes into great detail about these methods, to so you may want to check out the full article.

But there’s still the sticky problem of reading through 100+ blogs and deciding which folder they go in, so that’s enough rambling from me. I’ve got reading to do.

My train was supposed to arrive eight minutes ago, and is not expected to arrive for another thirty minutes. Welcome to the British train system! The company in charge by the way, is National Express, who are fine as long as nothing goes wrong, when they are terrible!

My hungry belly and annoyance aside though, this is a perfect opportunity to write another blog post. Let’s face it, time is at a premium for most of us, and we have to learn to take opportunities like this as they come.

It makes sense, then, that you should be prepared for those moments where you might unexpectedly find yourself at a loose end. For me, that means carrying around my iPod Touch. I have it with me anyway and the notes app is sufficient for the quick note or blog post (though if anyone has any suggestions of apps I should try, please comment, and
I’ll review my favourites). I have blogged before about how I use it.

But whatever you use it should be portable, and instantly accessible. Another advantage you might consider is the ability to move such writing to the place and medium in which you normally write. I am thinking in particular of being able to email notes to yourself or otherwise get them onto your computer (if that’s where you normally do your writing).

Anyhew, as luck would have it inamorata now on a train. Not my train, but a delayed one that should have left 50 minutes ago. So it’s all good, and I can go back to my laptop.

Happy time-filling!

The iPod touch (or iPhone of course) is just one option. Many handheld devices now include some way of recording notes. Or if they don’t, then more and more devices support a way of getting something that does allow it, like a downloadable application. If you’re desperate, even a mobile phone will allow you to type and save a text (even if it can be a bit cumbersome).

I like using the iPod touch because I find the touch keypad relatively easy to use, even for things that are longer than a few notes. Not only that, but it is also easy to move those notes to the usual place I store my writing – on my computer. I have to wait until I get home, but I can easily email my text to myself directly through the notes application. Ok, so it’s not as convenient as having Dropbox, like on my laptop, but it’s a lot better than having to type something up that I’ve handwritten.

Of course, some people will always prefer a notepad, and that’s fine – whatever works best for you. personally, I find the idea of copying stuff up, or keeping notes in separate places, a real waste of time. After all, there’s so little of it anyway!

Has anyone got any tips for recording notes you can easily send to yourself? Any app recommendations? Or do you find that only paper will do, and all this technology just gets in the way?