RSS Feeds

Subscribe to lots of RSS feeds. But how to organize?

Right now, I’m attempting a three folder system

Folder 1. Actual Reading

This is a folder you could diligently and even addictively read on a daily basis and not feel guilty about, or feel like you were wasting anytime. In fact, as some new media people might have us believing soon, this kind of reading may be a perfectly valid …um, substitution (?)…um, yeah, for actually reading books, you know … that old 15th century hardware, and 18th century software.

Folder 2. Feed Candy (aka Crack, aka Time-Waste Central)

This is anything you’d tag #humor, #awesome, #funny, #tech, #cool, #fail, etc. This is the raison d’etre of the web, but it doesn’t have to be yours. Limit time in this section.

Folder 3. Infrequent Check-Ins (aka Stuff either you think you should be reading but don’t have in Folder 1 or Stuff you use to get your fix when your Crack folder runs out)

Be very careful with this stuff. It might mean you need to go out and exercise, or at least turn the computer off. Or the guilt of how little you’ve accomplished in your intellectual career is growing. And for the stuff that’s just sitting in there? Why isn’t it gone for good? Now there might actually be a good reason for that…It would be great if Google Reader had a hide or archive like feature where you could recall at a later date what your subscriptions were in case you want to resurrect them.

Re: Periodic Infrequent Check-Ins. For example, I might want to read something on the Mozilla Firefox blog every once in a while, so instead of visiting the website and looking for the blog I can just keep that feed in the Reader and check it occasionally

I have had other systems where I go by subject (politics, tech, funnies, etc.) but I think a priority system is better. Also, I recommend never reading from the “All Items” folder because it is way too distracting to switch back and forth between politics, fail, tech, etc.

System Sally Recommends: Email

That’s right, my first recommendation is for email.

You probably already use it, you probably even like it (if you use gmail, otherwise you probably dread it), but I’m recommending it all the same. Email is free. Email is open both in format (no character limit, no formatting restrictions, text and pictures and links are all good) and in system (anyone can email anyone else, you’re not tied into one service like facebook or twitter).

In this age of facebook, and twitter, it is nice to have a simply inbox with private messages that you don’t have to reply to right away and people don’t know if you’ve read them or not. Like smacob and sally’s dialogue about blogging vs twitter , email is the victor in terms of allowing the writer/user an unrestricted workflow.

And who knew, that only 10 or 15 years after its introduction we’d be looking back at email as “last year’s model” and as a somewhat outmoded communication tool.

If you haven’t already, I recommend you check out email.

Twitter

Use twitter, it isn’t all bad.

In fact, you can get more systems, in short form, from twitter.com/systemsally

Garage and Clicker

My friends, I now have a garage for my vehicle and I have nothing but good reviews.

Still, it presents Pocket Sally with a Pocket Problem…what should I do with the clicker?

System for right now is: keep the clicker in the left pocket of my well fitting coat (this new addition is definitely part of the problem). You say, “Sally, why not keep it in the car?” Well, entering the code to enter the garage is a chore (the buttons require extra hard pressure and sometimes you have to repeat the code). This may be worth it, however, to not have to feel the burdens of another electronic device in my pocket.

The advantages of keeping the clicker in the pocket:

1. You always have a joke/gag device, or a conversation starter.

2. No worrying about entering the code.

3. No losing it somewhere in the car, or somewhere

4. No pressing the button to close the garage. Simply walk away hitting the clicker.

I expect this system to change soon.

‘Current’ Playlist

This is a great meta-system for thinking about various things. Many things that we use in the digital age offer organizational systems–I’m thinking here of the playlist feature in iTunes, Miro, etc–that can be applied to other digital programs as well as things in the analog world we have been using all along.

Two examples of this are books and recipes. We can have a library of books, or a library of recipes, but we can create ‘current’ playlists of the books currently in rotation, or the meals we are most likely to be preparing this season. Having a ‘current’ playlist for anything is a great way to stay organized, stay current, and yet keep the large library healthier by seeing it for what it is.

Another application of this is Facebook and friends. There have been some great articles about Facebook and how it is changing the way we have friends (like the fact that they can never really go away with Facebook, but in real life sometimes old acquaintances are supposed to go away). Instead of de-friended someone on Facebook, we can simply keep them in our “library” of old friends, but create a ‘current’ playlist of people that are really the ones at the center of our active social life. Facebook now has this feature, and I recommend, just for your own sanity creating a ‘current’ friend playlist. When posting to your wall, you can also set permissions, so that really only people on your current playlist will get your updates. It is not important for your high school classmates to know everything about you and your state of mind.

With books, it is helpful to have a current playlist. Rarely does anyone just read one book at a time. Keep a stack of ‘current’ reads separate from your library so you can more quickly pick up a book and read it. I have three ‘current’ lists though. ‘current’ stories, ‘current’ ideas, and ‘current’ injunctions. Stories are novels. Ideas are philosophy, history, cultural theory, anything that gives you information or helps you work with new ideas. Injunctions are how-tos, self-helps, way-of-life stuff that helps your life in a direct way. Regardless, keeping a list of current injunctions, ideas, and stories can help us clarify where we are in life, what we are looking to understand currently, etc.

You could also take the playlist idea further and create playlists with books already in your library, recipes in your recipe box, social contacts in your facebook file. Just like creating a “fun mix for cleaning the kitchen,” or “dance party ‘04″ in iTunes, we might have a ’struggling with foucault and early christian mystics’ playlist, or ‘obsessed with bhutanese food year’ recipes.

The short post: Playlists are a great idea that came about to serve our music listening needs, but the meta-idea is a great system for almost anything. Also, having a current playlist is a great meta-system for organizing and separating our libraries from our current likes.

Linux

Install Linux on your computer. It’s rad.

The advantages to this are it’s free, and smooth.

Internet

Do not use the internet.

You may say that this is an absurd system. But here’s the idea. First, get all of your internet systems in place. Know how many inboxes you have, know what websites you like visiting, know your basic way around various knowledge centers (like wikipedia). In other words, first become an expert of your internet life, so that you can be on the internet in a completely conscious way. This way, you can make the clear decision when and why and how you will interact with your internet life.

The advantages of this system are that you will gain the most benefit from the internet without wasting any time, you can be simultaneously tech-savvy and luddite, and you can begin to view the internet as a powerful way of life but one that has limitations compared to real life. Once your internet life is clean and organized, you can stay away from the internet and enjoy your regular life.

iPod playlist

Keep your entire library on your iPod OR select about ten different artists and their top two albums and go simple when out and about. Sometimes it is good not to have access to any song you want. This makes you more intentional about the music you listen to, like it used to be when listening to albums, or CDs.

Web Presence

At this point, if you’re anyone, you have a bazillion online sites where you have accounts. I have at least 10 valid email address, a bunch of blogs, social networking services, etc. Open up taskpaper and make yourself a list of every place that you have a “web presence,” because at a certain point you will start to forget all of the places you have passwords, and you may begin to forget those passwords. Having a web presence inventory helps you in the case that you might want to streamline, or consolidate. It also deals with the heebie geebie factor of having all of this information out there, which at the time you felt comfortable sharing, and now that you’re a little older and a little wiser, you realize you don’t want people knowing (even password stuff, not just personal stuff).

Mouse Pads

Do not use the shiny type. Soft only.