Wasting your life blogging?

Okay, so we all know blogging isn't a waste of time. But like most things, there is such a phenomenon as 'too much of a good thing'. For those GTD enthusiasts out there in blogland, like you, I am always on the lookout for ways to streamline my data input.

So here's a couple of developments to my productivity I've made during my college holidays.

Disencumbered Email
I disencumber emails twice a day - at the start and towards the end. I was going to say I "check emails" but this is an unhelpful term.  I only sit down to do email if I have time to both read and action upon the emails. My goal each time I log in is to log out with zero emails. That's right, zero emails. I go to bed with no emails in my in-box and a clear mind. I don't care if Gmail gives me 8GB of data, I want that page bare.

Sure, you say, but I might need the information from some of those emails. If that is the case, then you need to put that information in a better place. Most of the few emails I need info from end up in my calendar, in my phone notes (e.g.@Shops), or in a new word document in a project folder (let the GTD reader understand).

The only tag/folder I have in my email account - other than Inbox and Bin - is Awaiting reply, which I tag as I send. As the response to sent emails come into the inbox, they then get deleted and thus out of the awaiting reply folder.

Once the inbox is at zero, I find it helpful to log out of Google as, out of habit I often click on Gmail during the day while I'm meant to be working, and this stops it from opening immediately, and slaps me back into vigilance.

The hardest part of this process is getting the email to zero. The other difficult part is keeping it there.

Increasing Blog Love by Decreasing Blog Love
The second development I've made is prioritising blogs. Sorry, dear reader (many of whose blogs I read), but I have given you all a value and ranked you accordingly. I'm loathe to share this next productivity step as it may mean less traffic to some people's blogs, but here goes anyway.

I'm a Google Reader user. RSS all the way in this household. Consequently, it's very easy to just add a bunch of blogs of people who I know, and anyone who comments semi-regularly here. However, the large amount of blogs means oftentimes I just go and purge a whole heap of you (in a moment of being overwhelmed). Usually I then feel guilty/out of the loop, and add you again. It's a recurring cycle.

But rather than delete the blogs that only update occasionally, or that interest me less than others, instead I've created a Weekly folder in Google Reader.

Those 12 blogs that are my daily fix, I have left in the regular sidebar, so I can see them all without scrolling down. The remainder are placed in the "Weekly" folder and I check them once a week, usually on a Friday. At this point there's usually well over 100 unread posts (though they don't clog up my vision as the folder is contracted and the number just slowly rises).

So as I empty my email each morning and afternoon, I also read the '12 chosen ones' (or 'saints' if you will), and ensure they are also at zero. On the weekly check I scan all the accumulated posts and open in a tab any I'm interested in further. The remainder are 'marked as read' and I gradually read through and comment on the open tabs.

I have taken a partial screenshot of my Reader sidebar so you can see what I mean, though I have blurred out the names of all the 'saints' (except for Sarah) so as not to offend anyone. But it's best to assume that you are one of the chosen 12.

This arrangement allows me to read and comment on blogs that I otherwise would delete. Thus by decreasing blog love (ranking) I am actually increasing blog love (reading rather than deletion).

Have you got any productivity tips?