Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Decluttering electronically



I have two gmail accounts - don't ask, it's a long story - and what I've been doing is using the one as my main Google Reader account and the other for some blogs I wanted to keep track of, but they don't post regularly so those posts can pile up.

I've been subscribing like crazy to both my Google Reader accounts so they're getting out of hand and it's not uncommon for me to find 81 items unread, which is unusual for me.



Account 1

Started with 42 feeds
Removed 7 but added 2
Left with 37

Account 2
Started with 19 feeds
Removed 10
Left with 9

Total: left with 46 blogs in total

That's not too bad because my comfort level is around 42 ;)

How many blogs do you read?

Today's organising challenge
Declutter some blogs you're just not getting around to and tell me how many in the comments

10 comments:

HDMac said...

OH my word! I have been trying to delete! I had over 1700 emails.. I am down to 1300... I guess this was needed.. and this is in my main account!!!! Good grief! Will report back to you later! lol

Forgetfulone said...

Great post! I have almost 100 feeds, but fortunately, not all of them post every day. A few of them are just so I won't miss something when it does happen. The reader lets me look and see if there's really something of interest I want to comment on, too.

Anonymous said...

I've been on a bit of an adding frenzy lately, I'm up to 77 subscriptions, which is a fair bit more than I usually like. Some are multiple hundred posts a day, but I only need to read the headline (mark as read is a fabulous feature) and click through if something interests me.

I'm actually going to cut a few out. hold that thought ;-)

Ok, I'm back - down to 66. And some huge one's gone from that list too, so that should make things more manageable.

Tabitha Blue said...

Great post on Organizing Junkie. Thanks for the tips. I've got around 35 subscriptions going right now and that is my limit... it's almost too much with how much some people post. I may try to weed out a few. I've been clearing my inbox and now I've got to work on my photos. Thanks!!

Marcia Francois said...

Marcia (HDMac)
Woohoo, Marcia, 400 down – that’s awesome.

What is your main source of email? How does it get so much? Is it blog comments? Facebook notifications? ???


forgetfulone
Mmmm, I know what you mean about not wanting to miss out. I used to be like that – now I just trust that if I’m meant to know something, somehow through the blogosphere I’ll get to find out!

Kin
Ooh, well done, Kin. That's so good! I decluttered someone that posts numerous times a day too - i had to because there were always like 5 or 6 unread!

Marcia Francois said...

Tabitha
Thanks for visiting and for your lovely feedback!

I love that you know your feed-reading limit!

My goal is 40!

Unknown said...

I just finished setting up folders for my work emails. It was amazing how out of control things got before I did it.
I did take a fellow co-worker's advise and set up a separate email, for work and personal.
I would love to read other tips for people like me. No assistant to help me with filing, typing etc.
Thanks to Organizing Mom for the link.

HDMac said...

Marcia,

It was a procrastination thing... again. I had emails back to 06! I use files to save crafts and recipes that I don't want to lose. I had just neglected going thru labeling then and then archiving. And to be honest, I ended up dumping a LOT because I felt that if I hadn't looked at them in this long, I didn't need them. And then there are the jokes, that don't get opened.. etc... ridiculous, I know.. So everything is trashed or archived. I had swap information that really wasn't needed anymore. I like your idea of a game. Take care of it as it is opened. That was really a time waster because it took so LONG to clean it up!!!! Taking care of it daily will help save time in the long run!!!!

Megan Spears said...

You will be happy to know that I have downsized from over 50 to only about 20 blogs. It wasn't fun, but I have to say... I only subscribe to what I love. Too many makes it work!

Anne said...

Great post. I recently put more time in my days by unsubscribing to a couple of "chatty" scrapbook yahoo groups that regularly sent 100s of emails per day... and subscribed to a few blogs instead.

Then I went one step further and weeded the blogs down to the Gotta Haves and the Maybe Haves. The Gotta Haves are auto-fed into my email; the Maybe Haves are in my favorites list to check when I have "spare" time.

One step beyond that, I cleaned out my favorites list on Friday for Decluttering and organized the blogs by category (scrap, organize, mom, other) and then by BLOG (love to read) BLOG-PROJECT (one specific post that I want to copy a craft or recipe from) or REFERENCE. This was a huge time saver. Now when I feel like looking at craft ideas, I can get to the blogs without weeding through all the other blogs first, and when I just want inspiration to stay on course with time management or something else organizational, I click click and there are those blogs, front and center! I should have done this a long time ago! My goal for this week is to declutter "my documents" as much as possible.

Thanks again for the post getting me started!

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