Wired Parish Blog

How to Read Through Your RSS Feeds Super Fast

I keep track of 100 or so RSS feeds. Generally that means 100+ new posts greet me every morning in Google Reader. That can take a loooong time to work through; so I've developed a very simple, very quick system of working through my RSS Feeds.

Typically I can work through 100 or so posts in 10-15 minutes by using a combination of keyboard shortcuts in Google Reader.

Here are the settings and shortcuts I use:

1. Google Reader launches in the 'All Items' view.
2. Settings show full text of new posts only.
3. Cycle through posts with J/K.
4. Mark posts read with M.
5. Star posts with S.
6. Open a post in a new Firefox tab with V.

Here's my process:

1. Click M to mark post read.
2. If I want to read the post, I Star it with S.
3. Click J to move to the next post.

Now I have all the posts I want to review more closely in my 'Starred Items' section of Google Reader. Everything else is gone.

4. Click on 'Starred Items.'
5. Important: Set my cursor on the Google Reader tab in Firefox.
6. Click S to remove the star on the first post.
7. Click V to open the post in a new tab.
8. Left click the cursor (which is already on the Google Reader tab) to return to Google Reader.
9. Click J to move to the next post.
10. Repeat 6-9 until all posts are launched in new tabs.
11. Read through launched posts, add to Del.icio.us if I want, and close each tab when I'm done.

100 posts. 15 minutes tops.

Anyone have any suggestions to make this faster?

I wish there were a setting that allowed me to stay in Google Reader even when I launch a new tab . . . Anyone know how to do that?

When an Apology Is a Bad Thing

I (VERY BRIEFLY) played basketball in college. Actually, they gave me a uniform and a great seat for the games in exchange for 2 1/2 hours of practice a day and more trips through the Furr's buffet line than I care to recall.

Learned a lot of life lessons in that program. Here's one that I've carried with me for well over a decade:

I played out of position at point guard. Never was comfortable, mainly because it was my job to get other people the ball, and let's face it, I always picked my team in gym class based on who could pass to me the best. :)

Playing very uncomfortably out of position meant I turned the ball over. A lot. No really.

I got in the habit of apologizing after a turnover. 'My fault.' 'Sorry.' That kind of thing. The apology bug caught on because of me, and several people amped up their use of apologies after making mistakes.

Of course, apologizing can be a good thing. Taking responsibility for mistakes and such.

But one day our coach stopped practice after I tossed the ball into the third row and quickly acknowledged that it was my mistake and not the mistake of the guy who watched it sail over his head.

He said, 'Apologizing and taking responsibility for what you did is a good thing. But I'm less interested in an apology as I am that you do it right to begin with.'

Sometimes an apology for what you did--particularly one that is graciously received by the other party--gives you a false sense of freedom to do it again next time.

Famous Last Words

The sermon at church today was on death. It was a real pick-me-up.

The subject of 'Last Words' played a minor part, but I started thinking . . .

If you could choose your last words, what would they be?

Thoughts?

Getting Things Done with a Cool Stopwatch

I installed this stopwatch today. I'm using it to count down blocks of time when I only do one task. Turning out to be a nice focusing tool.

Productivity: HiTask is Out. 30 Boxes Is In.

I mentioned HiTask.com as a productivity tool a few days ago. Great tool. Really. Calendar, to do lists, etc. Very easy to use. Graphically cool. Sharp program.

Two problems:
1) No text/email reminders that I could find.

2) Logging into the site was nearly impossible. I take it I have some sort of conflict on my computer somewhere, but 95% of the time logging in resulted in . . . nothing. Just a refresh of the login page.

I sent 3 different emails over 4 or 5 days requesting help, but received no response. Ouch! I would have been fine with a 'we have no idea. We'll look into it.' But I got zippo. Granted it's only $15/year, but I was ready to subscribe!

However, this morning I was pointed to 30boxes.com. Not as pretty as HiTask, but I can actually login and it has text reminders. Sweet!

It has sharing features so that I can see multiple calendars and tasks--a must in our world.

Check it out. So far I'm impressed.

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Productivity, Where Art Thou?

So for all the productivity tools and coaching out there (there's a TON and MUCH of it is outstanding), one overriding thing is true: You gotta find what works for you.

Stikkit - Some people swear by it. I can't figure it out. Doesn't work for me.
Outlook Tasks - Nope. Not a chance.
BackPack - Love it.

That said, I rediscovered something very simple that works wonders for me: Working on my laptop with my headphones in.

I typically work with music playing over my speakers, but there's just something about having the headphones in. The outside world just sorta disappears. Focus improves dramatically. Time goes away.

May not work for everyone, and I'm sure it says something about my mediaddiction, but it's a home run in my world.

Private Version of Digg for Your Team

You definitely need to check out CoRank.com. It's like your own personal Digg.com.

For the uninitiated, Digg is what's called a social news site. You find articles, links, etc. you like and you post them to Digg. Other readers can 'look over your shoulder' at what you 'Dugg' and vote on what they like (and vote against what they don't).

The voting mechanism is important because it pushes the most popular content to the front of the line so that readers can quickly find the most popular submissions without sifting through the site for hours.

CoRank functions exactly the same way, but YOU get to create your own social news site.

So suppose you wanted your ministry team to have a site where they could dump pertinent links for the rest of the team to view. CoRank makes that possible.

Or maybe you want a central hub where members of your church can submit content they find interesting. Set up a CoRank site for your church.

Heck, what if you're working on a project with a specific time frame that involves a fair amount of research? Set up a CoRank site that's project specific, and the appropriate team members can compile their web research in one location, voting the most helpful material to the front of the line.

You create the categories. You determine how open or how private the site is to other viewers and posters. You control the look and feel. The whole deal. Takes 3 or 4 minutes. Super fast.

Oh, and did I mention CoRank is free? Very cool.

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HiTask - Backpack Killer?

Bob Hyatt at PastorHacks.net points us to HiTask. It's a BackPack-esque app that's about 1/4 the cost of the already inexpensive BackPack.

I'll start experimenting with this in the next couple of days, but after watching the tutorial videos on the site, I must say I'm WAY impressed so far.

One thing I hope it has (and I'm sure it's coming if it's not already available): Txt and email alerts of upcoming calendar events. LOVE this feature of BackPack. If that's a feature of HiTask, I'm sold.

Notetaking Apps

WebWorkerDaily.com has a list of 7 web-based notetaking apps.

I've never really gotten into notetaking apps, although I've experimented with Google Notebook and Stikkit. I'm not sure what my hesitation has been--other than I'd just rather keep using Word rather than integrate a new app into my world.

Of course, the tagging features of most of the apps listed are helpful, I'm sure.

Anyone have any thoughts on advantages of these kinds of programs that I'm just missing vs. using Word or Google Docs?

A Reason to Subscribe

Tim Bednar over at Turtle Interactive taught me a cool trick using FeedBurner.

I connected my blog feed to del.icio.us; so when I bookmark something in del.icio.us it splices the link and my comments into my blog feed.

What that means is that once a day, blog subscribers get a list of links I've bookmarked for that day.

That generally includes interesting articles on technology, leadership, and ministry; cool apps; new music that you can't live without; etc.

So if you want to look over my shoulder, subscribe to the blog feed, and I'll keep you on the cutting edge of cool. :)

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