Jul
12

The “Read It All” Week Challenge

A few weeks ago, Ian M. Rountree and I had a Twitter conversation about blogs.  Or, more specifically, about how many blogs we subscribe to but how few we actually bother to read.

Somehow, the guilt surrounding our tower of “unread items” in Google Reader seemed both asinine and counter-productive.

Why do we keep subscribing to blogs (and magazines) that we don’t read?

And, if we aren’t reading what we’ve subscribed to, what are we doing with our time?

So we’ve decided to investigate our own habits, and you’re invited to join us.

The “Read It All” Week Challenge

The premise of the challenge is simple: from Monday, July 19th through Sunday, July 25th, you have to read everything you subscribe to.

That’s every blog post, every magazine article, every newspaper column, etc.

The obvious goal is to end the week with no items left unread.  (Think of it like achieving “inbox zero” for Google Reader.)

The underlying goal is to reconsider what you’re subscribing to, and why.  How much value do you actually derive from what you choose to read?  What would you rather be reading (or doing)?  And are you giving yourself enough time to read everything you actually care about?

Here are the “Read It All” Challenge guidelines:

Preparation:

  • To start, “Mark All As Read” the night before the challenge begins. This isn’t a week for catching up.  It’s a week for staying on task, or for getting ahead.  Ignore the 1000+ items you haven’t read yet, and focus only on what comes your way during challenge week.
  • Set aside some time every day to read. Maybe it’s an hour before work; maybe during lunch; maybe just before bed. Maybe all of these.  Part of the process is figuring out how much time you’d actually need to spend in order to read everything you’ve so blindly and effortlessly subscribed to.
  • Assess which physical media you’ll be including in this experiment. Magazines, newspapers, news television – whatever you include normally, be sure to add that to your planned list.
  • Catalogue your current content commitments. Even if its just a number, write out the amount of media you’re planning to attempt to keep up with. For example, “my week will consist of [x] blogs in Google Reader, [x] hours of news television/radio, [x] podcasts and [x] print media.”
  • Mark the time, if you like, by reposting these guidelines to your blog if you have one. Letting people in on the process is a big part of any experiment, because it’s your way of holding yourself publicly accountable to an otherwise private goal.

During The Week:

  • Actually read everything. Getting to “Reader Zero” is a noble task, but it requires that you actually read everything to assess its value.
  • Just for this week, resist the urge to subscribe to new blogs. Feel free to bookmark new finds for later review, but adding 10 new blogs to your list mid-week is going to create even more posts to read than you initially planned for.
  • If it helps, take notes. Which blogs hold up under week-long scrutiny?  Which magazines aren’t actually worth renewing your subscription to?  If you’d like, keep a running log of the experiment.  Ian and I will be using the hashtag #ReadItAll on Twitter to add our own observations.

Wrap-Up (Post-Experiment):

Once you’re done, analyze your findings.

Which sources turned out to be most useful or enjoyable? Consider sharing their content.

Which ones offer mixed or uneven results? Unsubscribe to them, but bookmark them for later review.  Then, in a week or a month, peek in and see if they’ve gotten better.  If so, feel free to resubscribe.

Which ones turned out to be generally useless?  Unsubscribe immediately.  You have better things to spend your time on.

Also, summarize the numbers from your experiment.  How many blogs did you start with, and how many have you kept?  How many bookmarks did you make for newfound streams that require further review?  And what has this experiment revealed about your reading – and sharing – habits?

Mark your experiences with a follow-up post during the week of July 26th.

The real goal of “Read It All” Week is twofold:

  • To understand how much information you can (reasonably) consume in a week, and
  • To ensure that you’re consuming media that you want and need, rather than what you feel you ought to be reading.

Are you in?  If so, let me and Ian know, and then join us for #ReadItAll Week.

(And if you should decide during the course of your analysis that mine is one blog you can live without, then allow me to wish you well on your quest for more relevant ways to spend your time.  Life is short, so there’s no hard feelings.)

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Posted by Justin Armchair Sociology, Blogging, My Social Media POV Subscribe to RSS feed
  • http://uptownuncorked.com geechee_girl

    Hmm. This seems like folks are placing useless stress on their Google Reader number. I subscribe to a ton of stuff because there are many topics I find useful, interesting or funny, but I don't stress out about whether it's all read or not.

    I have a list of feeds I need to read daily to do my job. It's a very short list. The rest is gravy, and intended for “finds”. If I haven't cleared through it all on Wednesday, I hit Mark All Read and don't worry about it. I trust that my network is strong enough to float any important things I miss to the top. I do the same thing on Friday.

    It seems people confuse the importance of a feed reader with the importance of an email or call. I don't allow the feeds to hold that much mental weight. It's not sustainable.

  • http://brandice.net/blog brandice

    I did this about a month ago and achieved inbox zero for Google Reader, and now I am at zero at the end of almost every day. I prioritized what I really want to read, unsubscribed from crap I always just mark read, and I keep up on it throughout the day by putting longer “savor it” articles in Instapaper for later reading on my iPad and popping through the rest on my iPhone. It's worked really well. I spent a lot of time this weekend catching up on the Instapaper portion of my reading. :)

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    For me, I want Reader to be useful or I don't want to use it at all.
    My usual habit of not checking it for 3 months and then marking all as
    read isn't using it. I need to find an approach that works for me, or
    I need to stop subscribing to blogs altogether.

  • http://johnmclachlan.ca/ John McLachlan

    I like this idea and it would be a good way to really think about and see what I really read. Hmm. My one concern about dropping some of the less viewed feeds is that I do occasionally stumble on gems and I'm afraid of getting too narrow. Maybe what I needs is a category of feeds that is intended for a once a week (or once every two weeks) quick look over for things that may be different but for the daily reads, just the pertinent stuff.

    I may try your idea.

  • http://uptownuncorked.com geechee_girl

    I hear that. When I was retraining myself on my RSS reader use (I had some bad habits) I found a news ticker style RSS reader: http://snackr.net/ was helpful. Maybe someone else would find that helpful also.

  • BryanPerson

    Interesting idea, Justin, BUT … I don't want the additional pressure of having to read *every item* in my Google Reader account. I subscribe to 145 feeds at the moment, and have gotten pretty good at going through them once or twice a day. That doesn't mean I open “every” item; rather, I scan through the headlines and click on the ones that entice me the most.

    I also have a “Top Feeds” folder with my 10 must-read feeds. On days, when I'm in a pinch, I make sure I go through that folder.

    This system works really well for me, and I'm not feeling any tugs to revisit it.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    That “must-read feeds” list seems like a logical outcome for this
    experiment, too. But I still cringe at the thought of 1000+ “non-must
    read” items clogging up my psyche. If they're not “must-read,” I'll
    just bookmark the site and return when I feel like it; my Reader can
    remain pure. ;)

  • BryanPerson

    The other thing, too, is I've just made a *commitment* to go through my feeds every day (or almost every day). I've also gone through exercises of weeding out feeds that I NEVER read. If you only find yourself popping into Reader every week or month or whatever, then it makes sense to just have a few feeds.

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  • http://www.jeffgibbard.com/ JGibbard

    I totally get the point of this challenge/experiment, however I agree with other commenters that I don't think it's necessary to read every post. I think read every headline would be good but the truth is no one bats 1.000. Everyone, even the big dogs like Chris Brogan and Seth Godin have an off day and maybe their headline doesn't grab me, or I get 20 words in and realize it doesn't interest me.

    I think it's a law of averages sort of thing. I tend to read a select list of sources first and then move onto secondary feeds next (if I have time). I call it the Hotlist Concept: http://bit.ly/awOKfR

    There is a tendency to become a hoarder of content with GReader but the more content you have to sift through, the more necessary it is to determine what's most important and stay organized.

  • http://spinsucks.com Gini Dietrich

    I love this! But it also scares the pants off of me! Like Bryan, I subscribe to A LOT of blogs and, some of them, are simply so I can scan to see what my friends and clients are up to, but I don't fully read them. That being said, I think I'll take your challenge. I'm traveling next week so it'll be a difficult one to take the challenge, but I'm going to try!

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  • Cameron Barry

    I kind of skipped ahead and have been thinking about this challenge every time I look at my feeds, which is generally several times a day. Like most people, I skim more than I read. But what's interesting about this assignment, if you take it seriously, is that it forces you to ask yourself some (at least slightly) painful questions. There are a number of feeds I subscribe to because they cover topics I think I should know about. The fact is though, I never read them, so thanks to this post, I'm cleaning up and moving on.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    Glad to hear it's already paying off. :)

  • Stephanie Schwab:Socialologist

    I'm totally with you and posted my confessional about my huge reading list and estimated consumption time on my blog. Will check in with you in a week to let you know how it's going. Looking forward to seeing how everyone else does too.

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  • Cameron Barry

    Look forward to hearing about your progress. Unfortunately, I just subscribed to your blog and broke the rules.

  • http://principlesoffailure.blogspot.com/ SHerdegen

    Justin, you’ve got a lot of great ideas which is why I enjoy reading your blog, but I think you’re missing the mark here.

    I don’t subscribe to blogs because I think I need to read every post, I subscribe so I know where to find the good stuff when I’m looking for something to read.

    There is a lot of stuff to read on the internet but it takes time to track it down. Sometimes I come across a blog as a link from a link on a blog I read, trying to recreate that path is impossible. But if I like what I’m reading I’ll subscribe so it’s available in my reader the next time I’m looking for information.

    Sometimes the information is specific to an area of interest in which case it may sit untouched until I focus on that area again, but when I do I can read relevant posts.

    Lastly, I collect blogs in my reader from people who’ve commented on my blog, chatted with me on Twitter or in person, and from referrals of people I admire. Having them in my reader lets me search them for relevant content when I’m gathering information.

    You can search the entire web on Google and even search just blogs at blogsearch.google.com, but the only way I know of to search just blogs of people I like is to collect them in my reader.

    So for me, reading it all is not the point.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    As I've mentioned to others who've raised the same concerns, I'm not
    trying to find a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone's information
    intake. I'm outlining my own POV and suggesting my own approach to
    solving the problem of info overload; your own experiences may (and
    probably will) differ.

    Everyone subscribes to blogs, magazines, etc., for their own reasons,
    and consumes information at their own rate. But, in my case, I see no
    reason to subscribe to something — to literally say, “yes, send it
    all to me” — if I'm not going to read it all. In my view, that's
    just digital and mental waste; it gets in the way of the actionable
    media I *should* be spending my time on, rather than creating more
    psychological distractions I'll have to invent reasons to avoid.

    Your system works for you. Mine doesn't work for me. And,
    presumably, the systems dozens of other people are using don't work
    for them, either. So next week will be our opportunity to actively
    analyze what we're doing and why. I'm glad you don't need to take
    that step, but I do — although, after next week, I hope to not have
    to take that step again for awhile.

  • http://principlesoffailure.blogspot.com/ SHerdegen

    Sorry if I made it sound like I thought “read it all” was a BAD idea, I was just pointing out there may be other reasons for having a reader overflowing with unread posts.

    Not just to defend myself, but also for others who may not be sure why it’s okay and what the benefits might be.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    No worries. I have enough bad ideas to go around. ;)

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  • http://twitter.com/cfbandit Concetta Phillipps

    I sort of came to your blog via catching up on older blog posts via my email.

    I had sort of the same process in mind earlier this month so I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking of the crushing weight of all that potential reading! I am down to 6 blogs in my Google Reader and 3 I subscribe to via email because they are scan and delete sort of posts (lots of pictures, short on writing).

    I had way too much in there to be read with good intentions, but I was never going to get to them anyway, no matter what the topic – be it social media, crafting, the environment, or any of the other topics I hold dear.

  • http://ariwriter.com Ari Herzog

    Jeepers, Justin, do you remember the girl you thought you loved who broke up with you and how heartbroken you were? The saying went something like, “If you love her, let her go and if she was meant for you, she'll return to you.”

    Same thing with everything else in life, RSS subscriptions included. By unsubscribing to everything and letting social proof drive your decisions of what to read, you will discover over time whether the stuff you think you need to read are merely distractions for what truly appeals to you.

    These experiments are great, but they're wastes of time. Start fresh. Let the girl go. There are other fish in the sea. If the girl was meant for you, she'll come back.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    So instead of choosing what I read, I should just let others tell me
    what's worth reading because critically analyzing why I do things is a
    waste of time? Makes sense. In that case, what should I wear?

  • http://ariwriter.com Ari Herzog

    Jeepers, Justin, do you remember the girl you thought you loved who broke up with you and how heartbroken you were? The saying went something like, “If you love her, let her go and if she was meant for you, she’ll return to you.”nnSame thing with everything else in life, RSS subscriptions included. By unsubscribing to everything and letting social proof drive your decisions of what to read, you will discover over time whether the stuff you think you need to read are merely distractions for what truly appeals to you.nnThese experiments are great, but they’re wastes of time. Start fresh. Let the girl go. There are other fish in the sea. If the girl was meant for you, she’ll come back.

  • http://justinkownacki.blogspot.com Justin Kownacki

    So instead of choosing what I read, I should just let others tell mernwhat’s worth reading because critically analyzing why I do things is arnwaste of time? Makes sense. In that case, what should I wear?

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