I’m always looking for a better way of doing things. When Google Reader shut down, it gave me the perfect avenue to try something different with the way I read blogs and RSS content. It took me a little while to figure it all out, but I have a pretty good system now.
I really believe that any good system for reading, organizing, and saving content involves at least 3 things…
1. Universal sync across devices
2. Tight integration between apps or programs (2 clicks or less)
3. Easy to use
My system for reading RSS feeds has found all 3 of those. This may seem really simple to many, but to me it’s become really efficient and convenient…
– Feedly is the sync service I use. It allows me to subscribe to multiple blogs and RSS feeds and know anytime new content is placed on those feeds. It’s like an automatic “check for updates” service. It takes all of the feeds that I subscribe to and puts them into one organized place for me to browse/read. Here’s a look at my category list for my feeds in feedly…
– Feedly as a sync service seems to work well for me. I do, though, use different apps that sync with the service. On my iPad I use Mr. Reader and on my iPhone, I use Unread. I haven’t really found a great reader for Mac yet, so I usually use the actual feedly site.
– As I’m scrolling my Feedly feed at home or at work, there are always some articles that I want to save for some sort of reason. Sometimes, I want to keep them because I just don’t have time read the entire article but the title strikes me. Sometimes, I want to save them to show someone else later. Sometimes, I just want to save them because they give me a good idea about something else. Regardless of the reason, I send a lot of articles to Pocket from Feedly. Pocket saves these articles in their entirety with just a click of a button.
– I don’t save things long term in Pocket. Usually my Pocket is empty at least once a week.
– Evernote is a service that I’ve talked about before and love for so many reasons. When an article strikes me as something that I need to “file” away for a long period of time, I send it to Evernote. I have notebooks in Evernote for different categories of articles I may want to keep. Here’s a look at those…
– Many times, I’ve wanted to recall something that I’ve read or find a resource that was mentioned in an article. Evernote allows for easy searching and recall.
– Often, stuff gets sent to Evernote from Pocket, not directly from Feedly. Since I usually save things to Pocket that strike me, many of these are the same things that get filed in Evernote.
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