Online Reading Rebooted – Feedly Six Weeks Later

So about six weeks ago I rebooted by online reading, motivated by having too many emails, and across too diverse a range of sources.

For my personal reading, I replaced GMail and WordPress Reader with Feedly.

I wanted a single place I could go to browse and read websites and blogs and streams I enjoyed.

The crucial difference I’ve found with Feedly is that I go to it only when I’m ready.

With GMail, I feel I have to check it every day (or multiple times a day), because there are messages I genuinely need to see fairly soon, like updates from the kids’ school or notification that an item ordered is ready to collect.

For the blogs and websites I follow, there isn’t that same urgency to read the latest post, right now. 

So I’ve enjoyed reading via Feedly only when I know I’ve had some focused time (and it needn’t be hours, sometimes it’s only 10 or 15 minutes – it’s the quality of time, not the quantity) and enjoy the posts, without feeling like I’m rattling through them just to “catch up”.

I’m also happy to leave some posts unread in Feedly, if I don’t have time, or the article doesn’t seem so interesting.

They’re easier to ignore somehow than individual emails arriving in your personal inbox.

This slower pace and more discerning choosing takes me another step further away from the frantic and increasingly superficial social media streams, the last of which I abandoned over two years ago. 

I read what I want, when I want, and at my own pace, thank you very much.

I’d still like to whittle down my incoming email – there’s still too much.

Part of this though is due to the UK gradually coming out of lockdown, and the places I frequent sending regular updates of what they’re doing, whereas in “normal” circumstances I might only have one update a month from them.

So this will settle down again.

One thing that hasn’t quite worked is following Flickr streams in Feedly.

I just think Flickr itself is the best place for that, and optimises the pictures better, makes it easier to comment and so on.

So Feedly is for reading, Flickr is for photography.

I plan to continue this approach for the foreseeable future.

How about you? How do you follow people and blogs and websites you enjoy online? 

Please let us know in the comments below (and don’t forget to tick the “Notify me of new comments via email” box to follow the conversation).

Thanks for looking.

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