How Full Is Your RSS Reader?

It’s been a couple of days since I’ve been able to fire up Google Reader and browse through the feeds I subscribe to. If you like me and subscribe to a fairly large number of feeds, it can be a daunting task trying to digest all that information. And if you miss a few days, catching up can be downright overwhelming.

However, if you follow a few simple tips, you can dramatically increase the amount of information you can digest while decreasing the amount of time required. Here are three techniques I use to speed up my feed reading.

1. 80/20 Rule
Many of you have probably heard this rule as it applies to many situations. In this case the rule basically means that 80% of your information comes from 20% of your feeds. This is especially true if the majority of your feeds are about a similar topic (blogging, finance, etc.).

All of the feeds I find most useful and informative are filed under the 20% tag. Everything else is filed under the 80% tag. This becomes extremely useful for those situations when you have a limited amount of time to read your feeds. By starting with the 20% you make sure you are getting the most information form the least amount of sources.

2. Folders/Categories
In addition to the 80/20 rule, folders and categories are a great way to organize your feeds. If you do nothing else make sure that your feeds are at least organized by topics. This will help you find the feeds that cover the information you are most interested in at the moment.

3. Shortcuts/Hot Keys
There is a reason all software has shortcuts and hot keys, they make using the software faster. By using shortcut keys in your reader you can speed up the time it takes to do routine tasks like moving from one post to the next. Take a minute to find and learn a few of the basic shortcuts of your reader.

How full is your RSS Reader? What techniques do you implement to make your feed reading easier?

Update: After browsing through my feeds I see that Daily Blog Tips has recently written a post entitled The Secret to Lightning Fast Feed Reading which gives some additional tips for speeding up your feed reading.