As a blogger, I, of course, follow many blogs. Well, let me rephrase that: I used to follow many blogs. After bouts of following over 50 blogs at one time only to be frustrated and overloaded, I decided to pare down. I spent a year trying to follow just 10. No luck. Still, just too darn much to take in.
A New Plan
So, I settled on a new plan. I will follow 5 blogs religiously for 3 months and then follow my next favorite 5 blogs for 3 months and so on for a year. The blogs that get the most reads and seem the most relevant to me over the year will make my final 5. I will subscribe only to those 5 for the entire next year. That's it. No more.
Other Blogs Still Play A Factor
Now keep in mind I do read other blogs that I'm not subscribed to. And I find great value in many of them. So, it's not to say that I won't read other blogs, I'll choose not to follow more than 5 at a time.
Here's Why
Here's my primary philosophy on this. I've learned that many blogs cover the same stories or report on the same trends. When you follow many blogs you tend to get some redundancy. Sure, you get a different angle on them, but that's not why I read blogs, to get multiple takes on the same topic.
Also, the great bloggers tend to blog at least one time per day which makes keeping up with all the reading very difficult. Keeping subscriptions to 5 blogs makes this manageable.
Lastly, there are always blogs, no matter how many I'm subscribed to, that I gravitate towards anyway. I had a habit of subscribing to so many blogs before out of fear, to be honest. Fear that I'd miss out on something. Fear that the greatest story in the history of the blogosphere would hit and I'd have to hear about it on MSNBC hours later. So, I'd scroll and scroll through all the headlines making sure nothing slipped past me. Turns out there is never really anything to miss. So, by just monitoring 5 blogs now, I've set my fears aside (listening on Twitter helps calm this fear as well) and I get content I want in chunks I can handle.
What's My Attention Worth?
I'm reading a great book right now called Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It talks about the power of intention and attention. Those who focus win, those leading an ad hoc, multi-tasking, pre-occupied, Blackberry-gazing life simply come in second. So, yes, my attention is worth a lot. Bloggers must earn it.
So, Who Are The Current 5?
Drum roll, please. The 5 blogs I'm following till the end of June are:
1. Seth Godin
2. Harvard Business
3. Social Media Today
4. HubSpot
5. Groundswell
Check back in early July or, better yet, make my blog one of your 5 to track for the next 3 months and you'll find out how my grand experiment is going.
Am I missing something? Is there a better way to ration my attention? What do you think?
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