If you’re looking for this week’s” Caption This” contest, you don’t need to worry. This week it’s being posted on Thursday. For now, kick back with some popcorn, enjoy this post and I’ll see you tomorrow for the contest.
Blogging Time
Not too long ago I posted my dilemma of juggling time to get things done each day. As a reminder, this is how I try to schedule my time:
Hours in a day – 24 hours
Sleep Time – 7 hours
Novel Writing – 5 hours
Blog Surfing – 2 hours
Reading – 2 hours
Miscellaneous Time Left – 8 hours
In that post I said I did not have enough time to get all things done in a day even though I felt I had a realistic, flexible schedule. Now it’s worse than before. Reading all the blogs I subscribe to was easy to handle since not everyone blogs every day. Whoa! That has changed. I can only presume it’s because summer is over, but suddenly the blogs I follow have exploded in my face. It’s frustrating because there are so many talented bloggers out there, but in no way am I able to handle it. If I read them all, it would probably take me a minimum of 4 hours a day. Based on my schedule above, it would appear that I have that much time in my day to read them all, but let’s be realistic here, I might be able to read that many, but it’s highly unlikely I could comprehend them all for that amount of time.
Here is how I currently organize the blogs I read.
List #1 – I want to make it clear that for every blog I subscribe to, I have no expectation that the other blogger will subscribe to me. However, those bloggers that I enjoy daily and those who seem to enjoy reading my blog daily go here. Yes, those bloggers get priority and therefore go on this list.
List #2 – This list is similar to list #1. I enjoy reading their posts and they enjoy reading mine, but they read and post sporadically.
List #3 – This list is for blogs I subscribe to, but they don’t subscribe to mine. A good example would be a blog I read regarding writing and mystery writing. I enjoy their blog, but they may have no need or interest in reading a blog about someone with mental illness.
List #4 – Finally, my last category. Again, this list is for those blogs I subscribe to, but they don’t subscribe to mine. In addition, their blogs do not have a subject matter that impacts or interests me as much as a blog about writing. Blogs in this list may be about politics and humor.
So there are the lists I created and felt rather smug at how I categorized them to fit my needs. They don’t fit anymore and that’s my dilemma. There is no way I can possibly read all the blog posts in List #1 and #2, which means there’s no reason to even bother having Lists #3 and #4.
I’m reaching out to those of you, bloggers and non-bloggers, who I know have lists far larger than mine. Do you have a system in place that allows you to not read each blog every day, but ensures you get to most of them on a regular basis? That’s what this somewhat long winded explanation is all about. I need your help.
Any ideas?
Excellent & original topic and question, Bradley, + totally fascinating! I’m very curious to see what answers you’ll receive.
I used to subscribe to over 115 blogs & I read them all the time, plus I was always looking for more…..
When it hit me if I kept up that routine, I’d blow my book deal, I cut back to under 10 blogs & I took a hiatus from Facebook & Twitter. That was a great decision. I miss some of the blogs a lot (and I hope I’l return to them at some point) and I know that I may have hurt some feelings by suddenly disappearing from their blogs, but I had to do it (and I was able to do it) because I was highly motivated.
Sorry I don’t have my own solution for you, but I was inspired to spew, I mean, share this anyway. 😉
I was never on Twitter that much anyway, but I too have taken a hiatus from Facebook and Twitter. I currently subscribe to over 200 blogs and realize I can’t read them all. I just am looking for ideas on how to possibly reach them all at least once a week. There’s some I want to continue nearly every day and some I can set aside for awhile, but the majority of them I want to continue to touch base in one form or another.
Heh, I just have to keep my list small. I try to visit other network folk at the very least, but I’m not great at that either.
Hey Raeyn. Always good to see you comment. I’m having a problem commenting on other blogs. Once I enter the post button, it appears that my comments vanish. I posted two comments on your blog this morning. Did you receive them?
I follow 80 blogs and some of them no longer post, a few do mostly reposts which I don’t read unless the headline is really jumps out as interesting to me (I like to read original stuff), and most don’t post daily so I can keep up on them by checking in every week or two. I don’t comment on every single post, just on the ones where I have something relative to say. On the same note I do a lot of skimming and usually spend more time on the posts that I can relate to, are interested in or can learn something from. I don’t read every little thing word for word just because I follow it. I read all of my blogs through wordpress reader except for 2. Those two I get sent directly to my email so I never miss them. Yours is one of them, so I read them but dont always make it right over to sign into wordpress and comment. That’s why you’ll see me like and/or comment on several posts at the same time once I’m here. 🙂
I hope you find a system that works for you. I know it’s fun to develop lasting connections through our blogs and maybe my way of doing things is why I haven’t except for with you and the other person I get by email. Thanks for that, Bradley. 🙂
Thank you, WIL. That is helpful. Also, thank you for stroking my ego a bit. 🙂
I have “hard” follows – notifications to my email (a dedicated email address) and “soft” follows – posts which only appear in the Reader. Which I don’t use 🙂
Other than that, it’s based on a two-way street. Even if I enjoy someone’s content, if I’m constantly liking and commenting and they never come back to me I switch them to “Reader-only”, as there are plenty of other blogs I enjoy where we get good back-and-forth. Sometimes people go the other way – Reader to email. I’ve even come to think of some bloggers I’ve been following for many years as friends 🙂
Interesting idea. I do everything entirely off the reader, but created different lists. I may try the email idea. Thankyou
Like Draliman, I subscribe to certain bloggers and have emails sent directly (probably 30) and make a point to read them all, even if I’m a week behind. Everyone else I follow, I hit up the reader when I’ve got time and read what I can for that day, if I make it on there. I don’t follow everyone who follows me either, not by a long shot.