It’s Thursday, so I’m Crafting my Life! I invite you to join in the fun. If you would like to share a story from your own journey, please drop me a line.
I have a shameful secret: as I type this there are are 847 unread blog posts in my feed reader. That’s a really, really big number. The reality is that I will not get around to reading all of those posts. I have not been consistently clearing out my feed reader for months, a fact that wounds my soul. I really like reading other blogs. I really value the blogging community, and my connection to it. I want to be in the loop on what my friends are up to and what everyone’s talking about.
So why haven’t I been visiting other people’s blogs all that often? I simply haven’t had enough time. It sounds a touch whiny, but the past few months have been very busy for me. I lost my childcare very suddenly. I started a new job. I got Jacob started in a new daycare. I attended a conference and wrote the Crafting my Life e-book. Since I can’t make more hours in the day, I’ve had to let things go. My carpets desperately need vacuuming, my garden really needs weeding, and I haven’t been reading other people’s blogs.
My Unread Post Count Taunts Me
In the past few months, I’ve tried sifting through my feed reader every now and then when I had a few free minutes. My meager efforts were never enough to make a serious dent in my unread post count, so the number continued to climb higher and higher and higher. It taunted me, until I felt so guilty just seeing it that I stopped opening my feed reader altogether. I couldn’t handle the angst.
As I explained on Tuesday, things have changed for me. For the first time in years I have reliable and consistent time to myself. This means that (hopefully) I will be able to get the lion’s share of my work done during the three days a week that both of my kids are at school. My other time will be left open to do more of the things that I like to do, rather than the things that I urgently have to do, or face dire consequences. I’d like to start a new knitting project, and maybe sew a dress for Hannah. I also plan to return to my blog-reading ways.
Help me Catch Up
While I am excited about catching up with all of my friends, I can’t reasonably tackle that unread post count. It’s setting me up for failure before I even begin. I need to bring a little bit of space into my blog-reading and give myself a clean start. I have decided to take drastic measures, and click the “Mark all as read” button. Berating myself over the total hasn’t gotten me anywhere, and neither has hiding from it. It’s time now to acknowledge reality, and cut myself some slack.
I hope that once I don’t have that number taunting me anymore, I will be able to actually enjoy visiting your blogs, and hearing what you’re doing now. The metaphorical weight will be lifted from my shoulders. I’m looking forward to it!
In the meantime, I hope you will fill me in on what’s new. Whether you blog or not, tell me what you’ve been up to these past few months. If you do blog, leave me a link to one or two of your favourite recent posts. Help me out, so that your news doesn’t get lost when I click “Mark all as read”. I’d really love to hear from you!
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We all have to mark all as read now and then. I’ve been a lot better about keeping up here recently with 2 of my 3 kids in school, but falling behind happens. I’m sure if there was anything mind-shattering, you would have caught wind of it on twitter, anyway.
C @ Kid Things’s last post … Spoon Mom
Twitter: RachaelNevins
says:
I marked all as read several times during my blogging break this summer. I loved the freedom! Go ahead, do it! You won’t regret it!
Now that I’m back to blogging and commenting more — well, I’m still having trouble finding middle ground.
As for news of me, I’m pregnant. Heh. I only posted about it yesterday, though, so you’re not actually late to the news.
Rachael’s last post … Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
Hooray and congratulations!
I had a suspicion after a comment you left here the other day – is it possible I was actually in the loop on this one? Amazing.
Twitter: bluebirdmama
says:
I personally think that Mark All As Read is a necessity for avoiding precisely that Reader Dread that you’re talking about. I want to keep up with blogs but I really can’t read every single post. Before I mark all as read I just scan the post titles and read a couple of random posts so I don’t feel like I’m missing anything and then boom – no more guilt, no more dread. I’m glad to know that you also have to do this – sometimes you seem Superhuman.
News of us – nothing particularly exciting. Just the usual busy summer. I’ve been adjusting to and blogging about life with three kids. I’ve gotten back to semi-regular blogging finally and I’m most excited about my call for short birth stories. They started coming in and it’s fun!
BluebirdMama’s last post … Call for Birth Short Stories
Twitter: kellynaturally
says:
We visited Maine for a WEEK (first time back in 6 years – yay!)! I haven’t blogged about it yet (I went mostly technology-dark for the duration of the trip), though I did put up a quick Worldless Wednesday post featuring one of the morning sunrises which I witnessed. It was inspiring sitting out on the rock, in the silent cold, with no one else awake (at least no one who was with me)…
http://www.kellynaturally.com/post/Wordless-Wednesday-Sunrise.aspx
ps: I use the Mark All As Read more often than not. Somehow I’ve not been able to cut down the number of blogs that I follow that substantially (thinking, inanely, since I don’t actually READ all the posts, that I don’t want to miss anyone by unfollowing!), but because of that, my count gets really high, really quickly.
kelly @kellynaturally’s last post … 6 Reasons to Think Twice Before Circumcising Your Baby Boy
Twitter: jenarbo
says:
My chickens (one of them, anyway) laid an egg- finally. I’m going camping with a preschooler for the second time this summer, so it obviously didn’t kill me, Kale started preschool yesterday, and work is awesomely, fantastically busy. Mark all as read is usually my “too busy” reliever, too.
Jen’s last post … Drawing a Line
What reader do you use? I am obviously an amateur, I can’t even find a METHOD of reading blogs that is more efficient than just clicking a list of links. I prefer the Livejournal Friends Feed style and I can’t get my brain around anything else.
Monika’s last post … Hey Aias, Where’s Your Bed?
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
I just use Google Reader – I resisted it for a long time, but once I got over my initial reluctance and got used to it, it was really a life-saver.
Nothing wrong with Mark All As Read. I use this all the time. I only have one child, and I have maybe 5 mins to read several hundred posts I get every day. I work full time, I commute 45-60 mins one way every day, and I have to take care of my family when I’m at home.
I use a software called Feedly, which I love. It allows me to skim the headlines from the feeds quickly. It uses Google Reader as the main source for the feeds. I only read what I’m really interested in. I can save or bookmark certain posts. I can even add new feeds to Feedly very easily. And the best part is the Mark As Read feature, of course. But what I like about this the most is that I have this installed on my PC at home, my work laptop, my smart phone, and my tablet, and it will only show the feeds that I haven’t Mark As Read, so I can read pretty much anywhere I have a device with me. (Well, as long as my son hasn’t commandeered my phone yet again to watch videos of himself!)
Twitter: torturedpotato
says:
I decided last year I should use a feed reader so I wouldn’t miss anything. I subscribed to all my favourite blogs and some new ones and dutifully added more and more as I found them. One problem. I FORGET TO OPEN THE READER. Like for weeks at a time.
So yeah. Mark all as read. I use twitter as my feed reader. I think a lot of people are doing this..judging by how I often get comment-bombed (one person leaving a comment on my last five posts)
You haven’t missed anything with me, though. I’ve been lowgrade sick for 3 weeks and quite miserable about it. Things are looking up though, now. Hope to get back to Quality Blogging real soon
Twitter: AlmostTruth
says:
I am guilty of belonging to the 1000+ unread posts in my reader club. I just can’t keep up, although I do find myself clicking links on Facebook or twitter so I can keep up just a little. I hope that now that all 3 are in school (even if the littlest is just in preschool) I will find all sorts of time… My Freedom Day was just today, so we’ll see.
I have been trying to take part in another blogger’s “What if?” project and found this one interesting to write about: http://www.almostallthetruth.com/2011/08/what-if-trash/
Twitter: bitterindigo
says:
I’ve been too busy living the Summer of Awesome to blog about it much, so we’re good.
I have some blogs in a google reader somewhere, but I’ve never been able to find it again (techno-moron). I keep a fairly short blogroll and sometimes if I have some time I hop around from blog to blog. No sense doing it if it becomes just another thing you ‘have’ to do.
allison’s last post … He Who Rejects Change is the Architect of Decay
Twitter: JnJGoGreen
says:
My reader was always over 1000 unread and it would send me into panic mode. A few weeks ago I created a folder called ‘Read First’ (your blog is in there!) and I go into there first and read and comment on those blog posts. It seems silly but it helps me feel more connected and in control of my reader. I feel like I am getting more quality time with the blogs I love love love deep down in my special places.
Let’s see what is up with me…..walking the Weekend to End Women’s Cancers walk on Saturday and have been spending this week trying to figure out how to prevent the horrible blisters I got last year. I believe my solution will be duct tape and body glide. Also, we introduced almond milk this week and he is still getting used to it but it hasn’t affected his nursing routine which was a huge sigh of relief for me because at 25 months I am not ready to stop yet!
Jen’s last post … The Power of 1
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
Good luck with the walk!
Twitter: AlyMcF
says:
I don’t read everything either. But I am good at skimming! I have so many blogs I can’t count them all on one hand. Some of them are NSFW.
Most recently, I signed up on Plurk. It’s kind of like Twitter but you can “chat” and follow threads on it easier.
I’m here: http://www.plurk.com/gommyommy
Applause! A clean slate was definitely the way to go. When you’re feeling overwhelmed, sometimes it is the ONLY way to go. For the past two school years, I’ve found myself in the unfortunate habit of putting leftover hard copies of the handouts that I use in my classes in a little pile on the floor next to my desk. “I’ll file them later..when I have time.” Except that I NEVER have time. There is ALWAYS something more worthwhile to do than filing old papers.
Then it is June. The school administrators want me to check out for the year. Everything is done on my list…except for THE PILE. For the past two years I’ve taken the pile and THROWN IT AWAY WITHOUT LOOKING AT IT. Anything REALLY good is on the computer. If not? I’ll make it again. I’m not perfect. There were probably problems with it anyway.
I’m so much happier when I do that instead of taking an entire day to make sense of what was probably 90% redundant anyway.
Audra’s last post … The Calm Before the Grading
I have 413 unread items, but that’s likely because I purged my reader earlier this year. I have been a bit busy. I’ve started a new, temporary job and am trying to figure that out – it’s honestly more brain power I’ve had to use at work in awhile. I hadn’t realized how rote my job had become for me.
The crazy part is, I actually want to be there. Whereas I like my regular job, I’m not always crazy about the people. Here, I like the job and the people and the fact that people actually stop and take a minute to talk to you about nothing rather than rushing off to the next thing.
Nicole’s last post … A funny thing happened on my run
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
Hooray for a new job that you like!
Twitter: Wendy_Irene
says:
As soon as it is overwhelming I think it is a great time for the Mark All As Read. That way you can get back to enjoying instead of feeling bad. Have a great weekend, Amber!
Wendy Irene’s last post … My Phone Call with Dr. Oz!!!
I’ve just gone back to work, started preparing my son for school and found your blog through a twitter #FF where we were both linked! I too suffer from an insurmountable inbox problem. And also want new suggestions for my blogroll. Here’s my most recent post if you are interested http://whenyouarethatwoman.blogspot.com/2011/09/second-coming.html although you may like Feeling Feisty too.
Lucy’s last post … The second coming
Twitter: Miss_Scarlett99
says:
I frequently hit the “Mark All Read”. I will let my reader get to over 1000 items (you don’t even get an exact count after 1000, it’s just 1000+) because I hardly ever read blogs that way. I prefer to subscribe by email to the ones I know I want to read regularly.
My reader could do with a clean up, I just don’t have the interest to bother so I keep cleaning house
I think you have to click “mark all as read” every once in a while – it’s cathartic and very freeing. Consider it your fall cleaning. (And WAY easier than cleaning your real-life house.)
Amanda’s last post … 10 Reasons to Have Kids (Apart from the Obvious)
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
No kidding! I need a “Mark all as vacuumed” button.
Twitter: mothersofchange
says:
We all have those times, where the blogroll rolls on without us, mounting…. I vote that mark all as read is an excellent approach!
I love your blog.
Here’s one from Mothers of Change this week that I wrote which got lots of tags on FB. I think you’d like it
http://www.mothersofchange.com/2011/09/home-birth-what-it-is-and-why-it-works.html
Although i’ve not had a home birth, I am a big advocate, and McLean’s wrote a nasty article about it recently so I had to respond.
Photo illustrations are quick reading, here’s one from my personal blog;
http://vosefamily.blogspot.com/2011/09/photo-illusrations-of-my-life-lately.html
and I wrote this today on 9/11;
http://vosefamily.blogspot.com/2011/09/memories.html
I loved your first world problems post, laughed pretty hard!
My first world problem is that I really need a shower but I’m too distracted by my computer to go have one.
I think I’ll go solve that problem, right now.
=)
Melissa Vose’s last post … Memories
Twitter: pomomama
says:
lol! the title caught my eye just as i was skimming thru google reader about to Mark All As Read!
well – i’ve been to europe and back and blogged just about every single day (when i had a reliable internet connection and no mother breathing down my neck at what a waste of time blogs and blogging are (sheesh). i’m now easing myslef back into full efficiency (ha ha) for the Fall semester … oh my!
click – all marked as read, on with life!
pomomama’s last post … where were you? where are you now?