The LifeMaven

This is my response to Nate’s post How to use blogs over at The Way That You Wander.

Reading blogs is the 21^st century answer to traditional books and textbooks.

There is just so much helpful information out there, that if you consistently read the right blogs on a daily basis, you can learn a ton of different things without much invested effort.

That is real value right there.

BUT! (There’s always a catch, isn’t there?)

But, like Nate said, it is very easy to suffer from information overload. The same wealth of information that allows you to easily learn about a diverse series of topics can just as easily overwhelm you and prevent you from implementing what you’ve learned.

Solution! PRIORITIZE!

Sure, productivity experts love to throw that word around a lot. Focus on what matters most to you, what’s really important, etc, etc.

I think the same concept can easily apply to reading blogs. Here are three categories for starters:

1. Must read
2. Would read
3. Like to read

These three categories allow you to prioritize your subscriptions so that you’re focused on maximizing the value you get from them. Every individual will have a list of blogs that serves them differently. What is incredibly important to one reader may not be as important to another.

Here’s what those categories really mean:

Must reads

These blogs are absolutely critical to your purpose. They can be important in either a technical or inspirational sense.

An expert photography blog for example would be a must read for budding photographers, but for someone not interested in that niche (yours truly) it doesn’t even show up on my list.

Would reads

These blogs are the ones you would like to read if you had a little bit more time in the day. They’re interesting and provide real value in their own right, but not quite as good a value as your Must Reads.

I’ve come up with a neat formula of the way I think of blog value to help you sort your Must Reads and Would Reads.

Taking the same photography blog example from before, if you can learn a new trick or technique in 5 minutes on one blog or 30 minutes on another, you’re obviously getting a much better value on the 5 minute blog.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t read the 30 minute blog. It might be more in-depth or contain other little nuggets of information. But it just shouldn’t be one of those blogs that you stay up late reading.

My Would Read list also contains other blogs in my niche that I try to interact with and comment on when I can; blogs whose networks I try to follow and be a part of.

Or as Chris Brogan calls it, “My Listening Posts.”

Like to Read

Finally, there’s the Like to Read category. These blogs are purely for fun or a passing interest. If you miss a post one day, it’s no big deal; you can catch up later or skip it.

And now a note to fellow bloggers

That little formula I gave is the key to our success. We should strive to deliver great, valuable content that can be absorbed quickly and with minimum effort.

Example: Seth Godin

For those who don’t follow Seth yet: [You’re subscribing after I’m done ] His posts are fairly short, rarely even a page long, but extremely thought-provoking and insightful. The gold standard!

So what do I read? Here is my list.

If your blog is here and not rated as highly as you’d like, I’m sorry! Your advice and knowledge is indeed helpful, but not at this particular stage in my life. (It’s me, it’s not you.)

Also, my needs change daily so the rankings change a lot. This is just what I’ve happened to settle on to decide to show everyone. (And hopefully minimize the number of hurt feelings.)

My Must Reads

1. Seth
2. Problogger
3. The Art of Nonconformity
4. The Fluent Self
5. Copyblogger
6. Chris Brogan
7. Chris Garrett
8. Start Breaking Free

My Would Reads

1. Escape from Cubicle Nation
2. The Way That You Wander
3. Location Independent
4. Free Pursuits
5. Career Renegade
6. Youngentrepreneur.com
7. Personal MBA
8. Skelliewag
9. Dosh Dosh
10. Engineering Chick
11. Live the Charmed Life
12. Lyved
13. Scott H Young
14. be-unreasonable
15. Ittybiz

My Like to Reads

1. Red vs. Blue (Not a blog, but I still visit their site pretty often)
2. The Art of Manliness
3. Zero Punctuation (Not a blog, but I visit every Wednesday for new videos)
4. Yahoo Sports NFL
5. ESPN NFL
6. Gamespot

You get the idea.

With so much great content out there, it really is hard to sort through it all and say “No, I don’t have time to read this today.” But it’s important to make an effort to clarify it all and ensure that you still have time to act on all of the fantastic advice that these blogs give you.

Prioritize it!

Or you could just learn to read faster.

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