Bloglines - the ultimate time killer.

So what I thought would be a time saver has turned into a time killer for me.


You see, I have gone the last year without using any kind of blog aggregator. For those deep in the trenches I know this must be hard to fathom. For my buddies who spend more time outdoors than in, it basically means I hand type in the 7-8 url's of the websites I liked to read when I had the time to read them. Sometimes it was every day, more times than not, it was a weeks worth of reading all at once. It was not a long list so it wasn't really a big deal.

Then I realized how much I was 'missing'. I meet so many interesting people that I would like to keep up with, that I finally realized the power of Bloglines. If they blog/vlog/podcast, I just add their url into my Bloglines account and whalaa - every time they enter a new post I get an overview - all in one spot. This is great!

Until I realized that over the last week I have averaged about 1/3 of my day reading other people's blogs. Holy crap. This is not good for productivity. Sure it helps keep me in the loop of some of the burnings issues out there, but I must figure out a way to not allow it to interfere with my other work.

I guess one small change I can make is only look at it once a day. Right now I leave the window open and refer back to it every hour or so when I need a break from my other tasks. Then of course, I get sucked in. Yeah, maybe that will make a difference - only check it out once a day and do a scan for anything that might pop out at me. Ok, I shall try that.

But I do love it. It is the type of tool that can be ever so helpful as long as you learn to manage it well. Just funny it took me a year to realize that.

Technorati tags: bloglines blogaggregator killingtime timekiller studying unproductivegettowork