Reading News The GTD Way
The way most of us take in daily news is horribly inefficient. The problem
isn’t how fast we read, or even what sites we go to — it’s the process of
finding news, taking it in, and returning to work. Our current habits are
based in the need for distraction and the fear that we’re missing something.
We wander back and forth between our main sites — refreshing each one
multiple times per day, or even per hour. This approach is guaranteed to
leave you 1) feeling frustrated, and 2) far less productive. There’s a
better way.
Enter GTD
Most of us are familiar by now with
David Allen
>‘s groundbreaking productivity system called
GTD
>. The fundamental concept in his system is that anything you have floating
around in your head that you haven’t actively addressed and written down can
and will destroy your ability to function efficiently.
In other words, the conscious and subconcious constantly fight for your
brain’s limited processing power, and if you have 8 things floating around
in your head while you’re trying to get work done, you could only be using
40% of your potential on your current task. The GTD approach is simple —
you let your subconscious relax — thereby getting all that brainpower
back that your “background processes” were hogging. Tasks become easier,
you’re able to stay focused, etc, etc.
Interestingly enough, this very same concept applies to reading your daily
news.
Fighting The Urges
Like
many others
>, the urge to check the latest goings on in the blogsphere and/or news is
overpowering. We simply can’t help but be distracted by the thought of
something new and exciting hitting the Internet without us knowing. Much
productivity is lost during the day specifically because of this phenomenon;
but there’s hope. The answer lies in a two-step process — 1) using a
dependable system, and 2) learning to trust that system.
Sound Familiar
>?
The System
The system I use is based on two products —
NetNewsWire
>, an OS X based RSS Aggregator, and
Firefox
>
(thanks to Ken for showing me the power of the combo). The way it works is
actually quite simple: I first go through my feeds one by one, from top to
bottom. When I hit a story I enjoy, I either double-click it or press enter.
This creates a new tab in Firefox (which remains in the background) for each
story I want to read more about. So if there isn’t enough in the RSS feed,
or I have some other reason to check the actual site out, I have that
content waiting for me in Firefox.
Next, in phase two, I close my RSS reader and head to Firefox. Waiting for
me is every single site that I found interesting for that session. This
includes personal blogs, security news, world events, etc. I then move from
right to left skimming the content of each tab. Once I’m through with each,
I cmd/ctrl-w out of the tab which automatically selects the next one on the
left. I move through each tab in this fashion until I have read all my
content. After I’m done, I minimize my browser and get to work.
The key here (just like in GTD) is trusting your system. When you’re
1) confident about the feeds you have in your aggregator, and 2) you know
you went through them methodically, you then know that you’ve seen the vast
majority of what there is to see. That’s the whole point of this —
getting your mind to relax.
When you’re opening a myriad of websites and checking each at different
times, there’s never an end to it. With this system there is. You check
your reliable feeds, open anything of interest, read them all in turn,
then you’re done.
Get a weekly breakdown of what’s happening in security and tech—and why it matters.
Getting Started
Ok, so what do you need to get started? As I said, I use NetNewsWire for my
aggregator, but it’s an
OS X
>
app that not everyone can use.
A friend of mine
>
uses the same system but using Bloglines instead of NetNewsWire. Bloglines
is a web-based aggregator that can perform pretty much the same role as a
local app. My buddy runs it from Firefox (naturally), which lets one simply
wheel-click links to get them to open in a new tab, just like I do within
NetNewsWire by pressing enter or double-clicking a story.
Here’s what you need to do to get started:
-
Find yourself an RSS Aggregator.
(Here’s a decent place to start looking for one.)
> -
Find RSS feeds for your favorite sites.
Then, once you’re all set up, here’s your system for checking news:
-
Open your RSS reader.
-
Move through the new stories, opening the ones you want to read more
about in new tabs within Firefox. -
Close your RSS reader and move to Firefox.
-
Skim/read each story you’ve opened, closing each tab as you finish.
-
When you’re done with the last tab, close Firefox. You’re done.
Learning To Let Go
The last step of the system is learning to trust that you’re getting enough
news from it. One could make the argument that you could just do that with
your current habits and be done with it, but it’s not nearly as easy as with
a system that has a start and finish.
What this process does is make a strong argument to your subconscious that
nothing else is needed for the moment. It’s much harder to make that
argument when you’re not sure if you checked all your sites, or if all your
sites are still open there to look at. The key is to close the RSS reader
and keep it closed until it’s time to read news again. Once you close your
RSS reader,
all you need to do to catch up is read the open tabs in Firefox —
that’s the key. I do this roughly 3 times a day now — once in the morning,
once after lunch, and maybe one additional time before going home.
Ultimately, this is really about being able to get back to work with a calm,
efficient mind. Conquering the obsession over news intake is a major step in
that process, and I hope this GTD approach helps you as much as it’s helped
me.:
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