BlogMunch

Where I get the information that gets into my brain everyday

(credit: Different in Japan)

Everyday, there hundreds of feeds to read and tons of email to reply. Still, if you only use these two sources, you will miss quite a lot of news. Here are some of the ways I use to keep up to date on daily news and information.

RSS feeds

This is what most people used to gather information. I think it is also the most targeted. You normally only subscribe to blogs and news feeds that you are interested in. This results in depth within the subject you are researching as most blogs have different related posts in a given subject matter. Now with services like Feedity and Yahoo Pipes, RSS feeds have become a more powerful tool.

Google alert

Gives you comprehensive information surrounding keywords/keyphrases. It can be set to be delivered to your email once a day, once a week or as it happens. This results in width in your information. You will know everything (within search engine constrains) that happens for your keyphrases.

Forums

While you can get groundbreaking news here too, mostly I join forums to get a feel of how different people is reacting to a subject. The emotions coming out of these forum post will add a new dimension on how I view the information.

Comments

There is a wealth of information contain within the comments from your own blog and other blogs. I really like to read comments on blogs. Especially for controversial articles and in-depth posts. I also found out that some blogs gets better comments that others. There are less “You rock!!!” and That’s a great post!!!” type of comments and more discussion-based comments. One of them is DoshDosh. Read especially his reply to others comments. An example: The Secret to Building a Popular Blog (and Getting Tons of Readers)

Twitter

Started using twitter as a source of information after reading Twitter is Paying My Rent. Have not had any success with it as a information source. Maybe its the people I followed. It takes the right people to get the right source. Or maybe its the twitter client I used. Twitbin is not very stable and has lessen my user enthusiasm for twitter. Nevertheless, sometimes you can get unexpected and funny quips when you switch to the public timeline and follow it for a while.

Digg/Stumble/Del.icio.us

To find out the most popular information. I also use these sites to read the most popular articles. I want to know what makes these popular articles tick. How did the author write it? What attention grabbing header title he used? And I learn from it.

Now I pose a question to you. Do you have a go to source for information? Share with me and my readers in the comments.

Want to overload with information. Well, you can subscribe to the BlogMunch Feed and I will load you up.

The benefits of keeping a "how to" folder

I have forgotten where I have read this about keeping a “how to” folder for everything. Even the simplest jobs. Especially the simplest job. From then on, I have always write down every “how to” for new things I have learn.

What is a “how to” file?

It is basically a set of instructions to tell yourself how to do a job, task or project you have just done or learnt. Why do you need to write it down? Have you encountered times when you know you have done this modifications before, yet cannot seem to remember how to do it now? Well, that’s the usefulness of “how to” files.

A few examples will be:

1. How to use keyboard shortcuts in Google reader?
2. How to add adsense code into you blog template?
3. How to find use google alert to find new topics for blogging?
4. How to add a rss button to the redoable wordpress theme?

The key is to be specific. Look at the difference between

How to make a favicon?

and

How to use degraeve.com to design a favicon?

What’s the difference?

In the first example, you may write general instructions to make a favicon. But the second example will have a set of instructions specific to degraeve.com app to design a favicon. So the next time, you can follow the instructions and head straight to the source. This way, you can save time and start immediately.

You can also apply this to you everyday task, like “How to pack a child’s suitcase?”

Write it down and update when you have better ways of doing things. Soon you will have the instruction manual of your life.

(sidenote) Buckets and Chunks: An Exercise in Writing Everything Down by Ryan Imel shows how this concept can be used in your blogging.

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Seinfeld chain calendar

Previously on my post “Do you blog every day?“, I have a link out about Jerry Seinfeld’s productivity secret. He said

To be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.

He even motivate himself by having a calendar on his wall and draw a big fat red cross on each day that he had written. The key is

Don’t break the chain

By aiming not to break the chain, you will motivated to do your task every single day. I use a similar system here on my blog. Although, I had broken the chain a few times, nevertheless, watching the days fill up on the calendar on my sidebar drives me to write.

If you are motivating yourself to do something everyday (to swim, jog, read a book, etc.) and not want to use a real calendar, you can use this calendar to create your own Seinfeldian Chain.

Keep on going!

Technorati Tags: seinfeld, productivity

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