18 months ago today, I decided to take control of my “blogging addiction”. Partly I was spending way too much time reading feeds. Partly I was spending too much time focussing on talking about stuff instead of doing it. And partly I was just getting sick of the, erm, mutual massaging that blogging can sometimes become.
It’s been a bit of a journey, but one of the key things I’ve been able to measure is my feed subscriptions. When I started this prcess, I read 800 feeds. Craziness. When I realized this had become an issue, I went through and culled feeds I just skimmed over, feeds that were inactive, feeds I hated seeing everyday, etc.
I still had 500 or so.
Every 3-4 months since then, I’ve done the same exercise. And while I keep adding 3-5 feeds a week to my reading, the number just keeps going down. 400. 300. 200. 150.
Today, it went under 100. In fact, I now only read 75 feeds. This time, I cut down primarily in 3 areas: b5 blogs (I was subscribed to about 20, even ones I didn’t like… but the network is so big now that it’s hard to keep track of everything, so now I’m subscribed to the ones I like), business / VC blogs (when we were going after funding this was critical, now it isn’t so important) and plain old dead blogs or blogs I didn’t like.
So yeah, down to 75. It’s nice.
Obviously my blogging levels have dropped in recent months. And while it’s painful to see, I also think it’s healthy. As I transition into being more of “b5media’s CEO” I’m sure I’ll start blogging about the industry more, but for now, when I’m juggling a few things and just trying to keep up with all the balls in the air, focussing on “doing” instead of “talking” is critically important.
Finally, I really did get sick of the circle-jerk that blogging can sometimes be. While I love talking with the industry and “web 2.0″ as much as the next guy, I honestly feel that face-time is way, way better for that, and that constantly blogging about it means that most folk miss the message because of the medium.
Plus, nothing gets decided from a blog post. Everything is done via direct contact anyways.
I’m sure I haven’t really struck a true healthy balance yet. But I’m glad to see that I’m no longer addicted to blogging (medium, message and platform) 
June 19th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
eBeautyDaily.com – zapped. How sad.
Maybe your wife will keep subscribing. LOL 
June 20th, 2006 at 3:35 am
Ah, you speak my language Jeremy. Something about ‘blogging about blogging’ always makes me angry. Yet I can talk on it no prob, and even enjoy it.
I think it’s because, while I can praise everything blogging can do for your business, for your personal profile, and for niche categories, I really cannot think of blogging as a niche in itself (although it appears to be!)
June 20th, 2006 at 11:51 am
I had this same realization a little bit ago. I also realized that my reading style and writing style were hypocritical. I started unsubscribing. I especially appreciate the ‘circle-jerk’ comment. Besides, if something really good was posted out there I’m sure someone else would eventually link to it.
Interesting though that I subscribed to most of my first-ever feeds by browsing through your Bloglines subscriptions.
June 20th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Devin: Yeah, while I’ve dropped 80% of my feed reading, I don’t actually feel like I’m missing out on anything. Maybe it’s because I use Techmeme (www.techmeme.com) to let the interesting stuff float up, so that mostly my blog reading is “need to know” / “want to know” type stuff… Instead of “might need to possibly know”.
June 20th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
That’s good inspiration, I need to work on mine, too!
June 20th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
Wow. I’m reading more blogs than Jeremy Wright! I never thought I’d be able to say that! lol.
June 22nd, 2006 at 8:09 am
I’m not reading more blogs than Jeremy Wright. The day I say I read more, is the day I switch jobs
June 22nd, 2006 at 10:41 am
Is your subscription list public? Am I still on there?
June 29th, 2006 at 4:08 am
Sorry for joining the conversation late, but I have been trying to do some pruning on Bloglines myself. What I find a pain is that it takes so long to delete and move feeds usnig the interface. Maybe I’m just not doing something right. I have managed to cut back quite a bit, but as my situation changes and I am soon going to be located on one machine, I am seriously considering moving to a desktop RSS solution. I love Bloglines for usage, but housekeeping is just – ARGH!
Just me? Probably. Maybe they need a bit of AJAX magic at some point.