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Not-ifications
Merlin Mann | Mar 1 2006
And, yet these are all things that I used to monitor manually via my RSS reader. Refresh all. Refresh all. Refresh all. Refresh all. Refresh all. Madness. The whole purpose of an RSS feed, it seems to me, goes straight to the “trusted system” notion in Getting Things Done — if I have a reliable way of knowing when something really important changes in my world, then I don’t have to think about it when it’s not actually changing, right? And, then, for the less than life-threatening deltas (“new kitty photo!”), it’s probably even okay to just check in every few days or so (cf: “tickler file”). But, if, out of some bizarre compulsion, I find myself hitting “Refresh” every 5 minutes, then either a) I don’t trust the system, or b) I’m deliberately defeating its purpose as a monitoring and notification system. But, in any case, it’s no longer a “notification” if I am the one constantly generating the requests — instead I become like a sad little pigeon, gamely tapping my lever in the hopes that a pellet (or a hug) will fall out. So, yeah, I’m thinking about adding a few feeds back to my reader, but you can bet I’m going to tweak the hell out of the refresh settings. Now that I’ve been away from it for a few weeks, I have to say: there are an astonishing number of things in the world that I don’t need hourly updates about. Daily, weekly, even monthly status reports provide more than enough information about a lot of change. Take a week off, and see if you don’t agree. Maybe even ask yourself: “What is it, precisely, that I’m keeping up with?” 27 Comments
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 "But, if, out of some...Submitted by Robert Daeley (not verified) on March 1, 2006 - 7:47am.
“But, if, out of some bizarre compulsion, I find myself hitting “Refresh” every 5 minutes, then either a) I don’t trust the system, or b) I’m deliberately defeating its purpose as a monitoring and notification system.” Or c) I’m deliberately using its unadvertised purpose as a time sink. ;) »
I've been doing both b)...Submitted by Daniel NIcolas (not verified) on March 1, 2006 - 8:32am.
I’ve been doing both b) and the suggested c) - I immediately went and started organizing my subscriptions between daily, weekly, monthly. that way i only have so many things to read and takes up less time and allows me to really get down to business. 43folders is awesome »
This is honestly one reason...Submitted by Troy F. (not verified) on March 1, 2006 - 9:18am.
This is honestly one reason why I’ve stuck to my.yahoo.com instead over “real” RSS readers - I can’t control the refresh rate. So, when I’ve got a few minutes to waste, I’ll load it up and see if there’s anything new. Of course you also have to make a commitment to yourself not to go manually loading the pages just in case there is an update that Yahoo has not picked up yet :-) »
Hey Merlin - I just...Submitted by Dan Robbins (not verified) on March 1, 2006 - 9:57am.
Hey Merlin - I just had 20 updates to 43folders in bloglines - looks like you switched to partial RSS feeds? Also, good thing I didn’t read this post during a meeting on my blackberry! I would have felt like Merlin was looking over my shoulder! »
 That's correct, Dan. And by...Submitted by Merlin Mann on March 1, 2006 - 9:59am.
That’s correct, Dan. And by the way, I like that shirt you’re wearing today. »
my FedEx package is still...Submitted by Martin D (not verified) on March 1, 2006 - 10:43am.
my FedEx package is still in Memphis Living in the UK, I would want to know the moment my package ended up in Memphis so I could find out why the hell its there… Over the past couple of days I’ve been bored to tears in work and have read every-single-god-damn-rss-feed I have subscribed to and find myself refreshing bloglines for something to distract myself with. Time for a new job I think… »
Merlin, Give www.serence.com Klipfolio a...Submitted by HullaBaloo (not verified) on March 1, 2006 - 10:55am.
Merlin, Give www.serence.com Klipfolio a try. Quick and easy feed monitor. It really helps with structured monitoring and you don’t have to have a browser running. The new alert features allow you to prioritize, categorize all auto-magically to your setup preferences. It’s also the tool I used to view this post! It’s saves me alot of time. BTW Nice site. »
And, yet these are all...Submitted by Chris Mear (not verified) on March 1, 2006 - 11:08am.
And, yet these are all things that I used to monitor manually via my RSS reader. Ah, but isn’t that exactly how you want it? The important stuff that you do need to be notified about is set to auto-refresh. But the unimportant stuff is only refreshed manually, when you have some free time and you actively decide to ‘go read news’. I set up my RSS reader like this about a week ago, and it’s been working a dream. »
Reminder, folks: As ever, please...Submitted by Merlin Mann on March 1, 2006 - 11:14am.
Reminder, folks: As ever, please don’t use comments for off-topic stuff. Ping me offline with any bug reports, questions, complaints, and whatnot. That’s not what per-post comments are here for. Many thanks. »
@Chris: That's not a bad...Submitted by Merlin Mann on March 1, 2006 - 11:40am.
@Chris: That’s not a bad idea. I’d tried something not too different from that, but my will was weak. Weak!! »
About Merlin MannBio Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who started the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today. Also? He looks like this, answers questions, and has something like a life. Merlin’s favorite thing he’s written recently in the past few years is a short essay entitled, “Better.” |
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