I think the “How to pare down the clothes in your closet” analogy applies here: if you don’t use it, it goes. Pick an RSS feed that feels like overkill to you — you know which ones those are — and live without it for a week or two. When the blackout period is over, determine how much you really missed it.

DId you find yourself regularly returning to the source site to check information? This is a big one, in my mind. If I didn’t need the information (or care enough) to click on the bookmark to the full-blown site, I clearly don’t need the daily (hourly, minute-ly) digest.

Did you feel less informed during the blackout? tercerio addressed nicely in his comment.

That old sweater of an RSS feed may be comfortable to have around, but if you’re not wearing it, you’ll never miss it.

A personal example: I am a writer, my life revolves around the entertainment industry (with a healthy overlap in geek culture), so I found myself regularly checking Ain’t It Cool News a lot. Three revelations I had (no AICN slam intended, this is just me):

1. I realized that 99.9% of the information I was getting there I was reading for at least the second time, and there is nothing on that site that clarifies, enhances or changes my perspective on the old information.

2. When I did click through to the site, I found myself irritated MUCH more often than entertained or enlightened. Much more = always vs. never.

3. And this was a big one in deciding to kill it: When I saw the little number next to my “movies” RSS group, then discovered that the bulk of the new posts were AICN, I was disappointed.

Disappointed. Wow. The reddest of red flags. I subscribed to the RSS feed, I grouped it, I clicked on it… and when it did what it was supposed to do, it made me feel bad. Yeah, time to go.