Instead of a regular post, today I’d like to take a moment and acknowledge those of you kind enough to respond to my question from last Monday (Busy, Busy, Busy…). In case you missed, forgot, or otherwise ignored it, I asked the question:

What do you do when you haven’t read your RSS feed for a week, and there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of entries? Do you…

• Mark them all ‘read’ and start fresh
• Painstakingly read, or at least glance, at every one
• Only read your favorites and dump the rest
• ______________ (fill in the blank)

Now ordinarily, I prefer to give every comment its own individual reply; it makes the conversation far more personal, don’t you think? Besides, you guys are worth the extra effort! Er, unless I’m swamped, in which case I usually aggregate my responses into a single comment or two.

Alas and darn; last week, as I mentioned Friday, I was suffering from a combination of factors, a sortof “perfect storm” of things that just pulled me completely under for awhile. It’s a poor excuse for not responding, I know, but there it is.

But I didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you – I wasn’t! But as your responses began to accumulate, I decided to acknowledge your contributions in a formal post instead of just the comment box. Hence this post.

I suppose one of those little poll thingies would have provided a more formal survey, but I freely admit it just seemed like waaaaaay too much work at the time… Anyhoo; I truly appreciate your contributions, and many thanks to those of you who took the time to comment!

Here are your comments (and in an experiment with color, here are my responses):

Brad Shorr – Painstakingly read, etc. Not a pleasant task, but I just can’t bring my self to ignore anything.

I must admit to being a bit, well, anal about this, too – at least, normally. But I’m simply not able to keep it up when there are this many posts to keep up with *sigh*.

Hey, Brad, do you live in my computer like Liz does? The ink on my post was barely dry when your comment showed up! Sheesh!

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Chip Camden – Skim your favorites and mark the rest “read”. Give yourself a break.

Gee, Chip, that sounds nice – ‘give myself a break’. Actually, that’s more-or-less what I ended up doing. But I can’t help feeling a bit guilty. Sad, I know.

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Mike DeWitt – I’m with Chip. Triage, baby! Life only lasts so long…

Well, that’s two for triage. Good way to think of it, too – thanks, Mike!

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Ellen Weber – Bob, you just named a problem that the busy folks out here all share! That’s why – the onus is on you to get it right. Why so?

If you sit and read a week’s worth of feeds – the rest of us will feel the guilt when we too travel with work.

If you race through the feed to get through endless posts your brain will fill with cortisol and you be cranky with family and friends you really care about!

If you be good to you – and move past the long list (skimming briefly for vital messages) … you’ll continue to be the leader you are … to laugh at the little things … and to inspire the rest of us to do the same.

Everybody’s approach will be different – but I suspect you’ll know the best one for you! Your friends are the same ones around on the other side of such dilemmas:-)

My 2-bits – but others may have better ideas:-) Stay well, friend:-)

Ellen, I can always count on you to see through the falderah and focus like a laser on the nub of the gist! Thanks for the sound advice. As you can no doubt tell, you’ve lots of company! Thank goodness friends remain friends, no matter what, though!

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Joanna Young – I have a top 10 list of blogs (which MZM is on of course) that I visit as well as read. So if I’ve got behind I’d still try and pop in and visit them but mark everything else as read. Even then if you’re pushed, mark it all as read. If there was something you were ‘meant’ to read or know you’ll find it in another way.

Of course this doesn’t apply to my blog! If you’re short of time here’s one piece to read, and if you do have a spare 5 minutes, share your 4 x 4 sources of writing inspiration (by midnight Friday). I’m sure it would make a good read

Group Writing Project: 4 x 4 sources of writing inspiration

End of shameless plug!

Methinks I see a trend developing here.

Don’t worry, Joanna; Confident Writing is at the top of my “must-read” list! And I can take a hint (not to mention a club on the back of the head!) I’m sure by now you’ve seen my 4 x 4 contribution(s) – one serious, and one just for fun.

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William Tully – I’m with Joanna – have your top 10 list that are worth reading at all times, regardless of just how far behind you are. Then pick the few that you want to read out of the rest (likely the few who are #11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 on the top 10 list). The rest? Scroll baby, scroll! I just trust the brain to know when it sees something worth investigating – most goes by in a blurr, but every now and then the brain says “STOP!” simply because it noticed something good. Trust the brain… Trust the brain!!!

I hear ya, Tully – spoken like a true ‘internet twin’! Alas, that “trust the brain” thing will only work if the brain is trustworthy, and last week mine was fried! But like I said, I hear ya!

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Scott – Just the faves man, just the faves.

Hey, thanks for stopping by and joining the fray, Scott. Looks like you’re in a very firm majority here!

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Mother Earth – I am a just the faves kindof person and I also trust the skimming process – universe calls to attention what I need to know.

PS – I really wish I didn’t garage sale all my son’s dinosaurs…

Howdy, Karen! Gee, I can’t believe it took this long for someone to comment on that photo of me an’ the boys up there!

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Ria Kennedy – I look at the titles. If something pops out, I skim the first paragraph. If it seems good, I put it aside to read later. I go through everything and just keep what I’m interested in. LATER, I put time aside to read, either a little every day or a lot at once just a few times until done.

I don’t feel guilty if I don’t read, I feel I might miss something valuable. So whatever you think might be valuable is what I would look for if I were you.

Thanks for the advice, Ria; sortof the “glance at every one” school of thought. I’ll do it if I have time, but otherwise, it’s just the “mark all as read” routine, I’m afraid. But inside, I’m sad.

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Well, there you have it, folks! A great conversation, if’n I do say so myself (and you know; I think I just did!)

By the way, if you’d still like to weigh in with an opinion – be my guest! Might be enlightening to see just how many of us do the same things…