I’ve heard many of my friends comment that they are overwhelmed by their Google Reader, so much so that not only are they regularly declaring Reader bankruptcy but that they are avoiding it all together. My information professional friends, Google Reader is a TOOL, do not allow it to inspire fear and loathing, it’s there to meet your needs. Here are some suggestions for mastering it. Don’t be afraid to declare bankruptcy For me this means in the weeks leading up to and during and after conferences I will likely declare bankruptcy once a week. I don’t wait until the end, it’s too overwhelming, I just go in once a week, fully knowing I’m going to mark all as read and do it. If you’re declaring bankruptcy too often you are subscribed to more than you can keep up with, if that is 20, 200, or 2,000 it doesn’t matter. You put those feeds in there because you thought they were important. You need to figure out what the most important ones are, so you can keep up with those. It’s ok to let the others go. Better that than feeling bad. You need to figure out what you’re looking for in feeds, what information
