In the final post in last month’s series, Twitter Basics: Odds and Ends, I explained how I use TweetDeck as an organizing tool by sorting the people I follow into groups so I can easily keep track of those that interest me the most, and clear tweets I’ve already read or don’t wish to read. (Click on the image for a full-size view of TweetDeck.)
When I first got into Twitter, I worried that it might become another flood of information that I didn’t have time to read, along with my ezine subscriptions (before I pared them down) and my RSS reader, but I’m finding the exact opposite to be true!
Other than a handful of blogs written by people I know, I’m no longer using an RSS reader to monitor blogs of interest. Instead, when someone announces on Twitter that they’ve updated their blog, or recommends someone else’s blog post, I’ll read those that catch my interest at that time. Otherwise, I simply mark them as seen, then click on “clear seen tweets.”
It’s true that there are often way more tweets than I can realistically look at, but I can start with a clear slate at any time simply by clicking on “mark all as seen” and “clear seen tweets.” Do I ever miss something interesting? Most likely! Will I or my business suffer as a result? Probably not. Besides, the information hasn’t been deleted from Twitter, just from my TweetDeck.
Although I always had the option of deleting ezines without reading them, or marking all the blog posts in my RSS reader as read, it always felt so drastic to me, and I was afraid I might miss something. Ironically, now that I’m receiving MORE information, I no longer feel compelled to keep all of it. Instead, I’m breaking away from the “this information might be useful someday” mentality, and generally choose to read blog posts and other links only if they relate to a current project or interest.
If something sounds compelling but I really don’t have the time to read it, I’ll make it as a Favorite before I click on “mark all as seen” and “clear seen tweets.” That way I can come back to it when I have more time. Once I’m finished with it, I click on “Favorite” again to remove it from the list. That’s probably not what the developers had in mind for that column, but it works for me!
How do you avoid being overwhelmed on Twitter?
Hi Janet!
I just wanted to thank-you for your series of posts on Twitter! There’s still so much to learn!
Bette
Bette, I’m glad you found it helpful, and I know exactly what you mean – I think I learn at least one thing new every week.
Wow, you always have such great insight on everything. I have uploaded tweetdeck but was not using it every day. Thanks for the push. I am getting more followers and I was very concerned about missing stuff. I guess you can’t be in very conversation at the party.
Cheers
Thanks, Elaine! I know I miss stuff when I just clear them all, but at least then they’re not sitting there, making me feel bad for not reading them! That’s what happened when I subscribed to too many blogs in my RSS reader – there was so much there that I felt overwhelmed, and avoided looking at them at all, so they just kept accumulating… kind of like the old guy who keeps stacks of magazines and newspapers, hoping he’ll get around to reading them someday!