Getting Things Done [GTD] in Google Reader

Jason Boog recently wrote:

As digital content multiplies online and on our devices, our risk of “information over-consumption” increases.

In his new book, The Information Diet, author Clay Johnson shows how we can improve our information consumption and create a healthier diet while exploring the Internet.

On his site, he outlined four simple tools for creating a healthier media diet. We’ve linked to these resources below–how do you manage your media diet?” Full story at: Do You Suffer from Information Over-Consumption? – AppNewser.

Here’s a trailer from Clay Johnson’s book [which I highly recommend by the way]…

The tool that he did not mention is Google Reader. Google Reader is a tool that you can use to create your own virtual newspaper by tracking the sites, searches, and sources that are important in your world. Before I read Clay Johnson’s book, I subscribe to thousands of different sites. After I read his book, I started to develop a theory that I should use Google Reader to focus only on topics that would fuel my expertise and I got rid of a lot of different feeds.

Simply put, I think Google Reader is the single most important tool in my content marketing arsenal. I use Google Reader to make the information I need flow to me instead of searching for when I need it. Google Reader is also consistent with Getting Things Done [GTD] principles. it serves as a collection bucket for what I call just in case information. Gmail is my collection bucket for just-in-time information but Google Reader is the place where I collect information that is not related to relationships and revenue.

Let’s review the GTD diagram:

Not only does Google Reader serve as a collection bucket for all of my just in case information I can use it to process my news for publishing purposes. GTD principles would tell me if I can curated in 2 minutes or less us do it. If it takes longer than that different from later. Google Reader also serves as a ‘context’ for news and I can use it to stay focused. That way, when I’m doing e-mail and doing e-mail and when I’m reading news I use Google reader.

The following is kind of a longish tutorial about Google Reader from a GTD perspective. I’m pretty certain that if you take the time to view it and apply it, will change your world like it did mine…

Questions? Feedback?