60+ RSS feeds I use every day to stay up to date

We all have a lot of interests and passions, but at times it seems as though there’s less and less time available to pursue them or keep abreast of developments.

One of the ways I’m able to scan a lot of information in a short time is by fully utilizing RSS feeds displayed in my iGoogle homepage.  Click on the image below, and you’ll see just a handful of the RSS feeds I scan each day.

My favorite feeds – Travel

Want to keep abreast of developments with travel, airlines, or the hottest topics on FlyerTalk?  Here are the feeds I glance at each day to see what’s happening in the world of travel:

• The Cranky Flier – UK based travel blog
  
• Practical Travel Gear – gotta be tough to come up with “practical” gear several days a week, but worth a look
  
• World Hum – “The best travel stories on the internet”
  
• FlyerTalk Forums:  Miles Buzz – the buzz on mileage deals
  
• FlyerTalk Forums:  Travel Products
• Matador Network
• Frugal Travel Guy – emphasis on mileage programs, churning credit cards, etc.
  
• One Bag, One World blog – Brad’s blog about one bag travel; not a lot of posts, but a good forum
  
• Boarding Area – Featured – aggregates several travel blogs; a lot of focus on airlines
  
• Vagablogging:  Rolf Potts
• Elliott.org – Chris Elliott’s blog
  
• Gadling – UK travel site
  
• View From the Wing blog
• The Perrin Post – Wendy Perrin, of course!
  
• NY Times > Travel
  
• Practical Hacks – All Forums feed (of course!) (you do know you can subscribe to the Forum, yes?)
  

Blogging and Writing

Mind you, I don’t necessarily visit all of these sites – I don’t that much time! – but if something interests me, I’ll take a quick peek.  If it turns out to be something I want to read, I’ll make sure to revisit the site that evening.  The next group of sites are writing and blogging oriented:

• Men With Pens
• Write to Done
  
• Storyfix.com
• CopyBlogger – Resource for bloggers with an emphasis on copy.
• ProBlogger – Great site for bloggers.
• TechGenuine
• Daily Blog Tips

Lifehacks/Productivity

Lifehacker tops this list as it’s still, in my opinion, the best of the lifehack-type blogs, albeit with a strong technical bias.

• Lifehacker
• Stepcase Lifehack
• Dumb Little Man
• Work Less and Do More (Stever Robbins – The “Get it Done” Guy)  Visit Stever’s excellent podcast here:  Get-It-Done Guy’s Podcast

Lifestyle

These are feeds from several sites that are loosely lifestyle oriented, although it’s difficult to pigeon hole some of these.

• 4HWW / Tim Ferriss’s blog
• Man vs. Debt
• Zen Habits – (Not a big fan, but I scan the topics and occasionally visit the site)
• The Art of Non-Conformity – Chris Guillebeau is on a quest to visit every country in the world; an interesting site
• The Happiness Project

Apps and Software

I pick up on a lot of interesting/new pieces of software via MakeUseOf.com‘s  daily email updates.  Some of these are obviously iPod Touch oriented…

• MakeUseOf.com A great site for discovering new apps and software solutions
• App of the Day Features a neat iPhone/iPod Touch app each day!
• Microsoft Startup of the Day Ditto – for MS spinoffs and startups.
• Google Labs – lets me know of any new Labs developments at a glance
• iPod Touch Hacks
• Apple iPod Touch

Gadgets & Technology

Honestly, I just scan these and visit the sites quite infrequently.  But once in a while there’s something that catches my eye…

• Gizmodo
• Boing Boing – Somewhat eclectic in terms of content; not restricted to gadgets by any means!
• Smarterware – From Gina Trapani, formerly of Lifehacker
• CravingTech
• Gnoted.com
• Ubergizmo
• Engadget

Arts/etc.

• NPR Topics:  Arts & Entertainment
• Artslant
• Artopia
• NY Times >  Arts

Photography

Again, I only visit these sites when a feed delivers something that looks particularly interesting:

• Canon Rumors
• DPReview.com
• Your Photo Tips
• Digital Camera Resource

Miscellaneous

These feeds and sites don’t conveniently fit the categories listed here, but there are some gems on this list:

• Seth’s Blog -  Seth Godin’s blog on marketing, communication, and life in general
• WineLibraryTV – The irrepressible Gary Vaynerchuk
• Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist – I used to be turned off by some of P.T.’s posts, but her recent romantic mishaps and (always) frankness have won me over
• Kottke.org – Jason Kottke’s eclectic blog about cultural matters
• ChrisBrogan.com – SEO/social media maniac Chris Brogan’s blog
• Get Rich Slowly – J.D. Roth’s personal finance blog
• How to Change the World – Guy Kawasaki’s blog
• Gmail - lets me see at a glance what’s in my In Box  (When in Gmail, just click on the RSS icon in the address bar.  You can preview and delete messages from iGoogle – very handy!)
• Marketwatch – lets me see at a glance how much money I’ve lost
• Weather – let’s me see at a glance…  uh, you get the picture

This list is by no means static; I’ll see a site that looks interesting, monitor its feed for a few weeks, and it may or may not make the cut; the list is constantly changing.

How often do I look at my iGoogle page? During the day at work, I’ll glance at it perhaps once every couple of  hours, primarily to check if there are emails in my Gmail In Box.  If something in one of the feeds looks really interesting, I’ll make a mental note to check it out that evening.  My basic message here is that this does NOT consume a lot of time – at all.  It’s just a great way to quickly scan the feeds from ~60 sites for anything that looks interesting.  During an average day, I frankly only click on feed links to perhaps 8-10 of the ~60 sites listed here.

If you don’t use iGoogle, Google Reader, or a similar product, try one out.  Although the image at the top of the post shows all of the feeds displaying the 3 most recent posts or updates, I vary the settings for each feed quite a bit.  Something like Boarding Area, for instance, I have set to display the 9 most recent posts.

If you’d like to learn a bit more about RSS in general, click on the “Subscribe” button at the top of this page – it links to an article which explains RSS in detail.

Finally, are there feeds you use to monitor sites that are particularly interesting – and which may be of interest to your fellow PH readers?  If yes, please share your favorites by commenting!