I’m an information junkie. If my recent foray and obsession about geopolitics isn’t a clue, I also tend to get obsessive about certain topics, which will lead me to consume every video, essay and podcast about the topic. This weird ability to absorb massive amounts of information at one go has aided me in my career, especially when I had to transition to a totally new field.

However, it isn’t great for my mental health, as I wrote in the post, 2023 Q3 Update: A cat and social media burnout.

Some of the content I’m regularly consuming:

• Over 80 Substack subscriptions
• Hundreds of RSS feeds
• Dozens of podcasts
• Youtube channels galore
  

This essay will focus on my text content consumption, which I’m having the most trouble with.

Originally, I funneled the text content into ebooks which I created via Calibre. However, I discovered a few snags in the system:

It was quite an operation to create these ebooks, so I kept putting it off, leading to the content to accumulate in alarming ways

It took me a long time to read the content.

I need to acknowledge that subscriptions that I tend to skip – I have to unsubscribe for them as they are clogging the feed.

Here’s what I’m doing to streamline my content consumption

Operation Substack clean up!

Like I said, I have over 80 Substack subscriptions. Initially, I was really careful with my subs because I don’t want to get overwhelmed. Then Notes launched and I found so many interesting people and newsletters that I began a mad subscription spree.

After my social media burn out, I have to admit that I just cannot keep up with 80+ subs. Especially when it comes to fiction newsletters. I am very particular with my fiction. You can say that I’m super fussy, so I had to be brutally honest with myself: I needed to wean out fiction that I didn’t look forward to.

I found myself gravitating more towards personal essays and travelogues from diverse parts of the world. Ie … not always from the United States. Please don’t take it the wrong way, it is just that there’s so much content about the United States or stories revolving around the United States that I’m literally dying for diversity.

I’ve also decided to also stop using the Substack app to read my content. I really like the audio feature, however, but it is buggy. Sometimes that feature appears, sometimes it doesn’t.

On the platform, you have the option to list the Subs that you follow. Originally I just plonked all my subs there. But I’ve shaved it down to less than 20. These are the folks that I’m making the effort to form a relationship with. I’m no longer gobbling Substacks but carefully grazing them and talking to these folks. It’s just saner and more manageable to build relationships with 15 rather than 150 people!

Using RSS as my main capture tool

Before, I had used the Substack app (which was buggy at best), the Calibre ebooks, Pocket to capture articles. Needless to say, having my content split into so many places was making it hard to focus. Now, I will follow Substacks and blogs via RSS which Feedly will then feed me. And then I will…

Browse, scan and choose what to read

Yes, I’m going scan the headlines and pick what I read. I have to admit that I just cannot read every single article. I can only read something that captures my attention.

One major reason why the Calibre ebooks didn’t work for me was because I felt compelled to read them all even when I didn’t want to, and also that it didn’t make it easy to scan content.

Send certain content to Pocket

Pocket is a wonderful app. I adore it. And one of the best things about it is that I can listen to the articles. I’m trying my best to spare my eyes the burden of reading via smartphone or tablet, and try read as much as I can via my ebook reader, Boox. The Boox has the Pocket app which I could use to read my chosen articles at night without the blue lights from the smartphone or table affecting my sleep.

Take notes on certain content using Raindrop.io

My Raindrop app, which is sorta like Anchor, is connected to my Obsidian vault. Some articles, which I think valuable enough to be part of my research will end up here. There, I make highlights, which is then exported to my Obsidian vault. I rarely do this, to be honest, As I prefer to be on my desktop rather than my smartphone when researching about things.

I could’ve used Readwise to do this but I am trying not to be too dependent on apps to do crucial things.

So, before my text content consumption workflow looked something like this:

• Most blogs / Substack > Calibre (turned into ebooks)
• Random online articles > Pocket > Raindrop
• Some blogs / Substack > Feedly (via RSS)
• Some Subtacks > Substack app

Now it looks something like this:

• Blogs / Substack > Feedly (via RSS) > Pocket > Raindrop (select few) > Obsidian
• Random online articles > Pocket > Raindrop (select few) > Obsidian

Not only is this informational flow simpler and more streamlined, it enables me to funelled them to my Obsidian vault. Before, I only did it with articles I captured via Raindrop as other methods were such a bother. Now, this could give me the chance to capture blogs/substacks if I want to.

How about you? Are you having a headache with the information deluge??