Matthew Lang

Today Feedbin announced a new feature to their RSS reader which allows you to subscribe to Twitter users, searches, lists and hashtags.

I've been looking at this for the last couple of hours to find a way that will allow me to continue to use Twitter, but without mhaving to check on my timeline as often. Here's just a few ways that I see me using Feedbin's new Twitter subscription options.

Vanity Searches

A few months ago I removed analytics tracking from my blog. It was a decision based on the fact that I'm not interested in the numbers anymore. I don't want to see how many people viewed my blog in the last 24 hours, and I don't want to see how many visitors I've had in the previous week. These numbers don't drive why I blog. It's the content that drives why I blog. It's about getting links back to my blog from other bloggers.

To do this, I have a saved search in Feedbin that only includes blog posts that contain my name. Sure it doesn't have the accuracy of analytics tracking, but through the blogs that I follow and the times that my name appears in this search, it's a great indicator of what other bloggers like on my blog.

Feedbin's new Twitter integration will allow me to broaden my reach so that I can use searches on Twitter to include tweets that either includes my Twitter handle or my domain name.

Better Reading of Lists

Twitter's lists have always been difficult to use. I'm not a big fan of reading Twitter on my mobile and changing between lists on other apps is not great either. Feedbin's new Twitter integration will make digesting lists a lot easier.

I have some accounts on Twitter I follow, but I would like to bundle into lists. I've tried in the past to do this, but I frequently forget to check these lists. Separating these accounts into lists makes my timeline much easier to follow.

With these new lists to follow through Feedbin, it is a lot easier to follow and scan through.

RSS to the Rescue

Right, so Twitter dropped RSS a long time ago, and since then it's been difficult to follow people through anything other than Twitter on the web or through one of the many Twitter clients that are available. So it's not RSS to the rescue but Feedbin to the rescue by providing a genuinely different way of consuming Twitter.

The next few weeks will see the accounts I follow tail off to perhaps around fifty or so accounts, but I'll continue to use Twitter for sharing content from this blog and my micro-blog as well as responding to replies on Twitter.

I'm not making any resolutions for the year ahead.

In my experience, it's a self-defeating exercise that always ends up with me not seeing it through to the end of the year.

If you're thinking along the same lines, then what's the alternative to making improvements without failing?

Have you ever noticed how bad habits stick like watching television, sitting on the couch, and mindlessly thumbing through timelines on social media? These are not good habits to get into, but the thing about them is that they're easy to do. They just don't require any thought whatsoever.

What if we could just as quickly get into good habits rather than bad habits?

Well, this is what worked for me when I first started building good habits.

I started with just one habit.

I started getting into the habit of writing every day. To help remind myself to write, I set the alarm on my phone to give me the nudge to start writing. When my phone went off, I would then start writing. That's all I did for a whole month. A habit built up every day. And it worked. It's still working. I'm writing this, aren't I?

The following month I added another alarm on my phone to do something else the next month and kept it going through the year. By the end of the year, I had built up some good habits that helped me through the day.

The problem many people face with new year resolutions is that they try to do too much at once. It's like trying to lift weights at the gym. You just can't bench press 100kg unless you've trained your body to get into the habit of being able to bench press 100kg. To achieve such a weight, you need to start with a smaller load and then gradually build up to the target weight.

Habits are the same.

You start small (ideally with one) and then build them up.

Tracking your habits is a great way to build them up. I've tried some habit tracking apps over the last year, but the one that works for me is Productive. It was the first habit tracking app that I tried, and nothing else I've tried has been as easy to use.

The good thing about tracking apps is that they give you a sense of success when you've reached a significant milestone like completing the habit for a week or even a month. Productive and other habit tracking apps have reminders built in as well, so it keeps all your habit building needs in the one place.

So, forget the new year resolutions and set yourself a short-term habit to achieve for the next few days. Once you've completed a few days with it, extend the practice for a few more days and keep at it. In no time you'll find that you've been able to get into your intended habit daily and by the end of a period of a few weeks it will become more of something that you just do.

Rachel Kaser over at The Next Web certainly thinks so.

Like it or not, social media provides an easy-to-use template that lets anyone make their personal information available — and most of those sites are a hell of a lot easier to use than even the mildest website creation software.

— It’s time to kill the personal website by Rachel Kaser for The Next Web

I can certainly see Rachel's point. With all the progress we've made on the web, the days of self-publishing means that you don't need to be tied to a domain or a way of publishing your thoughts online. Social media and blogging platforms make publishing online easy.

Where I disagree though is that while these social media platforms are easy to use, they require an investment of effort in order to be effective. In order to stand out you need to be publishing consistently and that requires investing time and effort in that platform. I'm just not prepared to make that investment in order to build my name when I can use a personal website.

Having my own website means that I'm only investing in the content at my own website and then optionally using social media to get my content out further. I not only control the content but I also having a simpler delivery method for people. I have a place where people can follow me without the pressures of social media timelines. You can visit my website or subscribe to my RSS feed. It might be less convenient than following me on social media, but when you consider that you can read my website in a less crowded environment, away from the timeline, then I think having a personal website is essential if you want people to actually read what you're publishing.

... over at Feedbin.

I love using Feedbin. Such a great RSS reader and the fact that they keep adding to it and improving it just keeps making it better to use.

Cal Newport's book Deep Work has been circling the blogs I follow for the past year. I finally took the time to read over the summer. It's such an enriching book (I'm still reviewing my notes for it) and in an age of social media distraction I would say it is a must read.

Don't just take my word for it though. Read the words of Julian Summerhayes who has a rightly so put together a worthy post to reflect the content of the book.

When everyone else is making resolutions to do things like less social media, less eating, less television, Kurt is making resolutions to do more.

Love it.

Installed Sidetrack this morning as a way of reading my RSS feeds from Feedbin.

Loving it so far.

It's time to get out there.

"If you get out of your daily routine—which for most of us is being on social media, or your laptop and phone—and you get out with a pencil, pen, or whatever tool you prefer and just start looking around," says Kulik, "something you’re trying to solve in one part of your life might be solved by using your creative brain."

— This One Simple Technique Will Stoke Your Creativity Every Day by Fast Company

Give me a project any day of the week.

Projects are open-ended, chosen and ours. Working on a project opens the door to possibility. Projects are about better, about new frontiers, about making change happen. When in doubt, dare.

Your job vs your project by Seth Godin

All this week I’ve been writing about finding value with social media. Social media as a mainstream communication is already ten years old if we start the clock from 2006 when Twitter began. In that time, it’s seen an explosion of growth but as it becomes more mainstream is it’s attraction and value wearing off?

I don’t think so. I think more people are simply using social media in a way that suits them. I know that my own way of using social media has changed over the years. No longer am I sending over 20 updates a day. I keep my interaction down to a minimum preferring to only dip into my timeline a few times a day. Sure I might miss something, but I gave up on staying on top of my timeline a long time ago. It just isn’t possible.

There’s also the changing landscape of social media. In the beginning there were people. Just people chatting away and sharing links, pictures and other content. Then the corporate companies got wind of the possibility of getting the brands and products in front of these millions of people. I’d like to say it’s a good thing, but the use of ads as a revenue stream is a poor way of ensuring your startup is profitable unless this is the startup’s business plan from day one.

Then there’s the new kids on the block. Snapchat is fast becoming as popular as Twitter and Instagram (from what the kids tell me), but I think I’ll stick with what I know. That is until they are eventually surpassed by other social media platforms.

There’s still value in social media, but it needs like anything else, time spent curating the good from the bad, managing your time on social media wisely and knowing the limits of social media. That's how you get value from social media.

I think of social media as one of those necessary evils in life. I'm well aware of the benefits of globally connected platforms that keeps people in touch, especially in the event of a natural disaster or event. Social media has proved itself as great way to keep people in contact with others. Like I said, that's all good, but a good social media platform has value. Things that interest me as a consumer. Links, text, images. Anything that falls within my interests is valuable.

Lately it seems that Twitter has been failing in this respect. There's doesn't seem to be any value in Twitter anymore. I'm in a constant battle of finding people to follow and unfollowing people that don't tweet anymore. This wasn't a problem when I first used Twitter as I could see the value from my timeline. Interesting tweets and links had value and it kept me checking into my timeline on a regular basis. Now, it seems that I can go a couple of days without checking Twitter and not miss anything.

I was an early user of Twitter. A year after it launched I created my Twitter account. After a few years though I wasn’t seeing the same value that I seen in the early years of Twitter and so I closed my account. I ended up re-creating my account on Twitter last year. There’s a problem though. The problem lies in the fact that I haven’t a clue what I’m using Twitter for. Since starting my Twitter account up again, I’ve had a few interactions with others and it serves it’s purpose in a few areas, but mostly I’m wondering if I even need it at all.

These days though I'm stepping back from Twitter and using it mainly as a source of content to consume rather than to publish things. I’m also keeping my use of it sporadic. I’ve noticed a few other people are changing the way they use Twitter as well. People that I know would tweet all through the day are now down to just tweeting a handful of times a day at most. I’ve even stopped using tools like Buffer for sharing content. I just don’t see the need in tools like that when I’m more of an infrequent visitor to Twitter.

So is Twitter still valuable? I think it’s largely lost it’s value for me. I only check it a couple of times a day. Twitter has it’s uses but I don’t see the great need for it like I did a few years ago. It still has a value for my freelancing business and I'm in the process of moving some of the people I follow to that account, but that is a topic for tomorrow's post.

Required reading for anyone looking to harness social media as a tool to connect your product with customers.

Conversations spark the success of products and ideas, helping them garner new fans and break into different markets.

— The Social Media Skinny by Steven Pressfield

The Awl remembers the glory days of Google Reader.

Instead, our websites now keep tabs on us, the better to target us and hold us down and turn us into money, like so many caged broiler chickens, puffed up with soybean meal. Doesn’t feel good, does it?

— O Reader! My Reader by The Awl

To be fair it's not all that bad. People are still blogging and the demise of Google Reader as seen a growing market in RSS readers which is great for everyone. The glory days might still be ahead.

That's it. The end of another year and the start of a new one.

Start as you mean to go one they say and I intend too. This blog has been lacking in activity of late but that will change.

I just also want to say thanks to Nicholas, Michael, Kurt, Curtis and Patrick. Without my fellow bloggers I wouldn't have the readership that I have now.

Onwards and upwards for 2016!

A little present from Nicholas Bate in the post last week. Just getting round to looking at them now.

Thanks Nicholas!

My favourite RSS reader has a great new feature, image previews.

It's unreasonable to expect extraordinary work from someone who isn't trusted to create it.

— The fruitless search for extraordinary people willing to take ordinary jobs by Seth Godin

Feedbin has been my goto RSS Reader ever since Google Reader closed. I'm glad to see that development is continuing at a good pace with new features being added regularly, including the new Updated section that includes articles that have been updated after being published.

Excellent for keeping track of changes to articles.

It isn't often you find yourself using an app that is just effortless and simple to use. If you have an account with FeedBin, FeedWrangler or Feedly, then you'll want to check out Jared Sinclair's new app, Unread.

Michael Wade is a management consultant currently based in Arizona and has been blogging since 2005. I found Michael's blog, Execupundit, through Nicholas Bate's blog and ever since I subscribed, I've been hooked on Michael's views on management, the workplace and life.

I'm always envious of bloggers like Michael who continually turn out not only excellent posts, but posts that make you question yourself and your work. Michael's posts take the form of random thoughts, quotes, links to other blogs, link posts and topical news.

Michael's blog isn't just for those in the levels of manangement though, it's for everyone. Michael is one of my blogs for recommended daily reading.

Carl Holscher recently wrote about the sharing culture in social media and his preference for remaining private in some of the services he uses.

Yesterday I signed up to the habit tracking service Lift on the recommendation of Curtis McHale. Lift at the moment say they have no settings to keep your profile private, however they do have a setting there to say that you are interested in such a feature.

Habit tracking is definitely something I'm interested in but this is something I would like to remain private in the long term. While I'm only in the initial phase of evaluating this product, I'm prepared to put up with a public profile for the moment. I don't wish to share on Lift mainly due to the reason that I don't know that many people using it and if I wanted to share, it would be with people I know.

And that sums up my rule really for sharing. If I'm a user of a product or service that involves such actions, I'll restrict my account settings so that I remain private or as private as I can be. If there's a number of people I know on that service, then I'll be a bit more public.

I like sharing, but I prefer my daily interactions such as habit tracking to remain private or only to be shared with people I know. So how do you know people without ever actually meeting then? That's another blog post for another day.

Matt Gemmell has an excellent post on the community that has built up around App.Net and why he'd like you to consider joining.

The practical effect, which I notice daily, seems to be that people are more willing to participate in conversations, and also more careful about how they express themselves. Such a broad generalisation has no hope of being true for everyone, but it’s been my consistent perception during the months I’ve been using the service.

— App.Net for conversations by Matt Gemmell

Content is king. I hear this a lot when people refer to what drives the popularity of their blog. Which is okay when your blog is targeted as a specific audience, but does the same rule apply when your blog is personal?

Let me re-phrase that. Is your blog for you or your readers?

I've been very much of the mind that my blog has an audience. Not a specific audience but an audience all the same. My audience likes what I write. Since moving to Octopress though, I have been struggling about what to do with the content of my tumblelog. My heart says to include all the content here, but my head says no.

My tumblelog is a mixed bag of stuff including fixies, tech news and an assortment of links to my favourite posts on the blogs that I like to read. I like posting these things as it's what I like, but I'd still like to continue with a daily essay style post.

One way to maintain two audiences but in the same blog is to provide another RSS feed for readers to subscribe to. One feed will default to only the daily posts that I write while another feed will provide the full assortment of posts to enjoy. This way I hope to blog for myself but also keep the interest of readers in mind by not polluting their feed with posts they don't want to read.

If you continue to enjoy the daily posting routine of myself then stick with the current RSS feed. If you want something more varied then why not think about subscribing to the full assortment of stuff I'll be posting? The new feed will be ready early next week and of course I'll be posting the details here.

It’s become clear to me that there’s far too much stuff on my master list. It’s things that I want to do, but I’ve started reaching too far forward into the future and starting noting stuff down that I want to do but I won’t be able to do for at least six months.

Speculating on what I should be doing in months is no good. I need to see a short term list of things that I can be working on now rather than later. My master list is also slightly unbalanced.

One thing I can do about the issue of the number of items in my master list is to adopt an idea from
Kanban boards. In a previous role in an agile team, we kept a backlog of development cards that represented application changes that were next in line to be worked on.

In order to keep my master list lean but still keep a note of stuff for the future, I'm going to keep a separate backlog file that contains actions for projects that I want to do in the future but perhaps don't have the time in the near future. Doing this and reviewing it once a month will also mean that I can just forget about my backlog until I have cleared everything from my master list.

Next time you think about signing up to a free service, remember this:

via xkcd

... the Internet?

While social networks might not be at the forefront of your worries, there has been a rising interest in Twitter recently. Tim Bray lists his reasons why people are looking at alternatives to Twitter.

I've found that I wasn't really getting much from Twitter and have decided to take a little break from Twitter over the next few months to see if I really do need it.

You are not blogging enough. You are pouring your words into increasingly closed and often walled gardens. You are giving control - and sometimes ownership - of your content to social media companies that will SURELY fail.

— Your Words are Wasted by Scott Hanselman

The near opening paragraph to Scott Hanselman's latest post has been resonating in my head for a day now. In it, he champions the blog over the increasing walled gardens that social networks have become.

I've been thinking long and hard about leaving the world of social networks like Twitter, and just pouring out all my thoughts here. Writing has been something I've neglected in the last few months yet I really enjoy doing it. Rather than checking my Twitter timeline countless times per day, perhaps I should spend the time writing through the day.

I'll keep you posted on this one next week, however it's increasingly looking like I will take some time out from Twitter.

The mass market is no longer. There is almost no room left for the next Procter & Gamble or Google. Instead, you are far more likely to do your best work if you are willing to delight a few as opposed to soothe the masses.

— Take This Simple Marketing Quiz by Set Godin