Newly Corporate

Google Reader makes my news reading 100% faster and more enjoyable, I use it for everything. From the latest tech news to Generation Y career advice to political opinion, it all comes flowing through my reader saving me the time of hopping all over the internet to keep up with the things that interest me but, is it helping me do my job?

It certainly speeds up my access to information but when that happens I tend to add more and more information to the mix until I am again spending too much to reading. Until I realized that it’s not about just speeding up what you read but changing how you read it.Google built in the keyboard hot keys (the most common being j and k for skipping forward and backward) for a reason, their power users who had discovered how to read feeds properly needed them to do it even faster. Robert Scoble reads 622 tech-related feeds every day! Many people have great tips on how to read your feeds better and faster but, my question is, does it really help you in your day job?

I think it does in an area described by one of industry’s favorite buzz phrases, external focus. As an employee in any business, the best way to gain productivity from your feed reading habit is to constantly keep your interests and those of your company/industry/project in the back of your head as you buzz through feeds like a caffeinated bee goes from flower to flower. How can this information help you in the latest project your boss gave you? Can your side project or committee be improved with some new web 2.0 technology or open source tool? Does a recent merger or acquisition bode well or not so well for your company? These are just a few questions that can help you in the pursuit of that elusive phrase “external focus” during your daily reads.

UPDATE: Here are two other great pieces on attention management and reader regulation.