About this column
I might’ve unsubscribed from your blog recently. You might want to think about unsubscribing from mine, too. Here’s why.
First, some context about me {and maybe about you, too}:
- I’m a creative solopreneur {for the purposes of this post, I’ll assume you’re one, too}, one whose business is mostly online and is doing this because despite what the world would tell us, we believe we can do our Thing in this world our way and create a far deeper and greater impact than we could do any other way.
- We consume a lot of information every day/week in the form of blog posts, e-books, e-courses, videos, audios, podcasts, e-newsletters.
- We deeply respect and value the contributions of others and enjoy engaging with multiple points of view, so much so that sometimes others’ voices start to encroach on our own.
- We’re thinkers and highly creative people. We value original creation, inner knowing {also called intuition}, inspiration, and infusions of new sensitivity to our next direction. Our minds spin continuously around the pinwheel of all that is hot for our consideration.
And so, this can mean that our minds can get a bit overcrowded. Our vision can get blurry. Mish-mash-y. Not so brilliantly honed, especially when we don’t protect them from too much incoming. If you identified with most of the bullet points above, I know you know what I’m talking about.
This is where I am lately. I’m always seeking to make keener entrepreneurial moves and I’ve observed that too much input, as radically awesome as that input may be, is not helpful toward that end. In short, reading too much of other people’s stuff hampers the generation of my own. Can you relate?
I’ve decided that to counteract the blur and hum and white noise of so much information consumption, I’ve got to winnow down what I take in.
So I’ve started the wave of unsubscription from many blogs, some of them ones I’ve been reading for quite a while.
A lot of what I’m stopping reading is very good stuff. Stuff I know I could learn from. Stuff from people I adore, or at least like a lot.
I’m even tempted to unsubscribe from ProBlogger right now, except that, you know, it’s ProBlogger.
And yes, I’m mightily concerned that I’m going to miss great stuff from other people, and miss out on participating in some great conversations.
But I’m even more concerned that I’ll miss my own great message. And when all’s said and done, that’s what we entrepreneurial folk are in search of, right?
The point of this post is to say that blog unsubscriptions — whether it’s me who unsubscribed or someone else — is very often not about you at all.
It might not be your content. It might not be your personality. It might not be that your brand jumped the shark. It might not even be that the reader is not your right person.
It might be, after all, just the timing. The reader may be fatigued. The reader may feel jaded. The reader may be personal or business crisis-ing and simply wish to stop all incoming. The reader may be earlobe-deep in a hot project of his own and just not interested in much else right now.
Don’t assume that an unsubscription means your stuff isn’t up to snuff.
Timing, sometimes, is everything.
So what did I keep incoming, you may be wondering? Here’s a short list of the characteristics that are feeding me right now, right where I’m at:
more personal discovery and creative development oriented than business strategy/tactic oriented; strong, compelling voice that I’m somewhat addicted to; blogger has personal, creative, and professional qualities that I aspire to develop in myself; unexpected post topics {not the usual “7 Ways To..” and “How To…” posts we see so many of — and yes, I’ve written some myself!}.
Have you ever been so up-to-your-earlobes-in-incoming that you’ve decided to winnow down? How did you decide which blogs to unsubscribe from and which to keep savoring? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
And by the way, thanks for reading this blog. I know just how precious your time and brain space is.
Hello, you.
{ 74 comments… read them below or add one }
Abby, I certainly understand that all the sources of information and distraction on the Internet can sap my time — and my creative energy.
I solve it with blogs by only subscribing to RSS feeds, and then sorting those feeds into folders in my feed reader. If I don’t want to pay attention to blogs, or a certain category of blogs, I can do it for as long as I want. But the feeds are still there, when and if I want to come back.
That is really smart, John. I wish I were more enchanted with my reader. I dig subscription-by-email. Perhaps I should give the old reader a second look after all. Thanks for sharing your strategy!
I use Snarfer, which allows sorting feeds into as many folders as I choose. It’s quite easy to use. Other readers may have similar features.
I’m the same, I much prefer email.. I usually forget to look at my reader! lol Which is why I go for the filter/folder option in my email box. Although I do send some RSS feeds to outlook, which I’m then prompted to look at on occasion when I open outlook. But usually I’m in gmail, so filters/folders just make more sense for me than RSS.
Now say that ten times fast. :)
LOL…
I agree with John on this one, a feed reader is key to keep info overwhelm at bay. I use GreatNews, have never found one better.
I find that having a set time to check your feeds is good and leave it at that. Also, if a blog is not doing it for ya at the moment, you can disconnect that feed – or delete it altogether.
Managing the information is key to keep your brain from imploding. And yes, when you really need to know something the Great God Google is there.
Hey, Jessa! Thinking I’ll have to give the wild world of feed readers a second look. :)
However, for me, it’s not so much a problem of time management — though of course I’d like to spend less time overall reading blogs and engaging more deeply with some of them — as it is an issue of too many voices crowding my own out of my head.
That’s exactly what I’ve been doing for a few years now.
Excellent point, btw, Abby. I think that many of us can relate to them.
Yes, I’m up to my earloads with *some* blogs, the ones I’ve been reading forever. I’ve been unsubscribing from dozens but also subscribing to ones that are more interesting to the personal me, not my old professional me. I’m shifting professional gears and melding those two people together. I still have my professional interests but I have them because I’m a geek about them. I’m enjoying blogs about stuff I just love and stuff I want to spend the rest of my life learning. I’m still having trouble cutting the cord to some but it won’t be long now.
Whoo-hoo for timely cord-cutting! :) I’m with you: turning over more of my brain space to personal/creative development blogs that will nurture more of the total me. I’m sure everything I want to learn on the more business-y side of things will be easily retrievable by Google when the time is right for learning, you know?
Yay for unsubscribing… wait… you still love us, right? ;)
I read other people’s blogs in a very hit and miss sort of way. It isn’t the best for networking, and yes, sometimes I miss out on things I would have liked to see, but if I read everything from everybody (or even somethings from somebody) my own voice, direction and ideas get drowned out.
I haven’t found a feed reader that really resonates for me, so I wind up just plonking subscriptions on my Google homepage, where I can scan them, ignore them, or hide them on other tabs. And I’ve found that even the former “must reads” (Problogger and Copyblogger, for example) arent so important at this point in my journey. I know where to find them later, but now? What I want is to read people who resonate, and help me sound more like me.
So that’s how I decide. For now :)
Yeeeeeeesssss, Tori. {Yes, I still love you…madly…and yes, I too have found that the “big boy” blogs — ProBlogger and Copyblogger — still rock but fail to inspire and invigor me as they once did}. I no longer believe that being a successful business owner equates with keeping abreast of every update from all the major blogs the day they come out. I’m just sort of relaxing into it now. And am glad to have you to hang out with!
I tend to subscribe, subscribe, subscribe until I have tons and tons of blog subscriptions (or Twitter feeds or Facebook friends or whatever). Eventually I am following so many that it gets to be a burden, and I’m so busy reading all of them that I miss my favorites or see even my most-beloved subscriptions as an obligation. Then I go through and massively thin out my subscriptions, keeping my friends’ blogs and any other favorites. The rest go. Right now I’m collecting subscriptions, but I feel like I’m starting to max out again, and pretty soon there will probably be a purging. It’s a cycle.
So true. It is a cycle. This isn’t the first massive unsubscribe campaign I’ve been through and I’m sure it won’t be the last! Glad to have your eyeballs on my blog, Caryn! :)
I totally hear you. I’m looking at unsubbing from a lot of blogs just because I’ve spent too much time the last couple of days trying to get caught up on my feed reader. John’s idea sounds like a great one! I really enjoy reading blogs most of the time, but I do experience what you’re talking about – sometimes I like to do little “internet detox” type things. The full-on version is going a week without any internet whatsoever & the lighter version is going a week without reading anyone elses’ blog. I love the internet, but sometimes it makes things awfully noisy in my head, and those two things help quite a bit (along with liberal blog unsubbing).
Hey, Chelle! Yes, I am all for a little internet detox every so often. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that ten years ago, our lives didn’t revolve around technology as much as they now do. The human animal wasn’t meant to be so plugged in all the time! It’s an adaptation we’ve made. And just like with all good things, moderation is key.
Abby, I really hear what you are saying.
I am still fleshing out my voice and my blogging vision, and so I am reading, reading, reading. The reading and learning feel necessary and positive most of the time, building me up until … suddenly I have read one too many posts about what I should be doing that I’m not, or whatever, and my confidence begins to erode.
It’s a real balancing act between gathering wisdom and advice, but then stepping back and allowing me to be me without criticism or comparison.
I do use a reader, though, which means I can do some picking and choosing. Thanks for the permission to not read everything.
What you said, Hilary. All of it. You summed up the dilemma and the tension perfectly. :)
That’s interesting Abby, all though I’ve gone through that very same stage a few times in my blogging years I still find myself reading and taking more info in. Not sure why, but it constantly sparks ideas, this post being one of them. I instantly thought of writing a post and linking back to this post, maybe calling it something like 10 Reasons I Unsubscribed from your blog (I have a lot of reasons as you can see).
You need to do what’s best for you though, when you’re feeling blurred you need to un-blur to move forward. Best of luck Abby, I look forward to seeing what kind of content you can put out now that you aren’t blurred.
Yeah, me, too! I’m looking forward to getting to a place in my writing where I’m not solely reacting or responding to what I’ve read other places.
Makes so much sense! Sometimes there is just TOO much out there, you can really get bogged down. I’ve done this with some of the people I follow on Twitter – mostly because they are tweeting so much that my entire screen is filled by 1 or 2 people and you know what? Their every thought is just not that interesting to me, and if I really want that info I will find it myself.
I notice that when I follow the voices that really resonate with me {whether via blogs or Twitter}, I don’t feel what we’re both talking about here. It’s having the courage to narrow that pool down, not look back, and don’t worry about what we think we’re “missing” that’s key!
I love this!!! and totally agree which is why I take digital sabbaticals and limit my on line reading – wise girl!
I find your Digital Sabbaticals really inspiring and necessary. Took my first one in Summer 2010 inspired by you and will plan another one for 2011 {maybe two?}.
Yikes, I can so relate. I’ve been feeling quite “foggy” myself lately. So I’ve decided that I’m going to take a journey back to clarity of purpose, and that includes streamlining the emails from blogs that come in.
Instead of deleting them or unsubbing though, I’m going to create folders and filters. That way, once I AM back to feeling clear, and I’ve got a lazy day w/ nothing to do but read… I can take a walk through what some of my favorite bloggers have been up to lately.
And of course there are a handful that I will keep and read regularly, they’re like my daily cup of coffee… lol. But yeeesh.. definitely feel you Abby girl!
Xo
Hey, Cori! Your “lazy day” statement reminded me of this: some days nothing sounds better than two hours of catching up on blogs with a cup of coffee or tea. I forgot that on those days, I could read forever. Guess those are the “fill up” days and I need to trust that they’ll come around regularly enough.
Still though, I find it tough to be part of “the conversation” — snarky eye roll here — when I’m not reading daily. You?
I’ve learned that sometimes it’s OK for me not to be “part of the
conversation” and just read, observe, and absorb. :) Sure I feel a bit out
of touch if it’s been awhile since I’ve visited, but I just shrug it off,
enjoy the read, comment if I feel compelled, and share if I find it
share-worthy.
I have been thinking a lot about headspace lately, and about how I can use my readers headspace better. Thanks for this.
Same here. That’s a real toughie. I find that the posts I’m most uncertain about publishing are the ones my readers really get down with, and the ones I think are “great, solid posts” just kind of are clunkers. I admire your beneath-the-surface approach in your writing, Bridget.
Hi Abby,
I recommend using Bloglovin – http://www.bloglovin.com –
I use it for the blogs I like to keep an eye on the most. It’s really easy to quickly scan through updates, click through to the ones that catch my interest and “mark as read” the rest.
Thanks, Susan! I look forward to checking out Bloglovin. :)
Hi Abby!
Oh, I definitely hear you on this one! ;)
Every so often, I go on a bit of a rampage and unsubscribe from blogs and newsletters that have become more clutter than they are worth at the moment. I usually decide which ones to drop by looking at how often I REALLY read them – and if I read them out of a sense of obligation or because I REALLY want to. ;)
I’m a big fan of the Reader as well, although it took me a bit to get into it. But now I love having the blogs all there when and if I want to check out what’s going on, without them all cluttering up my email inbox! ;)
Great topic! :)
Thanks, Jess. I hear ya on checking in on how often you really read them. I go by the Rule of 4. If I’ve only skimmed the last four posts from a certain blog or e-newsletter, I unsubscribe.
Oooh, I like that Rule of 4, Abby! Definitely going to use that one myself! :)
What a terrific & timely post, Abby! Especially heading into a new year . . . I think it is good to unplug a bit and let our own creative voice take the lead. :)
Absolutely! It’s good for the soul to experience some stillness, too, and not always be tethered to electronics.
I love this. Before I did Action Studio, I was a blog addict, constantly reading business and self-improvement blogs that helped me daydream about business. It was the work in the Action Studio process that broke through that, and now that I’ve become used to creating my own content and working on my own stuff, all that other stuff feels like noisy, noisy distraction. I’m still heavily tempted, because it’s what I was doing for relaxation, but it can easily suck away both your attnetion and your energy.
Yes, indeed. It’s so easy to get seduced by the lure of the blogosphere — and there is sooooo much good learning and engagement to be had there — but I think we each know intuitively when it’s time to bow out for a while. So cool to hear that Action Studio connected you to your own voice and message!
Re: “reading too much of other people’s stuff hampers the generation of my own. Can you relate?”
I can see how it does that. For me, when I reach those moments that I’m feeling like I have nothing to say, nothing to write, I turn to reading other people’s content or I make a stop by Barnes & Noble and pick up a few books. That boosts my creativity more than anything else!
I haven’t unsubscribed from much of any blogs really (except the ones that do a truncated feed). Instead, I’ve created all kinds of folders and prioritized what I read first and what I read later if at all. Categories like: Marketing & Social Media, Personal Development, Real Estate Technology, Content Strategy, Inner Circle (Yes I have a category for that), etc. I visit my Inner Circle group blogs first and then all of the other ones. I don’t always read everything but I’ve learned to skim very well :-)
I know – the problem with web 2.0 is all the white noise. I stopped checking my reader daily for a couple of days while I was hooked on a series of books and now I get too overwhelmed to scroll through every time I login because of the 650 unread items sitting there buzzing at me! I’ve also unsubscribed from blogs because they posted too often – the frequency just stressed me and my genY/gen-i (iGen?) attention span out!
Miriam
Abby! Yes! You nailed it. I have been unable to write lately. Not for a lack of ideas, not for a lack of creativity, but because a huge brain fog has descended upon me because I’m reading everyone else’s blogs…
I love them, and I love the insight they all give me, but they’re drowning out my own little interior voice.
I think I might have to start unsubscribing to a few blogs myself…
I have found that John’s suggestion (1st comment) works really well for me, too…
Have not yet started my own blog and found your explanation honest and helpful. TX Nicki
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But I agree. I quit reading freelancing blogs myself.
There’s so much convo out there on both sides about whether or not to read your industry peers/competition. I go both ways on the issue myself from time to time.
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