How do people keep on top of numerous Slack, Linkedin, Facebook channels

margaretcarey·Jun 30, 2022

I'm interested in a lot of areas (Climate, AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity Productivity, Education and over the years have subscribed to lots of Groups (meetups, slack, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter). My question is around having the headspace to keep on top of some of them. I have set up a separate email address for notifications, etc from these groups so actual tracking is not an issue. I don't allow them to clog up my email. Then there is keeping on top of Linkedin and an eye on people I want to support and follow plus business support groups such as this one.

Danyelle·Jun 30, 2022

Hi Margaret!I use a mix of gcal, notion (or whatever favorite productivity tool you like), and email. I block off my calendar 1x or 2x a week (or block X time for each topic you’re following) for 2 reasons: 1) learning: spend time reading up on all my networking circles, blogs, podcasts, and whatever else your following2) comms: follow-up on any emails related to these topics (incl connections made)I’ll use notion keep track of interesting posts I’ve read and any new connections. Also note - there will always be something new to read, so the goal isn’t to hit inbox 0 (my pov). It’s to get a pulse check on what’s happening. Hope this helps!

margaretcarey·Jun 30, 2022

@Danyelle thanks this is helpful. I'm doing some of it though not as rigorously as I probably should. I'm a big fan of Notion. I used it at a company where I worked a few years ago. For personal notetaking, I use Evernote and have got lots of tips and inspiration from Tago Forte's Building a Second Brain - https://fortelabs.co/blog/basboverview. I haven't done the course just picked up lots from his youtube videos. When creating notes, I try to use as many keywords as possible e.g for a note related to my energy bill, I will use #energy, #electricity, #British Gas (UK energy company). For spreadsheets or document files I use on an adhoc basis (e.g once a year or less) I store the file name (lots of keywords in the file name!) and file paths of USB drive where the file is stored. Your response has helped clarify my question a bit further. My question is more about the volume of information I'm trying to cover. I think I need to be more disciplined, and ruthless about the quantity of info I read and also get better at archiving. Having worked for >20 years and being on the planet longer, data has started to build up!! I ask myself if there is going to be use for this nice /pleasing to read info, particularly given I'm not going to remember much of the detail. In the past, I used to read weekly curated articles sent to me by Pocket. Very interesting articles, but reading them takes time and Energy. If I was a writer or researcher I could save all this material in Evernote and use it as inspiration for future articles or research! I am neither of these. But, reading one of these articles can give an amazing bit of inspiration that might change my life. Or being a member of one of the Slack or Facebook groups can give me access to great information that will benefit me massively. I suppose I'm getting to "the fear of missing out and how to tackle that.

LeaMK·Jul 01, 2022

I'd +1 a lot of what @Danyelle said (Danyelle, would you share how you use Notion to keep track of interesting posts in more details?). My strategy is similar:- narrow down the list of sources (communities, newsletters, individuals) you follow - be ruthless and keep only the most interesting. Also make sure you don't follow the same source across multiple platforms, since we tend to cross=post about the same article to drive more traffic, which as a reader has zero added value and makes you lose time.- keep all the sources out of the way of daily work - which it sounds like you already do. I have rules in my inbox to filter notifications and newsletters into folders, by topic. I keep Twitter/LinkedIn etc. closed when it's not "reading time".- on social media platforms like LinkedIn, use all the tools available to you - unfollow people you don't care about, interact with posts that are interesting. Edit your feed as much as possible and play into the algorithm so that you're always shown in priority content you actually engage with.- block time to process this data - Danyelle says she does 1x or 2x a week. I tend to do it 1x a day: open LinkedIn, Twitter, Elpha, Slack groups, skim through the latest posts. Skim all the newsletters. As I do this, I open any link I want to actually read into new tabs. Then I have my little to-read list. It's usually short enough that I go through it right away, or sometimes I'll keep a few articles for later in the day when I need a break. I do this every day so that posts don't accumulate too much.- keep track and file the good bits - I also use Notion for this. I keep it super simple: I copy/paste interesting parts into the relevant notebook and add the source link. There's probably better ways to do it!

margaretcarey·Jul 04, 2022

@LeaMK thanks. I like1. Keep Linkedin closed2. Open new tab for articles which I do3. Block time to process

Danyelle·Jul 09, 2022

@LeaMK - love your approach - very similar as well! I'll preface with mine is nothing fancy. I think of mine like a scratch-pad- regarding keeping up to date on connections, I use the following table in my personal notion (attached screenshot) - in terms of tracking great articles, agreed on the approach of narrowing down list of sources. I use notion to hyperlink and good articles in a word-like format. When i block my calendar 2x a week, i'll first browse my newsletters --> then look at my notion to hyperlink based on themes (management, ops, etc)What do you use Lea?