What's your feed reading speed?

If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. -- Peter Drucker? [1], [2]

As a follow-up to Afraid to click? How to efficiently process your RSS feeds I decided to time a few of my RSS processing and organizing [3] sessions. I've included the results below, with average time spent/post in bold. (Note: See the above article for the simplified workflow I use.)

Here are the results:

Test 1

#    : 139 posts
avg  : 33 minutes / 139 posts -> 14 seconds/post

Test 2

#    : 81 posts
avg  : 26 minutes / 81 posts -> 19 seconds/post

Test 3

#    : 242 posts
avg  : 43 minutes / 242 posts -> 11 seconds/post

Test 4

#    : 132 posts
avg  : 22 minutes / 132 posts -> 10 seconds/post

hits : 24
7 new to-read articles, 4 posts to reply to

Crucial to rapid processing is having a great follow-up system - especially an Actions list (I have a "To-Print" sub-category) and a Read/Review cache.

On curious thing I noticed: When I'm timing myself I'm much more aware of the two minute rule, which results in a more focused, more efficient session.


So how does this compare with your speed? I'd be very curious to hear some of your stats!

Note: If you try this experiment for yourself, you might also want to track how many "hits" you had, i.e., how many of the total # of posts passed the first phase. In Firefox you can get a quick count of open tabs by closing the window. It will ask you to confirm, and the message contains the count: "You are about to close ____ tabs. Are you sure you want to continue?". WARNING: It's possible to turn this off, so first do a dry-run, or bookmark the group of tabs (control-shift-D in Firefox) just in case!


References

• [1] This quote is often attributed to Peter Drucker, but a bit of digging indicates it's not that clear. Searching for the phrase - and the original "If you can measure it, you can mange it" - yields some surprises. For example, A Hacker's Guide to Project Management credits it to Tom DeMarco, who starts with it in his book Controlling Software Projects: Management, Measurement, and Estimates.
  
  However, going back a bit, the book Measuring the Value of Information Technology says it was Lord Kelvin who originated it:

  It was the scientist Lord Kelvin who said, "When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science." Later, this statement was abbreviated to "if you can measure it, you can manage it," and "if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it."

  BUT, even further back the authors of Geography Matters! state "The Renaissance astronomer Rhaticus suggested that if you can measure something, then you have some control over it." Wikipedia has more at Rheticus.
  
• [2] You might also enjoy To Improve Productivity, Measure It First.
  
• [3] More at How to process stuff - A comparison of TRAF, the "Four Ds", and GTD's workflow diagram.
  
• [4] For bloggers this is why you should use great titles (see 8 Ways of Creating Compelling Blog Post Titles). Sadly, I admit I should use more care in titles. For example, instead of Four small Gmail tweaks Google could make to increase user productivity, it should have been more dramatic, e.g., "Four small Gmail changes that could save the world $500M" :-) Oh well, something for my lessons learned file!
  
• [5] Exceptions: Email-based feeds, which have no corresponding URL to view - must be read in situ. See Move email-based subscriptions to RSS for why you should not be receiving news via email.
  

Comments

[Anonymous]

posts : 180
time : 15 mins
avg time per post : 5 secs
http://www.netreputation.co.uk/Personal%20Development
their directory of other topics at http://www.netreputation.co.uk/

[Matthew Cornell]

Anonymous, I am humbled by your speed! Great list - thanks for the pointer.

[Jeri Dansky]

I just gave this a try. As I started out I felt stressed about trying to keep my times as short as possible - and then I decided to not worry about it, and I relaxed and read at a comfortable speed. It's a data point, not a contest!

posts: 83
time: 27 minutes
avg time per post: 20 seconds

And another thank you to anonymous for the pointer to netreputation.

[Matthew Cornell]

Hey Jeri, It's a data point, not a contest! THANK YOU for this - very helpful perspective.

[Dan Markovitz]

Okay, so I'm a bit of a Luddite (comparatively). I have a few feeds, but not as many as you or the other readers. I just can't imagine spending that much total time reading blog posts -- I feel like there are so many other, more important, things I can do with my time.

[Matthew Cornell]

Hey Dan, thanks for your perspective. It's always good to be reminded to think about what we've invited (or allowed) into our lives, and whether it's a way we want to spend our precious time on.

For me, staying on top of ideas and trends in my field, and commenting, is a way to continue to develop my knowledge and my role as a leader (via comments).

Excellent point, though - thank you.

(Note: I *did* drop my Google news subscriptions, which I had set up to capture terms like "personal productivity," "GTD," etc. It was a good call!)

[Andy]

One of the fractal thoughts we see over and over is the more you focus on something, the greater your control over it.

To Drucker be it management, to meditation may it be stillness, to dieters seeing calories, to David Allen and the reticular system.

The more we allow ourselves to see, the greater we can affect those things around us.

It's those who shrink away at seeing that I have the most trouble with. ;-)

[Matthew Cornell]

Andy: The more we allow ourselves to see, the greater we can affect those things around us. OK, deep thought of the day. Thanks for abstracting!

[Sarah Elkins]

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts” -- Albert Einstein

Just another perspective!

[Matthew Cornell]

Sarah, I appreciate the perspective indeed - overdoing measurement can get in the way of what's important. I also appreciate the role of measurement in science (and self-employment): An objective measure often provides surprises that run counter to what we "know." Along those lines, my former boss recommended [ How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life | http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0029117062?ie=UTF8&tag=masidbl-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0029117062 ]. However, I didn't make it through... ;-)

[Sarah Elkins]

"overdoing measurement can get in the way of what's important" -- yes, that's a good way to put the risk. I do agree that measuring can point up blind spots and flaws in "common wisdom". Configuration management (part of my job) measurements can be very useful for change management (e.g., a spike in build breaks can point to a need for a process check).