Google Reader Reading Flow

After returning from vacation last week, one of my first priorities was emptying out my Google Reader. catching up on the 1000+ posts that built up over the past month would be intimidating without solid Google Reader technique, so I thought this would be a perfect time to share my best tips and tricks for speeding up the Reader process.

First step is to jump into your settings and organize your feeds into folders. I keep a folder for each category of blogs I follow including tech, productivity, sports, personal finance, forums I participate in, and a folder for my favorite blogs which I've named “Stars.”

Change a feeds folder with the 'Add to a folder' drop down menu

The next step in my system is to change the Google Readers default view to something a little more practical. Switching to list view displays the blog name, date, and article name on a single line, instead of the entire article shown in the expanded view.

Change to list view by clicking 'list' in the top right corner

Combining the list view with my favorite Google Reader keyboard shortcuts cut out extra minutes out of my reader time that can really add up.

Shift + P and Shift + N – use this shortcut to navigate between previous and next subscription feeds in your reader.

Shift + X – open and close folders with this shortcut.

Shift + O – once you've landed on the correct feed use this shortcut to open and view all posts from that feed.

P and N – use the 'p' and 'n' keys to navigate between articles in a post.

O – use the 'o' key to open the article into expanded mode so you can read the entire article. Press 'o' again to send the article back into list view.

M – if you navigate to an article that doesn't look interesting, use the 'm' key to mark that article as read.

V – use the 'v' key to open an article from the original blog it came from in a new browser tab.

CTRL + W – close the new browser tab and return to your reader with this shortcut.

S – use 's' to star an item for later reading.

G then S – hit 'g' then 's' to view all your starred items

These are all the shortcuts I need in my daily routine, but here is a link to the full set of keyboard shortcuts if you want to explore. And that's about it! It may not seem like much but I would estimate it shaves a full 10 minutes per day compared to scrolling through expanded posts with my mouse. One final tip for anyone stuck in a situation like mine. If you have thousands of posts to get through, I find it useful just going through all of it and starring items you want to check out instead of reading them. After emptying out your entire Reader this way, you can go back to your starred items with the 'g then s' shortcut.