10 Steps Towards InfoSanity

I was suitably inspired by this commentary on “keeping up.”

And so I’ll ask you what I asked myself over the last few weeks:
How many undealt-with messages do you have in your inbox?
How many paper magazines or newspapers do you get regularly?
How many RSS feeds do you subscribe to?
How many “must see” pages do you have bookmarked in your Web browser?

How many of these items make you happy, provide you with essential information, truly help you have a better life?

I’ll tell you where I stood a few weeks ago. 4,000+ e-mails in my inbox.  Over 100 e-mails coming in daily (and no, that doesn’t include mails at work).  Many thousands of unread blog items. Nearly a thousand to-do items.

Now I’m making progress. My inbox is down to fewer than 100 mails.  I’ve begun trimming my RSS feeds.  I decided not to renew two of my magazine subscriptions.  And I cleaned up my browser bookmarks.

Here are some of the cleaning techniques I’ve used; perhaps you’ll find some of them helpful.

1. I shifted over *all* my mail to Gmail.
If I don’t read an e-newsletter within a day or two, I archive it.  It’s available to be searched for later, but now it doesn’t clutter my inbox and I don’t feel compelled to read it.  Gmail isn’t a perfect e-mail reader, but—among other cool features—its one-click (or one-keystroke) way of archiving is a beauteous thing to behold.
2. I unsubscribed from a ton of e-newsletters.
I asked myself—have I found anything hilarious, invaluable, or otherwise important to my well-being in each subscription that I don’t already get elsewhere?  When I answered no (and I did, quite often), that subscription went POOF.
3. I learned to strategically answer personal mail.
Wherein the past, I’ve often tried to respond right away… or I’ve found myself replying to friends’ mails literally a year or more later, now I’ve brought a better balance into play.  Is the e-mail a query that can be answered quickly and easily, something involving a time-sensitive issue?  I now try to answer that sort of mail either right away or within a day.  Is it more of just a friendly conversation?  My goal now is 1-2 weeks. Mails that I determine should be replied to at a later time get tagged with a month name, and I check each of those tags towards the end of each month.
4. I adopted the handle-immediately-and-file habit on “impersonal” mail.
I either immediately read/skim and file newsletters and receipts and such, or cut and paste the critical portion into my calendar, Evernote database, or MyLifeOrganized to-do list and then archive.
5. I’m learning to treat RSS feeds as mercilessly as e-mail.
Not brilliant, critical, hilarious, massively useful, or something from a friend?  I’m unsubscribing (though I have SO many feeds that it’s taking me a while to get through the list).
I’m now using Rojo, an online reader.  Its overall UI and speed isn’t nearly as nice as my favorite desktop reader, NewzCrawler, but with Rojo I can catch up on work and personal feeds on my home computer (Windows), laptops (Windows), or work computer (Linux) as appropriate without having to worry about sync’ing issues.
6. Down with tech magazines.  And most other magazines.
Typically, the same content is available online, and in a more timely manner.  When I want to curl up in bed with something to read, or need something on the bus, I can bring one of those bound things with lots of text and no ads… I think they’re called a… a book or something like that!  And besides, after doing tech stuff all day, do I *really* want or need to be absorbing more tech in my free time?!
7. I’m prioritizing my guilty pleasures (reading fewer opinion columns, spending less time IM’ing…)
We can’t and shouldn’t cut out all the “lazy” activities (lolling around in bed with a crossword puzzle, watching The Simpsons), but we should wisely note that we can’t do *everything* we want and still accomplish all that we need to do (including sleep, exercise, and life planning).  Therefore, some stuff’s gotta go, whether that’s time spent playing video games, watching TV, beta testing non-work-related software, etc.
8. I’m learning to be at peace knowing that I just can’t know everything
Before I unsubscribed from dozens of e-lists and RSS feeds, I had this clammy fear that, oh God, I’m going to miss some critical posts on [x].  Overlooking the fact that the same info will likely turn up on another blog or journal that I read, there’s the more important retort:  So what?   So what if I’m 0.1 versions behind on my music player?  So what if I never hear that 73 Lightposts has just released a new, ultra-simple oh-so-amazing Web app?  Will my life go on if I never get to try yet another Goowyvibeycrunchy portal? [the answers, by the way, are:  I’ll live, that’s fine, and yes.]
9. I’m purging without guilt.
This is certainly related to #8, but… in RSS feeds in particular, I’m now much more ready to occasionally click the “Mark [entire directory of feeds] As Read” link.
10.  I’m spending less time annotating; if I need it, I’ll search for it.
Annotating and tagging takes time.  And there’s always the fear of… hmm… should I describe this in a more structured manner?  Use Access?  Excel?  It’s a lot easier—and sometimes just makes more sense—to archive it and forget it.

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Of course, it’s a bit ironic that I’m patting myself on the back for getting better at infomanagement and yet spending 30 minutes writing a blog post about it.  But hey, if this post can save a collective few hours for other folks, then it’s worth it IMHO.  Besides, getting this stuff out there in writing is further discipline fodder for me (“I already told people I’m not taking a year to answer e-mails… now I have to stick with this…!”)

Anyway, I hope my own discoveries are helpful for you.  Do chime in with comments about my tips, and please share some of your own!  It’s time well spent, I promise :-D

Thoughts on choosing a domain name

It’s easy to get your own space on the Web (Geocities, Google Pages, Live Journal, Blogger, etc.) without cost and without fuss.  So why get your own domain name?

• It can provide you with a nice vanity and (generally) permanent e-mail address… e.g., .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
• Same goes for a Web address; also, you can then host your site anywhere you want!
• It’s dang cheap!  $5-$10/year for the domain registration (+ optional Web site hosting costs, usually $2-20 depending on how much space/bandwidth/power you need)

In the rest of this note, I’ll cover very briefly how you get a domain name, and—more comprehensively—some things you’ll want to consider before choosing a domain name.

Actually getting, or “registering” a domain name is the easy part.  For $2-10, you can get a domain name at registrars like GoDaddy, Yahoo, and many other companies in literally a matter of minutes (though it can take a day or so for the domain to propagate, or go live across the net).  Make sure that whatever methods you use to register a domain name, you actually maintain full ownership!  Beware of registrars or Web hosts that offer seemingly fabulous deals on a domain + hosting but keep ownership of the domains for themselves!  You want the control and freedom to take your domain anywhere and put whatever (legal stuff) you want on it.

The hard part?  That’s choosing a domain name!  Granted, with domain registrations so cheap, you could just buy domains willy-nilly and not really commit… and in fact, there are quite a few folks (domain speculators, spammers, very very very indecisive or bored folks) who buy thousands of domains a month.  But let’s hope that’s not you.  I’m going to assume that you’re the thoughtful and careful and deliberating sort of person :-)

So with that said…

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Settle on a purpose and expected / desired audience

If you’re wanting to put your resume somewhere, sexyhotlegs.com is probably not your best bet (though I admit it depends on your profession). If you’re interested in voicing controversial political opinions or posting scary photos of your armpits under green light (or both), you may not want to reserve yourname.net. Use common sense, particularly weighing issues of personal and professional image, privacy, and anticipated and desired audience.

Consider spelling hassles

You are likely going to be mentioning your domain name in person and perhaps even over the phone quite a bit. Unless you really enjoy having to say for the one billionth time “Let me spell that for you…,” consider choosing a domain (or even a domain that points to your real domain) that is reasonably easy to write without thirty seconds of spelling and verifying.

Be afraid of lawyers

If you’re thinking about reserving yahu.com or sleshdot.com or waltdisny.com… don’t. It’s not cute, it’s not clever, and—though admittedly a few typo-squatters and the like do unfortunately make a lot of money from sewing confusion in this arena—it’s likely not worth the headache and stress of getting nastygrams and court summons.

Homonyms, numbers, and related issues

Be wary of sound-alike words (bearplace or bareplace?), numbers/abbreviations-vs-words issues (is it happy2seeu or happytoseeyou…?), and so on. These ambiguous domains create confusion not only when spoken, but even pose memory-challenges for people wanting to revisit your domain. Even worse, if someone else has a similar domain in this context, you can pretty much bet that not only web surfers but also e-mail messages are going to get misdirected.

Avoid-names-like-this

They look spammy. Seriously, given smartautos and smart-autos, which domain looks more professional to you, and which one are you likely to remember when surfing or e-mailing?

Length matters

Think of length… even as it relates to your business card, online design, and so on. If your name is Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre, I respectfully recommend you think twice before using your name as your domain.

Yes, Virginia, there’s a world beyond the U.S.

And some of the folks there even speak languages other than English. You may not care if your blog domain name translates as “Ugly dog urine” in Swahili, but you may want to do at least a bit of language checking. If you’re getting a domain name for a serious business, you may also want to examine international intellectual property (e.g., trademark) issues as well

Bluntly obvious or open-endedly opportunistic?

On one hand, you have companies like amazon, expedia, and yahoo who named their domains (probably intentionally) in a way that was deliciously flexible. On the other hand, you have sites from the moderately bounded (esurance.com, travelocity) all the way to the tightly focused (danceshoes4u, danishhistory.denmark.dk).

Which is better? That’s a great question! You can certainly find success stories all over the spectrum.

Personally, I’d tend towards the more general and/or non-dictionary-worded domains. Time and time again, we’ve seen that outstanding organizations have started off with one focus, only to develop into significantly different areas due to market pressures, new interests from the executives, and so on. Such topical expansion isn’t easily handled with a topically restrictive domain name.

Others might argue that the more tightly-focused domain names will be significantly favored by the search engines and offer snappier and faster brand insight to consumers. While I can understand the latter, I personally give little credence to the former [as always, note my BLADAM disclaimer!].

At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you make a conscious, not accidental, decision in this realm, understanding the benefits and disadvantages of general/imaginative vs. blunt/focused domain names.

Be wary of non-friendly relationships with your .com and .net neighbors

It may seem frustratingly limiting, but IMHO I’d avoid registering a, say, .org domain if the .com is already taken… especially if the .com is prominent. At least in America, I believe that most folks think “dot com” by default, and so you’re likely to get lots of people visiting yoursite.com and mailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) even though you registered the .org. At the very minimum, make sure your non-dot-com registration is done in the context of an amiable relationship with the .com holder, so that if he or she does get misdirected e-mail, they’ll be sure to forward it on to you. Or, better yet, they might even create a forwarding alias, automatically redirecting mail from .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Be aware of unintentional word combos

When the folks behind Experts Exchange registered expertsexchange.com, they probably didn’t have transgendered folks as their intended audience. However, with a brief look at their domain name, I think you’ll now understand why they’ve since rebranded themselves as experts-exchange.com. Don’t make the same (amazingly not-uncommon) mistake.

And last but definitely not least… apply the Friends Test

Ask your friends… “What do you think of [domain you’re considering], and don’t be afraid to be blunt!” You’ll be shocked and grateful, I’m sure, at the insights—sometimes quite obvious insights you’ve overlooked—that you’ll get from your friends. Ask them how they’d spell your domain, what the name brings to mind, whether it sounds too suspiciously like something else, and so on.

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Do I practice what I preach? Reasonably so, I think. BLADAM is “The Blog of Adam” or “The Blatherings of Adam” and it’s pretty easy to spell (“B-L and Adam, my name”) and nicely short. Lasnik.net… well, it’s not super-easy to spell, but it’s unambiguous and it’s been a decently professional place for me to place my resume.

I’m also proud of Ascena (and ascena.com)—what I renamed a German company I once worked for (formerly “fortISinformationssysteme”—whew!). Pleasantly evocative (“to ascend”) in multiple languages, short, pretty easy to spell, and (at least formerly) available in a ton of domains (ascena.de, ascena.com, etc.)

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I hope my thoughts on domain naming have been helpful! I welcome your opinions and questions below :-D