Wednesday, May 28, 2008

What a colorful month! (Plus a tech time-saver.)

Can you believe the month is over already? The Celebration Of Color was so inspiring - I have been completely blown away by the unique ideas that have been presented here (and I hope that you have, too!).

As some of you may know, I'm in the middle of a big move. My husband has taken a new job and our family is moving to Northern Virginia. Even though I've been through big moves in the past, moving seems to be the one thing in life that doesn't matter if you've been through it before or not. Experience doesn't make it any smoother!

So, my main challenge lately has been saving time (primarily because I feel like I don't have enough of it!). I don't know about you, but blogs can be my downfall! I get pulled in and then the domino effect starts - I follow link upon link, and before I know it, I've spent four hours in cyber crafty goodness!

My solution? Google Reader. Like the other Google services, it's free and user-friendly. Go to www.google.com/reader to get started! You will want to open an additional window/tab on your browser so that you can toggle back and forth for your setup. Once you have a blog that you would like to add (like OURS!), you're going to want to cut and paste the blog address. In Google Reader, you will see ADD SUBSCRIPTION in the middle of the left column. Click there and then paste the blog address and hit add! It's that simple.

You might be wondering how this saves time exactly. What Google Reader does is alerts you when your favorite blogs have been updated, saving you time from going to all of them individually to read them. For instance, you'll see that the Pursuit of Craftyness was updated; click on it in your left margin, and it will bring up the new entry. (Want to leave a comment? Click on the blogs name in the large portion, and Google Reader will re-direct you to it, and you would comment as usual.) After you have read it, Google Reader will mark the entry as read and you can move on to another unread blog post. It's really that simple! And since it's Google, it's fool-proof!

I hope this helps you save a little valuable time. Just think of the great creations you can make with the time you save!

Be well. ~ Jenn

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jenn, Isn't goodgle reader just great. I have been using it for awhile now and your link is in it. It is such a great time saver.

Linda Beeson said...

Well, since I get into that domino effect with blogs all of the time, I'm thinking this is a good "need to know"! Thanks!

Julia Sandvoss said...

Great tip Jenn!!

Miki said...

And I thought I was the only one who got sucked into the "land of lost time via blogs". I am off to check off about using this, thanks for the great tip Jenn!

Cassie said...

yes, google reader definetly makes blurfing faster! A tip I learned recently is if you select "NEW ITEMS" instead of ALL ITEMS above the section where posts show - it will load them all at once and you can really scroll and read fast. This just makes me happy as I hate waiting for it to "load" each blog.

BethW said...

Thank you-you explained it a whole lot better than google. Now I can use it!

Anonymous said...

OMG! i signed up as soon as i read this yesterday. I used it today and i swear i saved at least an hour of time!

there are so many blogs that i dont frequent simply from lack of time, now i can check all the things i never get to look at!

Thank you so much!!!!

DeeDee said...

Cool...I'll check that out....thanks for the info!!!