Keeping Up With Alerts

    I, like everyone else it seems lately, have been having trouble keeping up with alerts.  So I've changed how I keep up with everyone's journals. 

Of course, right now I'm behind because I was away all weekend, but here is my new system which seems to work, when used correctly.

First of all, I made a list of all the journals I read.  Long list!  I actually made this list by saving all the links into my favorites.  Then I went into my "Manage My Alerts" and deleted all of them.  Whew!  Took a lot of pressure off.

Then I listed the journals that I have in my sidebar (and that will be growing soon), along with the journals whose authors have been regularly commenting in my journal.  I turned the alerts on for all of these, and to be on the safe side, I also put them in a favorites folder under the title "Commenters".  Because these journalers regularly comment in my journal, I do not want to be rude and not read and comment in their journals on a regular basis; and besides, these are my favorite journals!  These are the journals that I will try to keep up with on a regular basis; daily or every other day.

Then I picked out the specialty journals (like the Vivi Awards, Journals Tournaments, etc) and some journals that I read, but that aren't updated on a regular basis, and I turned on their alerts.  That way when they are updated, I won't miss them.  I also, to be on the safe side, put them in a favorites folder entitled "Intermittant".  I will check them weekly, just to make sure I haven't missed an alert.

Then I looked at all the journals I had left.  These are journals that I like to read, and sometimes comment in, but who don't comment in my journal, or who don't do so regularly.  I don't want to miss out on these journals, but I just have to give myself some freedom from an overwhelmingly, incredibly daunting number of journals alerts.  So I divided these into journals that I really, really like and have been reading for a long time, and newer journalsthat I'm basically just checking out.  I put none of these on alerts, but have them in my favorites section in folders entitled "Good Journals" and "New Journals".  I will set aside an hour once or twice a week to visit these journals and catch up for the week.  Since for most of them I have never commented on every entry, anyway, I don't think it will hurt their feelings if I don't visit them every day.

So anyway, that is what I did last week, and it was working until I got busy with stuff here at home and then went out of town over the weekend.  It has drastically cut down on the number of alerts I am getting, so I don't feel so overwhelmed.  If you read and comment in my journal regularly, then you'll probably see your name in my sidebar; and if it isn't there yet, it will be.  And know that I do have your journals on alerts, because how could I get through a week without keeping up with your lives on a regular basis??

Tags: Journals alerts, comments