Categories: Articles

How Do You Track It All?

I got an interesting email from Kevin Behringer from the Fly-Over Marketing Blog:

"I was listening to SPOS 110 and your point about a system to manage content and ideas really tied into a question I had for Foreword Thinking.

How do you manage it all?!?

You read a lot of books, blogs, etc. How do you record it all or track it to actually use it? One of the things I’m struggling with right now."

The truth is, I think we’re all struggling with this. So, in the spirit of sharing and me wanting to learn more about how others track everything as well, I thought I would answer, but then also tag some people I know (and others who I have never met, but would be interested in learning how they handle, manage and track this vast land of information) and hope that they Blog about this topic on their own spaces and share it with their readers.

For Web-based content (like Blogs, newsfeeds, etc…) I swear by Google Reader. For tracking purposes, I’ll either use the "Add star" button for content that I need to spend more time focusing on, or if I see a post that I think might be Blog-worthy. If it’s something bigger, I will use the "Share" option, so not only have I saved it, but I’m also enabling others to take a look. You can view my shared items here: Google Reader – Shared Items – Mitch Joel.

I know many people use online social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us to do similar actions, but I tend to use my del.icio.us for content I feel like I might need further down the road.

I still subscribe to a lot of e-newsletters (believe it or not). I blast through my inbox fairly quickly, but if there’s something I think I need to track, I either drag it into a Microsoft Outlook folder called, "Blog" (for stuff I think I might Blog about) or "Print" (for longer articles that I want to print up and take on business trips).

If I am not plugged in with my laptop, I swear by my BlackBerry for all tracking. I simply use the "Notes" section for any (and every) idea. It could be a Blog posting, a URL to check out, or an idea for a slide that I would like to create.

I also use a regular notebook. I’ll take notes on everything from potential Blog posting ideas and stuff to talk about in the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast to ideas for the Six Pixels of Separation book and business ideas.

Overall, I don’t record or track anything with the intent of keeping it around forever. I think that specific philosophy makes it all easier. Odds are if I saved, tracked, tagged or recorded something for future use and I have not used it after a couple of weeks, I’m comfortable purging it entirely.

So, how do you track it all?

I’ll tag:

1. Chris Brogan.

2. Shel Holtz – A Shel Of My Former Self – For Immediate Release.

3. David Weinberger – Joho The Blog – The Cluetrain Manifesto – Everything Is Miscellaneous.

4. Joseph Jaffe – Jaffe Juice – Life After The 30-Second Spot – Join The Conversation.

5. Bryan Eisenberg – GrokDotCom – Waiting For Your Cat To Bark? – Call To Action.

I’ll also tag five people I have never really connected with, but I am interested in hearing their thoughts on this:

1. Steve Rubel – Micro Persuasion.

2. Robert Scoble – Scobleizer – Fast Company TV.
3. Brian Clark – Copyblogger.

4. Richard MacManus – ReadWriteWeb.

5. Jeremiah Owyang – Web Strategy.

Now, let’s see who plays and if they tag others.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.