How to Stay Informed in Spite of the Fact You're Incredibly Busy

Often, I feel so busy that I'm sure that I don't have time to sleep or eat, much less keep on the news. But, I've found that I can keep up on the news, even if I'm incredibly busy. Here are a few ways that you can implement in 5-10 minutes that will allow you to access the information you need to have to understand what is going on in the world around you.

The Easiest Way: Set up a My Yahoo! or Google Homepage and set your web browser to open up to it--set it as your start page. You can do this in the options or preferences of your web browser.

You will have the option of adding feeds from various news sources (as well as many other gadgets and options). Both Yahoo and Google make it easy to do this. In addition you can add RSS feeds from sites that intererest you. Here is a website that describes how to find RSS feeds on the web. Often you can get a feed simply by clicking on the RSS icon in the right side of the address bar of your browser.

Here are directions for adding RSS feeds to a Google Homepage, as well as directions for setting up a Google Homepage.

I used a My Yahoo! page for years, and had weather, TV listings, movie listings, earthquake news--all sorts of stuff on it--all this in addition to more serious news. So it was a good place to start when I logged onto the Web. Yahoo! made it very easy to add sources of news like The New York Times, The LA Times, the BBC, and Reuters; as well as more specialized, but very important sources like Human Rights Watch and the National Resources Defense Council. (If someone wanted to know what news sources to add, I would add the above 5--or, e.g. the Chicago Tribune if you're in Chicago, rather than the LA Times.) So, I'd turn on my computer, and there it was--all sorts of information on what was going on around me locally, and in the world more globally. A Google Homepage would work the same way. And it's really amazing; when you get used to seeing important news when you turn on your computer, you come to expect it (see Hume), and you get used to reading it, and suddenly this giant world of ours seems a bit less mysterious.

Other Sites:There are other sites that will allow you to collect and view RSS feeds as well. Some are these are Newsgator and Netvibes I am a fan of Netvibes, though more people use Newsgator.

There are other pages on the web that collect news stories that are worth reading. They don't update all the time, as does Inform.com. The best of these is, I think, truthout.org

There you have it. It will take you five, maybe ten minutes to set up your computer so that you easily can follow what is going on in the world. And the information will be there whenever you turn on your computer, or open up a new webpage.