Just returned from a long weekend spent camping in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. While it was heaven for my son (pictured above), it was not quite my cup of tea. Though we did have a good time despite buckets of rain the first night and ridiculous humidity, I just don’t think having fun should require that much effort. Plus, it makes me uncomfortable to be unplugged. I know you’re supposed to take a break from online activity and it should be refreshing and all, but all things being equal, I’d rather be plugged in.
I learned something though, that I wanted to share with you before I crash into my nice cool, dry bed. Trying to read tons of blogs and process all the information that is coming at you can actually be counterproductive. I try so hard to get through all the great posts that are written every day that I rarely take the time necessary to process the information into ideas. I might have passing thoughts as I blow through all the feeds, but I don’t take the time to write things down and ruminate on the content. This weekend, I had saved up posts to read in Google Reader’s offline mode, and I spent the time in the car reading through them, writing down thoughts I had as I read and then expanding on those thoughts to more complete post ideas. It was super productive and a practice I think I need to engage in more often.
I also realized how lopsided my regular reads are. I read lots of great blogs on blogging, but relatively few on design. Help me out here- what are your favorite design blogs?
