Taking back my attention
A few months ago, I set up an RSS feed while going through a period of intentional consumption and a social media detox. I don’t even remember exactly what drove me to it, but I’m sure I was simply fed up.. tired of how drained and sad I felt after just 30 minutes of scrolling through social media.
Before I talk about how RSS changed my habits, here’s a quick glimpse of what my mornings used to look like.
Before the Detox
6:00 a.m. Wake up. Turn off my alarm. Navigate to the clock app to silence the next few alarms..because they love to scream while I’m still in the bathroom, soaked in bubbles and soap 😂.
And right there, shining on my lock screen: a notification.
“Someone just liked your photo.”
Of course, I tap it, just to see which post it was. Somehow, ten minutes later, I’ve watched 20 reels. I can’t even remember the last 15, but I know I laughed, cried, and felt sad, all in that short time.
Ten minutes, and I’ve gone through a rollercoaster of emotions. That’s not normal. It’s like my brain’s being controlled by a remote…and the remote is the Reels algorithm.
Discovering RSS
I wanted to take back control of my attention, you know.. to be my own remote.
So I started researching healthier ways to consume content. That’s when I came across RSS. It’s been around for decades, though not many people use it anymore. Still, it was exactly what I needed.
I gathered blogs, newsletters, and creators I genuinely enjoy, added them to my feed, and started reading them whenever I felt the urge to scroll. The result? I began to enjoy reading again, without the noise. Over time, I noticed real changes in myself: My attention span improved. I became more patient. My days were a bit more boring, but a lot less sad. I felt… human.
Maybe I’ll write a separate post on the full benefits of a social media detox later, but for now, I want to share how I organized my RSS feed…and why you should too.
Setting Up My RSS Feed
I started by identifying my main interests: technology, philosophy, academia, photography, podcasts, and a few others.
One thing I quickly learned is not to add too many sources. Even though RSS gives you full control, too much content can make you indecisive again. So I kept my feed simple and intentional.
Here’s how I categorized it:
- Technology → YouTube, Reddit, Medium, tech blogs
- Philosophy → Email newsletters, personal blogs
- Photography → Favorite creators’ sites and photo journals
- Podcasts → RSS-enabled audio feeds
Under Technology, for example, I looked through my YouTube history and wrote down the creators I truly enjoy. I tagged each one so I could easily organize them later.
For blogs, many of my favorites already had RSS feeds… so instead of saving them in my linkding bookmarks, I added them directly to RSS. That way, I’d know the moment they published something new.
I’m also working on a separate post where I’ll share the blogs, creators, and newsletters I follow..so if you find any interesting, you can add them to your feed too.
Most newsletters go straight to email… which means they either get lost in spam or buried under other messages. And since I’ve turned off email notifications (they can be very distracting), I use a tool called Kill the Newsletter. It gives you a unique email address to subscribe to newsletters. Every email sent there is converted into an Atom feed that you can add to your RSS reader. It’s simple, and it keeps your inbox clean.
Within my categories, I use labels for my interests: infrastructure, homelab, Nix, NixOS, web development, and networking. That way, every item, whether it’s a video, blog, podcast, or newsletter, can be filtered by topic whenever I want.
It’s like having a calm, curated version of the internet that I control.
Final Thoughts
After setting everything up, I can confidently say: The remote to my attention and consumption is finally in my hands.. for now.
If something new comes along, I’ll adapt and share the journey here.
Until then, stay intentional. Bye for now!