As a web designer it’s extremely important that I stay on top of the latest news and trends in the world of design. Twitter has been a huge help with this. Before Twitter, I would scan a handful of design blogs to see if there was anything new and interesting. I have Google Reader set up with all my favorites but I never really use it. It just feels like information overload at times.
Now I know what you are saying, Twitter and information overload often go hand and hand. I completely agree. It’s extremely difficult to keep up with. That is why I love Tweetie 2, specifically it’s integration with Instapaper. Now I never used Instapaper before but signing up is really easy. Now when I’m browsing through my Twitter feed and I see something that looks interesting I can post it to Instapaper to read later. This is very useful because I often don’t have time to read everything that looks interesting.
When I do find time to catch up on all my design news, I go to my Instapaper site and open each clipping into it’s own tab. I start reading everything and if something is especially good then I save it to my Delicious account. This allows me to go back through my “design library” in case I need that page again. It’s a wonderful system that I have going.
Before Instapaper I would favorite links through Twitter to read later but this isn’t exactly what the feature was made for. I’d have to clean out my favorite tweets after I caught up on things. There is no cleaning out Instapaper. When you click on a link to read Instapaper automatically takes the link out of the queue and archives it.
It’s now super easy to stay on top of everything I want to because of Twitter, Tweetie 2, Instapaper and Delicious. If your a designer or if you follow any kind of niche subject I would try this kind of system out.
