On the back of an article I read recently via Khoi Vinh’s archives at Subtraction, I’m taking on the much needed task of de-cluttering one of the most important information sources in my daily realm, RSS feeds.

Over the past few months since my last cleanup I’ve accumulated hundreds of new feeds, picking up more and more as each day passes. I’ve finally come to my senses that one can have too much information coming in at once. It really isn’t a good feeling.

How about keeping it simple and just subscribing to fewer feeds? Do we really need to ingest content from 100 sources? And do we really need more software to make managing our addiction easier?

It’s about priority. Come on, these are feeds—they aren’t children. You can toss a lot out without shedding a tear. You won’t miss them once you make the effort to forget them.

JF over at 37 Signals states an inspiring fact as pulled above, do we need content coming in from so many different sources, many just re-stating what others have already said? Probably not. Are we going to miss feeds if we make an effort not to? Surely not. He makes a great point which really inspires me to remove not only unessential RSS feeds, but clean up other aspects of my life.

RSS feeds don’t need to take up hours of your life each day, they can easily be slimmed down without much loss on your part. Do you really need all that extra stress of knowing you have dozens of unread posts to catch on from Engadget when you wake up, after your lunch, and then again before you head to bed? Think about it hard, if something really is important in the news, you’ll hear about it elsewhere.