In an industry like ours, where we read tons and tons of articles on a daily basis, the necessity of an RSS reader outranks many other tools in our arsenal. Each morning, I start my day by opening up my reader and sifting through the many articles hoping to identify industry trends and news that are relevant to my clients.

Personally, I use Google Reader to organize my feeds and each of my clients has a dedicated folder within the tool. All publications that are deemed important or relevant to each client are subscribed to and filed their respective folders. I prefer Google Reader due to the simple, integrated search feature offered. Ever try to find that one article you read several weeks ago only to find you can’t remember where you saw it? Google Reader allows you to type in keywords, exactly like its parent search site, and voila! Up pops a list of potential matches found within your individual leader. The amount of time saved is worth its weight in gold.

GigaOm’s Dawn Foster admitted today that, like me, she is an “RSS Junkie.” As such, she’s learned how to skillfully navigate her Google Reader to maximize her productivity in the tool. She posted a great article today titled, “5 Tips for Getting the Most out of Google Reader,” that highlights several best practices she has honed.

Her tips include:

• Learn Keyboard Shortcuts – This is an incredible time saver, in and of itself. My favorites are the use of the “j” and “k” buttons to jump from article to article. No more scrolling for me!
• Go Full Screen – This is for those of us who are easily distracted by the many applications we have constantly running on the screen. Sometimes it’s worth it to give your full attention to a relevant article for a minute or two.
• Ditch the Homepage – Set your home page to the folder that you deem most important. This will eliminate the potential of getting distracted by the suggestions on the preset home page.
• Group and Prioritize – This should be mandatory if you use this tool. Lumping the feeds together (for example, by client) helps you to prioritize which feeds should be read right away, and which can wait for later.
• Use Trends – Found on the left side of your Google Reader, the trends provide valuable insight into where you spend your time. This is useful for those times when you need to trim the fat a bit; you’ll know which feeds are less useful to your work.

Do you have any other tips to add? Do you use another tool for your RSS feeds? I’d love to know if you have found anything more useful than Google Reader.