Yes, I agree with Anne about needing to make a conscious effort to develop a new habit. I had tried using an RSS aggregator a year or so ago, and failed.

This past December, however, I made a New Year's resolution to begin a blog, update it at least once a week, and begin checking my Google Reader everyday.

I'm proud to say that this is a resolution that I've actually kept! And, I've really found that it has helped me with my job and personal interests in staying up-to-date on a wide variety of topics.

One of the other challenges that I've found useful is once you've become accustomed to using the aggregator, you should try to read outside of our comfort zone. At the OLA (Ontario Library Association) conference this year, one of the speakers (whose name I've shamefully forgotten) talked about our tendency toward "homophily". He basically suggested that we gravitate towards people who are like us in their thinking. Apparently there's even some research out there that suggests that if you put a bunch of diverse people in a room, within minutes they will successfully find people who are like them financially, in social status etc. etc. It was pretty interesting. I've heard and read similar thoughts about the worry of places becoming echo chambers where people just agree with and repeat what others are saying (ironically similar to what I'm doing now!!!). My point is simply that if all you do is use the RSS aggregator to read other librarians who are similar to you, that won't be as mind expanding as perhaps, using it to read someone who is perhaps NOT a librarian, or is not in the same position as you. Just a thought, and one I try to keep in mind myself.

I do use Google reader to keep up with my blogs but I often get sidetracked. One of my favorite things is to check other blog's "Blogroll" and see what they are reading. I often find myself far, far away from my reader and end up adding more to my feed list.