1. Expanded View.
You can use the Expanded View option in Google Reader for optimized productivity. This makes is very easy for you to scroll all the feed items and scan for the posts that may interest you. You can jump from one entry to the next by pressing the J key. When you want to move back to the previous post, press K on your keyboard.
2. Regular cleanup
This one is a bit more of cleaning stuff that should involve in. It is useful because over time, there are some feeds that no longer get your attention because you have already have read them many times. You can simply delete such feeds on a regular basis to keep your feed reading area clean and tidy. To help you with the cleaning job, Google Reader has a good feature, called Subscription Trends that keeps track of your feed reading frequency. You can use it to easily identify feeds that need to be removed.
3. Stars
Google Reader enables you to rate items with stars. This can be helpful to you for future reference. For any item you find interesting, simply press S key on your keyboard to star that item.
4. Tags
If you wish to tag your feed items, you can do so by simply clicking add tags and entering relevant tags. This is one of the best ways to optimize your feed reading time.
5. Optimizing feed reading time
You can do this by using FeedShake. This is a very smart idea for reading RSS Feeds. FeedShake allows you to filter your feeds and tag them for creating more customized feeds. You can filter out your posts that contain specific keyword. Also if you want to keep up with news but do not like having to have them all scatters. Now, with FeedShake you can merge multiple news sources together for better reading experience.
With the advanced version of FeedShake, you can customize even more including descriptions, titles and custom tags. This is a very nice way of arranging everything so you get what you want, how you want it.
6. Keyboard Shortcuts
Unless you learn the keyboard shortcuts for Google Reader, you can not enjoy it to its fullest. These quick keyboard shortcuts save you plenty of time in your every day feed read on Google Reader.
The most common and useful ones you should know include:
o: open or close item.
t : tag an item.
e: email a page or a selection.
g: followed by the section name will take you to that section. For example - ga (all times), gs(starred items). gu (feed), gt (tagged items).
m: mark as read or unread.
v: view the source website that sent the feed.
k/j: navigate to the next/previous item.
s: toggle star.
7. Smart Google Reader Subscribe Button
If you subscribe to so many RSS feeds, the Smart Google Reader Subscribe Button is for you. This button makes it easy for you to subscribe to a particular site’s RSS feed on-the-fly. It will also let you know if you have already subscribed to that site.
One more great method to instantly add RSS feeds is with the subscribe bookmark. If you find any site interesting, you can quickly subscribe to it while surfing the web. To use the subscribe bookmark button, drag the site’s URL below to your bookmarks bar. Now, whenever you are visiting a web page, just click the bookmark to view it in Google Reader.