Donna Papacosta and Jason Van Orden have both been giving out some excellent advice on how to create outstanding podcasts, and how to promote them.

I’m trying something different. Today, I start a series of tips aimed squarely at the podcast listener — how to find interesting podcasts, how to listen to them, and even how not to listen to them. In fact, it’s that third topic area where I’ll launch this series.

Imagine you’re like Lee Hopkins, a blog and podcast consultant from Adelaide, Australia who’s always on the go. You have clients to meet, new proposals to research, weekly podcast correspondent reports to prepare, your own podcast and blog to produce, PhD research to begin, somewhat-funny jokes to think up, and a family (including teenage kids) to love.

And in your iPod, you have 127 unlistened to podcdasts and videopodcasts — all of which you must to watch and listen to.

The reasonable question to ask is “How the bloody hell do you cope?”

The solution, believe it or not, is breathtakingly simple: delete most or all of the shows in the queue and move on. Indeed, I am advocating that you, gasp, SKIP AN EPISODE! of your favorite podcast. Your overwhelmed self depends on it.

Hey, I feel your pain. I have a good half-dozen podcasts that I don’t want to miss. Ever. Monday and Thursday are FIR days. The weekend means a new episode of Six Pixels of Separation. Tuesdays bring the fresh wit and humor of Terry Fallis and David Jones on Inside PR. Christopher Penn delivers helpful advice and on financial aid and general thought-provoking wisdom five or six ways a week!. The ever-popular Grammar Girl gives me a weekly reminder that being picky about grammar is OK.

But you know what I’m learning? If I skip one of their episodes every once in a while, I’ll survive — and so will they. To be sure, the aforementioned podcasters will all come back the next day or the next week with a new action-packed show, and I can listen to that one.

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