About three months ago I was convinced by some of my fellow co-workers that the TWiT (This Week in Tech) podcast was something that I desperately needed to start following. If not for the information itself at least for my own geek street cred.

Realizing my co-works know my geek tendencies better than most, I agreed that I needed to give Podcasts a second look. I had used them here and there but never really gotten much out of it. In fact, I found that for the most part they just sat around in my iTunes taking up space. So, reinvigorated I subscribed to This Week in Tech, along with a few other Podcasts from my favorite tech websites, notably The Talk Show, and Diggnation.

Then over the course of the next month I started listening on a consistent basis. What I found was not surprising: podcasts were just what my tech diet had been missing — a dialogue by fellow geeks that could finally match my own level of interest in the field. And the best part? It didn’t take hours of reading tech sites and scanning RSS feeds. I would simply turn on a few Podcasts while coding and by the end of the day my level of geekdom was up a few mana.

Well, this was just the beginning, I soon started subscribing to all sorts of Podcasts. And like smack is to a crackhead, the NPR podcast directory was to me.

ESPN, This American Life, The Web 2.0 show, Car Talk, XM Unmasked, etc. My podcast directory started to balloon, in fact it is quite plausible that I was downloading more podcast air time than I had hours in a day. I needed to get control.

I set two rules. First, only subscribe to 10 or less podcasts. Anything more and the overall value of them goes down because I become too flustered trying to keep up. Second, stick to a routine. For me, podcasts are best digested at certain times of the day. Sticking to these general times makes it easier to stay on top of my favorite podcasts without getting behind.

Luckily these rules seem to have solved my podcasting bloat. And I feel strongly that my listening level is right where it should be. Granted certain weeks (like the MacWorld expo week) deserve more attention, but overall my current selection of podcasts seems to match perfectly my free listening time.

I can’t recommend podcasts enough, especially to those looking to be more socially well-rounded. It is a great way to keep up on the latest news in all areas of life without having to sacrifice time and productivity.