And be quick on the "mark read" button.
Before reading anything, I scroll through the message list and Alt-click to select everything I don't care to read. Then I "Mark read" those selected articles, so that they'll be skipped as I read the messages.
My personal path to wRECk tranquility involves almost never joining a thread in progress. If it's got a Re: in front of it, I probably skip it. If it's a new thread, I'll check the subject line, but also probably skip it if it's not within my area of interest. That means reading a couple of dozen messages a day, instead of hundreds.
I read probably 80% of JOAT's links, almost all of Tom Watson's stories, and almost none of BAD's posts.
Kevin