i use the friends filter thing to separate my friends and communities. it helps a lot. so when i've been away for awhile, i can just skip the communities portion to save time, but not have to worry that i missed something important from any of my friends.

i used to do that with my friends as well, separate them into people i wanted to read all the time, and people i didn't care to as much. but i just ended up cutting those people in the second group eventually.