If you want your RSS reader to work for you, restrict yourself to adding only the feeds of individual people and not those of major news sites or aggregators.
An individual person is naturally limited in the quantity (and quality) of their output, so the end result is a daily shortlist of original insights, essays, and articles that are manageable and worth reading. As a bonus, you no longer have to check up on individual sites, since everything will show up prominently in your feed.