One way to become better informed about the real-time economy is to make the national economic calendar page at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's website a part of your weekday morning web surfing. Another option is to sign up at the National Bureau of Economic Research for a daily e-mail with a more comprehensive list of data released that day, with links to each report. (I have added both links to the sidebar.) Looking at the NY Fed page, you will see that there is a regular timing to how major pieces of information are released.
Ok, then. I've added a link to the NY Fed calendar in the "Useful Links" section. While I'm at it, I'll add Samwick's page (Vox Baby) to the Econblog honor roll as well.