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For me, tabs are very much a manifestation of what’s going on in my mind at that very instant. Basically a cache. But once I’m done with my task or work is over

For me, tabs are very much a manifestation of what’s going on in my mind at that very instant. Basically a cache. But once I’m done with my task or work is over, I’ll close every. Single. One. The fear of not being able to recall information is a classic busy-syndrome feeling. Sometimes I also have to tell myself “I’ll probably remember what I worked in yesterday, so maybe there’s no need to panic after all”.

dkarras 5y ago
>But once I’m done with my task or work is over, I’ll close every. Single. One. That works for the general case but sometimes I search a solution to a problem (possibly without even knowing how to search for it so lots of experimentation) then find a possible solution after much sleuthing. But then... I'll have to record this somewhere so that when I encounter this problem again, I know what to do, where to find help and won't waste another 30 mins of my life to the same problem. That record keeping has friction, needs a commitment and I'm probably busy. And there are probably a couple other valuable sites I found that would help with the problem's domain in the near future. So I /may/ need to reference them in the future. So better record it somewhere, but I don't have a good "system" so don't know where to put them. Bookmarks are already a cesspool. I have documents for projects and note taking but it will need some explaining before I describe the problem to make the result searchable. Did I say I was busy? I'll do it later... but now another problem pops up. More sleuthing, tabs accumulate, same problem, twice the size, twice more procrastinated debt. Yeah, I can close them all. But I /emotionally/ want to avoid the pain of finding myself in the exact position of a few hours ago, having that annoying problem without a solution. I don't want to waste more time on this. I will eventually forget the solutions I found. I need to keep track of all this. But don't have the time or motivation. Then, path of least resistance is accumulation of tabs - inaction.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
> But once I’m done with my task or work is over, I’ll close every. Single. One. What if you're never done? I have so many tabs open about things I was researching or studying. Something else came up and I had to prioritize... Eventually I forgot about the tabs.
- refactor_master 5y ago
  Keeping every tab in your trail of research is like using a highlighter on evert page of the book you’re reading because “it’s all important”. I don’t believe it’s ultimately productive for the actual goal.
- shdh 5y ago
  I also use a window and the tabs within it similarly to the OP of this thread. They're usually used to complete a task and then the entire window gets closed. Bookmarks for frequently visited recurring links. Bookmarks that I visit multiple times a day (Calendar, Email, etc) get pinned.

dkarras 5y ago

>But once I’m done with my task or work is over, I’ll close every. Single. One. That works for the general case but sometimes I search a solution to a problem (possibly without even knowing how to search for it so lots of experimentation) then find a possible solution after much sleuthing. But then... I'll have to record this somewhere so that when I encounter this problem again, I know what to do, where to find help and won't waste another 30 mins of my life to the same problem. That record keeping has friction, needs a commitment and I'm probably busy. And there are probably a couple other valuable sites I found that would help with the problem's domain in the near future. So I /may/ need to reference them in the future. So better record it somewhere, but I don't have a good "system" so don't know where to put them. Bookmarks are already a cesspool. I have documents for projects and note taking but it will need some explaining before I describe the problem to make the result searchable. Did I say I was busy? I'll do it later... but now another problem pops up. More sleuthing, tabs accumulate, same problem, twice the size, twice more procrastinated debt. Yeah, I can close them all. But I /emotionally/ want to avoid the pain of finding myself in the exact position of a few hours ago, having that annoying problem without a solution. I don't want to waste more time on this. I will eventually forget the solutions I found. I need to keep track of all this. But don't have the time or motivation. Then, path of least resistance is accumulation of tabs - inaction.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

> But once I’m done with my task or work is over, I’ll close every. Single. One. What if you're never done? I have so many tabs open about things I was researching or studying. Something else came up and I had to prioritize... Eventually I forgot about the tabs.

refactor_master 5y ago
Keeping every tab in your trail of research is like using a highlighter on evert page of the book you’re reading because “it’s all important”. I don’t believe it’s ultimately productive for the actual goal.
shdh 5y ago
I also use a window and the tabs within it similarly to the OP of this thread. They're usually used to complete a task and then the entire window gets closed. Bookmarks for frequently visited recurring links. Bookmarks that I visit multiple times a day (Calendar, Email, etc) get pinned.