Wow - my mention of 100 browser tabs elicted quite a few responses!
lost it at 100 browser tabs
I must be in the minority here.
I currently have 4 tabs open.
1 playing Austrian music.
1 showing corporate gmail account.
1 MR forum
1 reading an online paper about Sputnik V
I don't know how people get to 100 tabs.
Maybe I'm too much of a linear thinker or like to close out something before moving on.
I wouldn't say that I regularly have 100 tabs open, but it has happened if I haven't had time to process and review them. 40-60 is more normal. Here's how I use my browser:
I have a lot of work that uses web-based tools:
i) Project documentation for a couple of active projects on Confluence Wikis - I am often reading or contributing to a dozen pages (with interdependencices) at a time. It's much more efficient to have the tabs open on the right page rather than having to find them each time in an index or by searching for them.
ii) JIRA board and tasks - I will generally have 2-3 tabs open with details of active tasks
iii) Google Docs - another document source, for status reports, client journals, tech documentation - 2-4 tabs typically
iv) Gmail (2-3 accounts)
v) Web-based documentation - mostly Amazon Web Services details on services, API references for stuff I'm working on: 5-6 tabs
vi) AWS console pages - the control pages for cloud infrastructure systems I'm working on / managing - multiple services and environments - often 10-20 tabs. Dashboards, logs, deployments - there are potentially hundreds of operational pages to monitor. I do try to tidy these up often to avoid brain overload! But I need half a dozen tabs just to see what's going on.
vii) Other collaboration tools like Miro, Asana, Draw.io
viii) General developer reference docs from Stackoverflow, Reddit, Medium etc. - normally a few tabs.
ix) Sometimes I need management tools like Xero (timesheets, expenses)
x) Some non-work pages - e.g. news and Macrumors....of course...but I do try to close these down when working to avoid distraction...failing to do this at the moment!
I also wonder...
My theory: There are people who close tabs (and, occasionally, clear browser cache) and those who don't.
How could you possibly need this and how on earth is this even manageable in terms of cognitive overhead? I just cannot understand how this would be practical.
You need to weigh up the effort of closing, finding and re-opening pages that you need to refer to several times a day, against the overhead of just having them open all the time and potentially spending a little time finding the right tab. I organize different types of tab into different windows - so Confluence docs on one window, AWS console on another, reference docs on a third etc. I try to keep to 4-5 windows maximum - which become the "books" on my desktop. The open tabs represent the "context" of a problem or task, each of which requires input from multiple data sources.
I agree that it's hard to keep track of everything that is open, and I do try to "cull" some tabs at least once a day by considering if the content is likely to be used within the the next day or so. I bookmark everything that is useful and use tags/labels to help me find it again in multiple contexts. Using the Safari "overview" feature to see a screen with thumbnails of all open tabs is really good for this, because you can just close unwanted tabs from a single view.
Like people that are organized vs non-organized ?
Like people that never shutdown/restart their computers ?
Like people that have 100s of storage boxes with itens from the last 3-4 decades that they may eventually use ?
You've obviously seen my garage....I even have boxes for the old boxes. (I only keep original boxes for items that I might conceivably sell at some point)
The trouble with "organization" is that it takes a lot of time! There is a value trade-off in my opinion - how much time will I spend organizing, vs the potential time saved by having things more organized? It comes down to the ability to find stuff. If you know where it is, even if you have a lot pages open, then you save the time spent in bookmarking, closing, reopening, scrolling to the relevant section, and reminding yourself of the content.
But, yes, it's definitely a personaility type that is not mine. Some people are deeply uncomfortable with having stuff all over the place, and usually it is no effort for them, or even a calming influence, to organize it. I actually prefer a tidy workspace, but don't want to invest the time in achieving it - because it stops me actually doing stuff....
Geesh. 100 tabs at one time? I have maybe 20 open across all devices. lol. Yes, you have a much better bead on your actual needs than I did.
Just the thought of this gives me anxiety...
Do you ever actually find and return to a previously opened tab, or they just pile up forever?
Yes, I try to have a daily clean-up and get rid of tabs for I know I won't need in the next day or so. Sometimes tabs do linger open all week "just-in-case"
