Lots of discussion of tabs and bookmarks and how to solve them once and for all with a new ontological hierarchy or server or service.. I get that, we’re nerds, that’s what we do.
But if, like me, your tab clutter is more a problem of psychology: not being ready to close things because you might need them later (even though you won’t), plus a distinct lack of interest in spending hours trying to perfectly curate a museum of links, here’s a trick I picked up years ago that has continued to work reasonably well for me.
I have a bookmark folder named after the current year and month (e.g. “2021-08 Bookmarks”). I keep it in my favorites/bookmarks bar. As I realize my tabs are starting to build up again, I fairly ruthlessly dump them all into the current month’s folder (it’s a pretty quick process of Cmd-D, Enter, Cmd-W). I don’t spend time trying to name them, organize them, or think about whether they deserve pride of place. I just put them there and close the tab, knowing I haven’t thrown any information away, and should I choose to get back to it, I at least have it somewhere. This is all my brain needs to let go of the need to have the tab open. This isn’t a chore I need to do every day (that would make me stop doing it), it’s an escape hatch I can use when I start to feel like my browser is a mess.
When I notice it’s a new month, I put the old one into an “Archives” folder and make a new one. Practically this doesn’t do much, but it does keep it from feeling like one giant trash pile.
While I’m doing this, I’ll usually make a smaller collection or two for things that I do actively need at the moment. E.g. if I’m working on a project and have opened a dozen tabs to research how to do part of it, or components I might want to buy, I’ll put them into a sub-folder of my top-level “Projects” or “Shopping” folders. These are the only other things that live in the favorites bar.
The main motivation for this is, again, to allow me to feel ok closing the tab. It might seem today that the information I looked up about hot-wire anemometers is super valuable because I’m thinking about measuring the delta-P in my air conditioning ducts to figure out if I can buy higher MERV filters without compromising evaporator performance. And then next week when I’m no longer as interested in doing that, I still invested that time in finding those articles and Amazon links and might get back to it.. the reality is that if I still care to do this in a year I could easily look it up again, but it doesn’t feel that way. So save it in Projects > Air Filters and get back to Tab Zero.
But if, like me, your tab clutter is more a problem of psychology: not being ready to close things because you might need them later (even though you won’t), plus a distinct lack of interest in spending hours trying to perfectly curate a museum of links, here’s a trick I picked up years ago that has continued to work reasonably well for me.
I have a bookmark folder named after the current year and month (e.g. “2021-08 Bookmarks”). I keep it in my favorites/bookmarks bar. As I realize my tabs are starting to build up again, I fairly ruthlessly dump them all into the current month’s folder (it’s a pretty quick process of Cmd-D, Enter, Cmd-W). I don’t spend time trying to name them, organize them, or think about whether they deserve pride of place. I just put them there and close the tab, knowing I haven’t thrown any information away, and should I choose to get back to it, I at least have it somewhere. This is all my brain needs to let go of the need to have the tab open. This isn’t a chore I need to do every day (that would make me stop doing it), it’s an escape hatch I can use when I start to feel like my browser is a mess.
When I notice it’s a new month, I put the old one into an “Archives” folder and make a new one. Practically this doesn’t do much, but it does keep it from feeling like one giant trash pile.
While I’m doing this, I’ll usually make a smaller collection or two for things that I do actively need at the moment. E.g. if I’m working on a project and have opened a dozen tabs to research how to do part of it, or components I might want to buy, I’ll put them into a sub-folder of my top-level “Projects” or “Shopping” folders. These are the only other things that live in the favorites bar.
The main motivation for this is, again, to allow me to feel ok closing the tab. It might seem today that the information I looked up about hot-wire anemometers is super valuable because I’m thinking about measuring the delta-P in my air conditioning ducts to figure out if I can buy higher MERV filters without compromising evaporator performance. And then next week when I’m no longer as interested in doing that, I still invested that time in finding those articles and Amazon links and might get back to it.. the reality is that if I still care to do this in a year I could easily look it up again, but it doesn’t feel that way. So save it in Projects > Air Filters and get back to Tab Zero.