Keep Calm and Control Your Tabs
Do you spend a lot of time online, in your browser, looking for tabs, reviewing your tabs, losing your tabs, opening more tabs, and not wanting to close tabs in case you lose something? This is becoming a hidden issue for most business owners and leaders! You’re not alone!
Let’s put a few simple things in place to reduce the frustration experienced when sorting through your open windows and browser tabs.
Now, you may be super organised and have all your ducks in a row. If you are, then I bow down to your greatness!! Me? In the past, I couldn’t find my ducks, had 100’s of rows, and found out I had a zoo and not a pond.
If you have multiple tabs open on your browser and spend more time than you want to, going through them to find what you need, this artible might be the answer to your prayers. There’s a simple way to sort this all out so you keep your tabs open but have them organised! This approach is guaranteed to bring you ease and grace, save time, and reduce the dance we do daily with our browser tabs!
Read this article or listen to the episode
Tab Hoarding is a Real Thing
As a business leader you focus on driving sales, connecting with customers, and communicating with your suppliers. Not to mention the research you do, the online bill paying, banking, marketing, shopping, exploration etc! All online! It’s pretty full on, right?!!
To most of us, this means a huge amount of open tabs that we look at regularly and don’t want to close. In fact, we spend more time than we realise sorting through these tabs.
Sure, we can use bookmarks and favourites, but these don’t solve the problem. We love our tabs…and we don’t want to close them… until we do!
Instead, we are going to sort out these tabs once and for all, allowing you to keep them open, access what you need, when you need it, AND importantly simplify your online view. I’ve got you covered! Let’s remove the visual clutter, the online chaos, and the resulting overwhelm!
Before we get into some easy to apply solutions, you’ll be happy to know you and are I are not alone in this issue.
Is Tab Hoarding really that bad?
A recent study by Aalto University surveyed over 400 people and found approximately 57 percent saw their online tab clutter as an issue, 18 percent didn’t see a problem at all (do these people own computers?), while 25 percent ranked their browser clutter as a serious problem.
They referred to the extreme clutter as Digital or Tab Hoarding.
BTW my hand is up! Another T-shirt I own.
Be honest, are you a Tab Hoarder too?
Another study by Carnegie Mellon University found around 25% of participants experienced browser or computer crashes due to excessive tabs being open. Um…yep! Got this t-shirt too! The paper revealed a psychological attachment to open tabs. Users find it challenging to close them despite feeling overwhelmed or ashamed by the volume. Yeah…this is definitely a thing!!
I’m Deb Field, and I am a Tab Hoarder!
It’s embarrassing to say that a while back I had so many tabs open that my productivity ground to a halt. I was in such a mess. I couldn’t find what I wanted, and I ended up opening duplicate tabs everywhere. Things just got worse!
Not only that, I had multiple windows open, with multiple versions of the same tabs. The busier I got, the worse it got. I was in a hot mess! And I didn’t have the courage to close it all up because I didn’t want to lose the URLs I had found. Is this you too… ?
I had 7 chrome windows open. Yes, I know… this is atrocious!!
And if I needed to do some research I’d open a new window, because I couldn’t trust I wouldn’t lose the tabs in my current windows… yeah tab hoarding was my game, and I was winning!! Big Time!!
I’m embarrassed to say, that at it worst, I had 176 tabs in 1 window, 142 in another, and between 30-70 in the others. As i say this, I realise what a serious mess I was in and how debilitating it was. It’s funny, but not really funny! I was wasting so much time looking for important information. AND if I couldn’t find it, I would open more windows or tabs. I was creating a compounding issue! It was a nightmare! Hi I’m Deb Field, I’m a tab hoarder! Do you think they’ll have meeting for this soon?
At the time all this was getting crazy, I was starting a law degree, running a business, working with clients, and running a household. I finally reached a point of ‘enough is enough’. So I took a breath and created a really simple solution.
Manage Your Browser Tabs Like a Pro!
Step 1 – Arrange Your Windows
Firstly, I decided to have one chrome window for each hat I wore. I ended up with 3 windows.
- law degree
- business
- life admin
This simple step organised my brain and provided relief immediately. It gave me a place to go when I was working on each focus.
Step 2 – Group Your Tabs
Next, I explored the use of GROUPS. I love GROUPS!! LOVE LOVE LOVE Groups! Am I the last person to this party… GROUPS ROCK!!
Groups are a function within most, if not all, browser applications. If you don’t know about them, hang on to your hat!! This will change everything!!
Groups enable you to place all your like tabs in one place… and then collapse them out of sight. This was a game-changer for me!! My windows started to look organised. I created three windows.
Law degree window – groups relevant to my law degree such as LAW157, ASSIGNMENT, RESEARCH, READING etc.
Business window – groups relevant to my business such as WEBSITE, DATA, SOCIALS, KPIs, PODCAST, TRAINING, CLIENTS etc.
Life Admin window – groups such as SHOPPING, SOCIALS, BANKING, READING, NEWS, TRAINING, TRAVEL, etc
Step 3 – Manage What Groups are Open
In each window, I ensure all groups are collapsed when I finished working there, leaving no disparate or orphan tabs open. I’d either close them, put them in existing groups, or create a group if needed. It’s like tidying your desk and binning things you no longer need.
For tabs I rarely to access, I add them to favourites or bookmarks. The less open, the better your system will run.
BTW, this approach works on both Mac and PC operating systems, albeit the specifics may be a little different.
To get to this state, I sat down with a glass of my favourite buttery chardonnay, while watching Australian Idol, and systematically created meaningful groups and moved the tabs under the groups, in the relevant window.
I closed SO many tabs… and SO many duplicates…. And found things I had lost!! This was such a great couple of hours invested.
As you could imagine, this took a while, but it was worth it. I ended up with the 3 windows, 1 for each hat I wear. I love this as it totally keeps me focused. Overall, this resulted in less than 80 tabs, within 18 groups in total across the 3 windows! I now know exactly where my tabs are and no longer lose ANYTHING.
I moved about 5% to favourites, deleted approx. 400 tabs (mostly duplicates or no longer needed), and I now work efficiently, keep my groups and tabs very tidy, and keep my browsers clean.
I think this has saved me about 30 mins a day and lowered my stress levels big time. My husband no longer hears me cursing from my laptop. LOL
IN SUMMARY
- Work out how many WINDOWS you need – based on the hats you wear.
- Create GROUPS for the tabs you need to keep open
- Move all TABS into the GROUPS
- Move all other urls to favourites or book marks
Spending time setting up your online browsers and tabs will save you so much time and frustration! This will enable you to stress less, work less, and spend more time with those you love.
I am excited for you to apply this quick win in your business and in life.
A little note from Deb
Never underestimate the load you may carry when you have so much open on line. It is a little weird that it causes us stress, but it does.
I hope you get a lot from this approach! I know it has really made a difference to me.
If you enjoy this article, please share this or the Podcast Episodes with people you know and love.
Some other Articles you may also enjoy:
You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure! How to Measure the Right Business KPIs!
Easy Ways to Disaster-Proof Your Business!
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