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task-oriented-browsing

for those who end up with 80+ tabs across several windows -- and need a way to sort/organize their work[-flow]

The web is very nearly /designed/ to be one big, distracting playground.

We jump from one thing to another, and (if you're like me) frequently don't finish what we started. Or take a very long time to get back to it.

When I worked at my previous position, my coworker joked (not really joking) that our department's productivity was 'interrupt-driven.' And he was right -- it really was. We got things done by "whatever was most urgent" (or whatever someone, sometimes ourselves, pressed us into believing was most urgent)... by dropping whatever we'd been working on, because the phone rang*, or someone walked up to us, or someone emailed saying "Do this right now!" (and we always had email open for that reason).

So we were multitaskers... and it was rare that we'd get to work on any one task for 20+ minutes**... let alone working on anything until completion, or until /we/ were ready to switch to another task.

  • (it was a support center) ** (20+ minutes single-tasking is the amount of time that science research tells us is required to enter a state of 'flow,' or optimal efficiency/effectiveness)

Since leaving the [corporate | [structured] employment] world several years ago, I've realized that my web browsing habits are no different: I open up a website, any website, with the intention of accomplishing task A.... and find myself pulled headlong into other things (sometimes reading for learning/self-education) which I hadn't even previously had on my to-do list! I see an article, and I think, "Oh, so-and-so would {be interested to hear about | find} this [useful]..."

My point is that web browsers don't easily come with a GTD system: Do, Defer, Delegate, or Delete

They're not built for that. They seem to be built, instead, with the idea in mind that one will manage one's own workflow.

Sure, one can create and use a GTD system with bookmarks -- with a couple keystrokes, some typing, and a few extra clicks (and maybe a little more typing). And there are add-ons, e.g. for "Read-Later."

The problem for me is this isn't very fast or efficient -- particularly when I'm dealing with a minimum of four new clicks for every page I visit (and many more if it's email, facebook or a site devoted to a breadth and depth of informational content, such as wikipedia, technical review sites, or sites devoted to news in particular genres I'm fascinated by (permaculture, zero-impact perpetual systems/infrastructures, nonviolent communication (NVC), applied/engaged spirituality | buddhist teachings | values, innovation/learning-theory, applied neuroscience/psychology)).

You see? Even my writing is like this -- a reflection of my brain, seeing new offshoots & possibility branches in nearly every node.

It's no wonder I have a hard time with the web -- an effectively limitless/infinite-breadth-and-depth information {source | [and] clearinghouse}.

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About me

I'm interested in discovering and exploring ways to make things and life more awesome/wonderful for everyone. For me this includes optimizing and effectiveness. In particular, I'm interested in meaningful ways which promote/accererate/develop/value greater connection, self-knowledge, other-knowledge, and world-knowledge -- in ways which can [then] be [further] applied to make life more awesome: a meta-/virtuous cycle.

Looking at / examining / understanding: negative root causes, and the root causes of those, and how to reduce them; and positive root causes/effects, and ditto, and how to creating/contributing to them.

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