How do you manage to keep down the number of windows / tabs in your web browser? I'd like to consistently manage <120. Right now I'm using a Firefox add-on called Tab Utilities that lets me view all of my tabs in a window at once (semi-visible anyway). This has the benefits of making reading more difficult when I have too many tabs open (they cut into web page real estate) and of letting me quickly select items to review or discard.

I keep six virtual desktops and switch to a new one whenever I'm changing tasks or topics (or when one is too densely populated with tabs and windows). This doesn't cut down on the total number of windows/tabs, but it does make the number more manageable by spreading them across desktops.

Do you have any effective heuristics for keeping downs the number of open .pdfs? I was thinking of adding a window list with titles to my window manager, and not allowing myself to open more windows at a time than fit into the window list bar.

Hmm... For each paper, I tend to skim through it quickly, and then depending on how interesting/useful it is, I either:

1. Close it,
2. Save it (and close it), or
3. Save it and mark it for later reading (and close it).

By the time I've collected enough papers, I know roughly which papers are most important and focus on reading those carefully.

Finally, Saved files! Because it's so much easier to save a paper for later than to read it, my document folder is growing fat. How do you name saved document files? How do you prioritize which saved papers to read? What is your rough directory structure? How do you associate a document with your personal summary notes of it for future access?

I keep all my papers and books as PDFs on Mendeley – it manages the local file collection and keeps notes for me. I find its search indexing useful; it can search through my entire collection (~700 files) for a word in about a second.