Keeping up with the forum / "tabitis"

I think I've brought this up before, but wondering if anyone has something similar or some ideas. I have a hard time keeping up with all the threads I want to read. And by that I mean I have a lot of tabs open and am not on the latest page for them. Usually I'll open the ones I want for the day that seem interesting, but I don't finish them and so they just stay there and the next day adds more. I also have some on my computer at work, so they're in two locations.

During the first few days of the new year I purged a lot as I had something like 200 on one and 100 tabs on another computer. Most I just said, "Ok I'm not going to read this." and just closed the tab. I guess it was just being honest with myself. But I usually rack up a lot because it'll be like, "This is the Iodine thread it's important.", "Gotta read this session thread in its entirety.", "I've met this member so I have to read their thread." Realistically, I cannot read all of them with my time. I could take a vacation and do only that. But when I do mass reading I usually get tired. It may be the ergonomics or lack thereof of this chair and my computer setup.

On the other hand, I can't totally use, "I don't have the time to read them." as an excuse. I still fall into dissociative periods a bit on youtube, and sometimes buy too many things that I have to address and don't really end up using. So I could stop those things and afford a bit more time. But it also seems like I cannot read books too. In the past, if I were reading a book, I would not read the forum pretty much at all and just read the book. And it takes me a few weeks because I subvocalize the words. So it's a big catching up to do when I get back to the forum.

I think at some point my time in my life routine was "maxed out". Having to cook, prepare for the next day, distill water, do EE, read the forum, try to read a book was all I could do. And I still live at home and have help from my parents. I could not imagine having a "real life" and own house that I had to tend to. I then added to my routine social media posting so that takes up a bit of time, sometimes 30 minutes, but more if I get "lost". So it was always a question of, "Do I read the forum or a book for now?" I haven't been reading too many books in the last 2 years, with a kind of fear of getting too far behind on the forum. I have OCD too, so this could all be a kind of fear of missing something symptom.

At some meetups I was surprised that it seemed members don't have this problem. A few tabs open, not scores or over 100, was how much they have. Does anyone have this issue or something to resolve it? I wonder if it's just a matter of accepting the fact that I cannot read everything I would like? Thanks for reading, did I give you another tab? :P ;)

Hi 3D Student, I can definitely relate to many things you laid out here. Especially about the reading - I also would like to be able to read much more than I actually accomplish. I am quite a slow reader (can't speed read) with OCD issues as well. Plus, I take notes in detail from most books. There are times I wish to have the ability to take in knowledge from books very quickly, in vast amounts, daily, and understanding it also at the same time. I am coming to accept the fact that this may stay out of reach for me. The thought which helps me here goes like this: 'Maybe I will come across about those books I haven't been able to read or similar ones in future lives'. Unless the world has gone down the tubes so much by then, that this won't be possible anymore. Anyway, I find that thought calming and it helps me to read the books I'm currently reading with less stress. And I am thankful for the moments when I find time to get onto my book, read a little of it, take some notes and some knowledge from it (less at a time seems to be "metabolized" better by me; occasionally I can take in more).

Regarding forum threads, I try to prioritize as I realized I never can accomplish reading that many threads at once. Having many tabs open also slows my PC down pretty quickly (and Firefox would crash continuously). I read the Iodine thread like a book, taking notes from it, because I prioritize this one mostly by now. As for the other threads I think, one by one at their time. I have in mind the G. quote, "He who goes slow, goes far". That one I apply to reading books as well.

As for tackling forum reading/participating and books - I do alternate between reading a part of a book and forum reading/participation. Maybe you could try just going with book reading for a couple of days, and then with forum another couple of ones?

And a last thought: I wonder, if the iodine would help with this as well - if the Central Nervous System is getting detoxed and supplied with iodine, the mind may grow stronger and reading abilities and knowledge capabilities grow as well. As I haven't started with iodine yet I don't have facts about that, just hopes ...

These are my experiences with reading, maybe they help - or not ;)

3D Student said:

During the first few days of the new year I purged a lot as I had something like 200 on one and 100 tabs on another computer. Most I just said, "Ok I'm not going to read this." and just closed the tab. I guess it was just being honest with myself. But I usually rack up a lot because it'll be like, "This is the Iodine thread it's important.", "Gotta read this session thread in its entirety.", "I've met this member so I have to read their thread." Realistically, I cannot read all of them with my time. I could take a vacation and do only that. But when I do mass reading I usually get tired. It may be the ergonomics or lack thereof of this chair and my computer setup.

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Hi 3D Student,

We live in the information age where there are so many things demanding our time and attention. We cannot realistically attend to all such things, at least not with any degree of quality. So first idea is to think in terms of quantity and quality. In the forum context, having 100s of tabs open for the fear of missing out on some crucial information shows you are attending to quantity, but not quality. Even if you hypothetically had 10x the reading and comprehension power you had now, 10x the time that you have now, you would not be able to keep up with everything that goes on here. Then you need to ask "would I rather go for quantity or quality?"

Since you were participating in the "skills...." thread, you read the skill levels. Pursuing activity or knowledge in a lot of diverse areas simultaneously does not help one go beyond the stage of novice/beginner in any of them. The drawback of that is one is cut off from the psychological and emotional benefits which comes from developing competence in one or more areas. Quality suffers; frustration sets in.

So I would suggest that you pick some boards/topics to follow regularly in the forum depending on your present needs and your interests. For example "Diet and Health Board/Iodine Thread", "Cassiopaean Experiment/Session Transcripts", "Fellowship". These will be boards/topics you always check when you get on the forum. If there is no activity on these, and you do not have any leads that you yourself are researching based on what you learn from these boards, then you move on to other topics. Even there, have a list of what you would like to check next.

In essence, a list of priority (just for illustration purpose to get the point across) which may look something like:

1. "Diet and Health Board/Iodine Thread", "Cassiopaean Experiment/Session Transcripts", "Fellowship"
2. "Projects", "Work/Swamp"
3. "Newbies Board", "Creative Acts"


[quote author=3D Student]
On the other hand, I can't totally use, "I don't have the time to read them." as an excuse. I still fall into dissociative periods a bit on youtube, and sometimes buy too many things that I have to address and don't really end up using. So I could stop those things and afford a bit more time. But it also seems like I cannot read books too. In the past, if I were reading a book, I would not read the forum pretty much at all and just read the book. And it takes me a few weeks because I subvocalize the words. So it's a big catching up to do when I get back to the forum.
[/quote]

This is a matter of discipline. You can allow yourself a fixed amount of time for "youtube" if you cannot live without it. But stick to the time allotted. If you do this every day, then allot a daily time. Try not to exceed this. If you do on any particular day, instead of beating yourself up, do less or skip the next day. If you think this is not in keeping with your overall aim but is just one of the things you need to slowly grow out of, then gradually reduce the time allocated to this activity. This will free up time for other activities which you would consider more in keeping with your aim.

[quote author= 3D Student]
I think at some point my time in my life routine was "maxed out". Having to cook, prepare for the next day, distill water, do EE, read the forum, try to read a book was all I could do. And I still live at home and have help from my parents. I could not imagine having a "real life" and own house that I had to tend to. I then added to my routine social media posting so that takes up a bit of time, sometimes 30 minutes, but more if I get "lost". So it was always a question of, "Do I read the forum or a book for now?" I haven't been reading too many books in the last 2 years, with a kind of fear of getting too far behind on the forum. I have OCD too, so this could all be a kind of fear of missing something symptom.
[/quote]

Look at time management as a skill to be developed. Have realistic expectations. Prioritize. Have lists. Empirical observation in work settings came up with an interesting heuristic called the "80-20 rule". It is derived from an older principle called the " Pareto Principle ". Essentially, in this context it means that 80% of our regular activities contribute less than 20% of value. So trying to digest more information out of fear of missing out will likely give indigestion and not any value addition.

At a deeper level, such a fear can come from a fundamental view of reality which comes from a combination of what you have consciously chosen to subscribe to and unconsciously imbibed as a result of social and cultural conditioning. So, questioning these views may be one of the activities (including in the forum) that you can prioritize if this fear is what bugs you the most. Go back to revisit some threads you started on this topic and re-read some responses. Sometimes, reading the same input later can make more sense.

[quote author=3D Student]
I wonder if it's just a matter of accepting the fact that I cannot read everything I would like? Thanks for reading, did I give you another tab? :P ;)
[/quote]

:)

obyvatel said:

Since you were participating in the "skills...." thread, you read the skill levels. Pursuing activity or knowledge in a lot of diverse areas simultaneously does not help one go beyond the stage of novice/beginner in any of them. The drawback of that is one is cut off from the psychological and emotional benefits which comes from developing competence in one or more areas. Quality suffers; frustration sets in.

Click to expand...

Yup! That’s my experience too... and my aging computer grinds to a holt if there’s anything remotely approaching a 25 tabs, let alone 200 open...

I know it’s mentioned that only ‘super efforts’ matter, and I think of Fritz Peters who as a child attended G’s school in France, and whose initial special task was to, ‘No Matter What,’ tend to the upkeep and mowing of the schools palatial lawn... which did not give him any special exemption from his normal obligations there... long story short after much struggle Peters eventually became a Master at mowing the lawn in super quick time, then later other tasks were assigned.

If there’s one thing I took from this tale, was that Peters learned to apply himself... to focus osit

And if its accepted that we have somewhere between 20,000 and 160,000 thoughts everyday, how much would we get done if those thoughts/energy were simply directed at a particular task... and generally aligned to the best interests of being, or at least most thoughts relegated to trivial noises or echoes from the past, that seem as if they direct the future, hindering the present moment, like a bad habit.

And if thoughts equal energy, that would be quiet at lot of ENERGY for creative tasks.... and I could think of many things to do with that, but that might be wasting valuable energy, that’s best spent on the present, task... and immediate obligations and general aim. Osit

And not to forget the C’s, balance being the great equaliser... as Peters and many seems to have came close to going over the edge permanently, so remember to be kind to your self, like the advertisement, ‘your worth it.’

FWIW

I agree with obyvatel, it's better to focus on just a few topics instead of hundreds(!) of them. I just wanted to add, that according to research, all the things that you have on your "back burner", i.e. undone tasks, will create a lot of mental stress if they accumulate too much. It's not easy to solve this dilemma, but some sort of strategy is needed in order to not become overwhelmed by everything we think that we "have to do".

THANK YOU Obyvatel! Your message dated 2/29/2016 resonated with me....I have previously struggled with how to assimilate the information from the forum/transcripts and danced around for the past few years.. I feel your article has helped but the proof will be in the results and or changes I make in the coming days/weeks.

Just wanted to post my current feelings about the link below:
http://cassiopaea.org/2010/09/15/the-cassiopaeans-answer-questions-about-ascension/

interesting reading at a time when I feel as if i'm ready to do more, learn more, be more.. maybe it's the "right" time for me to read this ( I know at one point a few years ago, I read the same information but it did not resonate nor did i fully understand)...not that I fully understand now but I'm getting closer!

Also, i'm going back to the basics and re-reading all of the sandbox information at: http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/board,39.0.html

if there is someone on the forum that is an iodine "expert"...please let me know.

Adding a 'me too' 3D Student.
One thing that may be worth trying is sticking to one task for an hour or two, and observing where you mind/focus ends up.

The reason being is I find my focus skips all over the place, the mind wonders of onto focusing on something else rather than the task at hand. This jumping about is a mix of things, one of which is task switching (even if the task is only imagined) - task switching (multitasking) is something that uses a huge amount of energy, even if it's habitual.
The mind skipping from what's in front of you to do, to 'what you would rather be doing' also creates frustration in two ways - what's in front of you doesn't get done (or get's done poorly), what you would rather be doing also doesn't get done.
Frustration can lead to the mind wondering, and wanting to disassociate (watch youtube).

So perhaps learning focus would help as an initial starting point?

Interesting timing on the bumping of this thread. I was recently thinking about it. Mostly because I wanted to say that I still have the same problem. I cleared some tabs over the summer and was under 10. But I'm still in the habit of daily going to recent topics and opening a tab for each I want to read. So I have maybe 10 open on my work PC and 15 open at home.

I want to move toward just having certain topics opened like obyvatel mentioned. But there's a few threads I want to knock out first. I took a vacation last week and was quite productive. But not in reading threads, as I focused more on a book, and starting the meditation from Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.

The Youtube has drastically reduced. And I've been more productive. So I don't think it's really about focus and not getting sidetracked. I just need to change the way I do things, or perhaps narrow my focus. I bite off more than I can chew.

3D Student said:

Interesting timing on the bumping of this thread. I was recently thinking about it. Mostly because I wanted to say that I still have the same problem. I cleared some tabs over the summer and was under 10. But I'm still in the habit of daily going to recent topics and opening a tab for each I want to read. So I have maybe 10 open on my work PC and 15 open at home.

I want to move toward just having certain topics opened like obyvatel mentioned. But there's a few threads I want to knock out first. I took a vacation last week and was quite productive. But not in reading threads, as I focused more on a book, and starting the meditation from Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.

The Youtube has drastically reduced. And I've been more productive. So I don't think it's really about focus and not getting sidetracked. I just need to change the way I do things, or perhaps narrow my focus. I bite off more than I can chew.

Click to expand...

That's great, and a step in the right direction I believe. I can relate to where you are coming from except I would have lists of tasks instead of tabs, it can be stressful and overwhelming trying to take on too much at once.

I try to think about it this way, I would rather focus on one task/thread at a time and do it well, give it my full attention and complete it to my satisfaction rather than try to juggle too many things, skim over stuff, miss information, make mistakes and then end up getting stressed. When I'm on the forum, I tend to stick to the areas when I hope I can be of most use. If you focus on one thread at a time, you are more likely to be able to help with sharing on that thread if you have read it thoroughly rather than skimming through; even taking time out to think about it and the person who is posting before replying.

If you are pushed for time, you could say "ok, today I'm just going to read and share SOTT" instead of saying "oh but I want to read the forum and share SOTT and read this book and, and....." even if you only read and share one article, you could feel satisfied that you have read and understood that article instead of having a whirlwind of pushing and straining to get lots done and feeling like you haven't learned or helped at all; I've been there.

Maybe it's not so much narrowing your focus as it is learning to let go a little and realising and accepting that you can't do it all and that's ok

Why not have a week where you experiment with a 1 tab rule and see how you feel? That tab is the only tab that needs you attention during that moment in time and when you have finished, you can close it and open another :)

lainey said:

3D Student said:

Interesting timing on the bumping of this thread. I was recently thinking about it. Mostly because I wanted to say that I still have the same problem. I cleared some tabs over the summer and was under 10. But I'm still in the habit of daily going to recent topics and opening a tab for each I want to read. So I have maybe 10 open on my work PC and 15 open at home.

I want to move toward just having certain topics opened like obyvatel mentioned. But there's a few threads I want to knock out first. I took a vacation last week and was quite productive. But not in reading threads, as I focused more on a book, and starting the meditation from Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.

The Youtube has drastically reduced. And I've been more productive. So I don't think it's really about focus and not getting sidetracked. I just need to change the way I do things, or perhaps narrow my focus. I bite off more than I can chew.

Click to expand...

That's great, and a step in the right direction I believe. I can relate to where you are coming from except I would have lists of tasks instead of tabs, it can be stressful and overwhelming trying to take on too much at once.

I try to think about it this way, I would rather focus on one task/thread at a time and do it well, give it my full attention and complete it to my satisfaction rather than try to juggle too many things, skim over stuff, miss information, make mistakes and then end up getting stressed. When I'm on the forum, I tend to stick to the areas when I hope I can be of most use. If you focus on one thread at a time, you are more likely to be able to help with sharing on that thread if you have read it thoroughly rather than skimming through; even taking time out to think about it and the person who is posting before replying.

If you are pushed for time, you could say "ok, today I'm just going to read and share SOTT" instead of saying "oh but I want to read the forum and share SOTT and read this book and, and....." even if you only read and share one article, you could feel satisfied that you have read and understood that article instead of having a whirlwind of pushing and straining to get lots done and feeling like you haven't learned or helped at all; I've been there.

Maybe it's not so much narrowing your focus as it is learning to let go a little and realising and accepting that you can't do it all and that's ok

Why not have a week where you experiment with a 1 tab rule and see how you feel? That tab is the only tab that needs you attention during that moment in time and when you have finished, you can close it and open another :)

Click to expand...

It's good to see this common frustration of mine discussed here. I think everyone has suggested good strategies, which I've found helpful over the years. The core of it all seems to be:

(1) accept limits (ironically, this reduces stress and often increases our productivity)
(2) prioritize tasks
(3) budget/allocate time for these tasks
(3) aim to maintain focus on each task at hand
(4) aim for balanced development among the various centers

Tabitis is occasionally an issue with me, too. Sometimes, I tend to accumulate tabs on different subjects, but then it also happens that, when I read about a certain main subject, I'll feel the need to have information on a subject mentioned in the main subject (a concept, person, event, etc., mentioned in the main topic). Then, before finishing with reading on that "sub-subject", I can still go to a sub-sub-subject, and so on. More often, there will be tabs on related and unrelated matters. In this way, sometimes I can produce 10 or 15 tabs. In some of these experiences, I can see and break the potential vicious circle in a relatively rapid manner. But not in others, and then I watch myself get miserably drained of energy by giving the rein of my consciousness to an OCD. Then I feel like I'm gambling, losing, and then in the hope of making a compensatory win, I plunge more and lose more in the "wishous" circle!

As I try to accumulate my observations and knowledge on such experiences in various settings of life, I conclude that I feel a deep spiritual/existential dissatisfaction or meaninglessness, that I look for a profound satisfaction and meaning. When I cannot produce or have that internally, I look for it externally. Sometimes, when I ponder on this problem, I remember the C's example of "seeing a pot of gold through a door". I also relate this to the monotheistic programming, in that, I notice that I tend to wait for someone or something to give or source me spiritual/existential satisfaction, just like one who accepts an external authority to provide them with the meaning and the rules about their life and everything. Also probably related to a deep sense of guilt based on the original sin, we have ended up so badly plagued and weakened by the monotheistic programming. It is so deep in us. My generalization might be excessive and very subjective, though. Just wanted to share.