Last week, I mentioned how simple and easy it is to use Google Chrome’s “pin tab” function to keep track of important web pages. Since I often struggle with reducing the number of tabs I have open simultaneously, I use this feature for information I will probably use quickly.

If I know that it’ll take me a while to read an article, I use two other options:

1.  Outlook. I e-mail page links to myself and make use of Outlook’s rules to send them directly to a folder called “Articles” (once read, they are deleted). Creating a rule to automatically move these e-mails to a specific folder is a time saver, but if you’d prefer, you can manually move them. Note:  If you have a hard time getting to inbox zero (welcome to the club) or get way too many e-mails, you may want to consider some other way of controlling the number of tabs you have open at one time.

2.  Evernote. The ace in my back pocket is Evernote. I have several Evernote notebooks and I simply upload a snippet of the web page I’m interested in (or just the link) to one of those notebooks. This is my long-term storage option. I’ll likely refer to the info in Evernote several times over the course of time…and, if I wanted to share and collaborate on a document with someone else, this is a great tool to use.

Pinning tabs for a short period of time really seems to be the best option whenever I can use the info and then move on. The one caveat is that I have to control the urge to pin a thousand tabs. On the other hand, having to check two other locations for data can be a hassle. The good news is that it’s only two, so if it’s not in my “Articles” folder, than I know it’s in Evernote. I’d rather use this tab trifecta system than deal with a mess of web pages.

What do you do to keep your tabs under control?