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Using TabStax in Your Job and Your Life

Real people. Real chaos. Real Stax.

Below you’ll find over 70 ways people actually use TabStax—from high-pressure work scenarios to deeply personal life moments. Each story shows how a named workspace with tabs, next actions, and context can cut through chaos and help you stay present.

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Hero Use Cases

Category Who am I? Scenario Stax Pattern What It Gives You Read
Work – Multi-Client / Multi-Project Independent consultant / fractional PM Three clients, back-to-back calls, no time to breathe Client – [Name] – Project One-click ‘world per client’ for instant context re-entry Read →
Work – Multi-Client / Multi-Project Neurodivergent builder / founder 5 parallel projects, ADHD brain, hyperfocus bursts Project – [Name] Save & reload ‘brain states’ per project Read →
Work – Rituals & Team Rhythms Scrum master / agile coach Daily standup + planning + being out sick Scrum – Standup Stax A standup cockpit anyone on the team can run Read →
Work – SME & Multi-Role SME owner / studio founder Running the business from 6 different apps Biz – Daily Ops Turns tool soup into a single daily control room Read →
Work – Ops & Incidents DevOps engineer / SRE P1 incident just triggered P1 – [Symptom / Service] Shared incident war room in one Stax Read →
Work – Multi-Client / Multi-Project Product manager (often ND) Three streams, 15-minute gaps between meetings PM – [Stream Name] Clean mental switch between streams in seconds Read →
Work – Legal & Crisis Public defender 100°F in LA, court in 10 minutes, multiple cases Case – [Client Name] Walk into court coherent, not scrambling Read →
Work – SME & Multi-Role Remote-first founder Investor pitch, hiring interview, roadmap review Founder – [Context] Separate ‘rooms’ so you show up present Read →
Life – Family & School Parent of ND child School calls about incident; meeting tomorrow [Child] – School & Supports All portals and agreements in one shared Stax Read →
Life – Family & School Parent of child with special needs The call from school, IEP meetings [Child] – Special Needs Shared cockpit with co-parent and specialists Read →
Life – Health & Recovery Patient facing surgery Operation in 4 weeks; work, home, hospital logistics Surgery – Operation & Recovery Timeline-based plan shared with family Read →
Life – Crisis & Loss Adult child planning funeral Organising funeral while grieving Funeral – [Name] – Farewell Admin scaffolding when brain is overloaded Read →
Life – Dreams & Second Act Retired professional Sorting pensions & designing meaningful chapter 2 Retirement – Second Act Turn vague ‘someday’ into concrete experiment Read →
Life – Health & Recovery 240lb first-time marathoner 16-20 week build, wants to finish healthy Bill – Marathon 2025 Plan, progress, realistic non-heroic steps Read →
Life – Dreams & Second Act Former actor / creative 20 years later, trying again before it’s too late Mary – Return to Acting Safe, structured way to attempt the dream Read →
Life – Family & Care Caregiver for ageing parent Medical, legal, benefits, siblings all at once Mum/Dad – Health & Life Admin One shared cockpit for the responsible child Read →

Work Use Cases

Work – Multi-Client / Multi-Project

# Who am I? Scenario Read
1 Independent consultant / fractional PM Consultant With Three Clients and No Time Read →
2 Neurodivergent builder / product-minded founder Neurodivergent Builder With 5 Parallel Projects Read →
3 Sales rep / account executive Sales Rep Chasing a Whale Account Read
11 Product manager (often ND, many streams) Product Manager With Three Streams and a 15-Minute Gap Read →
12 Sales engineer / solutions architect Sales Engineer Prepping Two Completely Different Demos Read
13 Customer success manager Customer Success Manager Surfacing From One Renewal Into Another Read
21 Agency founder / creative director Small Agency Founder With Three Clients Pulling at Once Read
22 Solo developer / indie hacker Solo Developer/Indie Hacker Pinballing Between Code, Bugs, and Launch Read
27 Wedding photographer / creative freelancer Wedding Photographer Moving From Planning to Shooting to Editing Read
33 Film editor / post-production Film Editor Cutting a Feature and a Trailer for a Different Client Read
44 Financial planner / wealth advisor Financial Planner Running Three Client Reviews in One Morning Read

Work – Ops, Incidents & Live Operations

# Who am I? Scenario Read
8 DevOps engineer / SRE DevOps Responding to a Production Incident Read →
9 Emergency manager / incident commander Emergency Manager Handling a Gas Leak With Multiple Agencies Read
16 DevOps engineer / SRE DevOps Engineer Moving From Postmortem to Reliability Review Read
17 Emergency manager / EOC coordinator Emergency Manager Switching From ‘Gas Leak’ to ‘Storm Prep’ Read
32 Manufacturing ops manager Manufacturing Ops Manager Between Factory Floor, Supplier Crisis, and Audit Read
35 Festival ops lead / event manager Festival Ops Lead Juggling Security, Weather, and Artist Schedules Read
41 Emergency veterinarian Emergency Vet Switching From One Crisis to the Next Read
42 Airline operations controller Airline Operations Controller in a Storm Read
43 Construction foreman / site manager Construction Site Foreman Between Subcontractors, Deliveries, and Safety Read

Work – Rituals, Meetings & Team Rhythms

# Who am I? Scenario Read
4 Scrum master / agile coach Scrum Master With a Standup That Can Run Without Them Read →
7 Corporate manager / team lead Corporate Manager Living in 12 SaaS Tools All Day Read
18 Corporate manager / director Corporate Manager With Back-to-Back ‘Different Universe’ Meetings Read
25 Teacher / educator Teacher Running Back-to-Back Classes and Then a Parent Meeting Read
26 Conference organizer / event planner Conference Organizer Switching Between Sponsors, Speakers, and Venue Read
30 Recruiter / talent acquisition Recruiter Running a Full Interview Loop for One Candidate Read
36 HR generalist / people ops HR Generalist Dealing With a Grievance, an Offer, and a Policy Rollout Read
48 University lecturer / academic University Lecturer Split Between Teaching, Research, and Admin Read

Work – Deep Work, Research & Analysis

# Who am I? Scenario Read
14 Data analyst / BI specialist Data Analyst With Three Urgent Requests From Different Execs Read
15 Startup founder / CEO Startup Founder Doing Board Prep Between Fires Read
19 UX researcher UX Researcher Jumping Between Live Sessions and Synthesis Read
20 Marketing lead / growth manager Marketing Lead Orchestrating a Launch Across Channels Read
37 Investment analyst / equity researcher Investment Analyst Covering Three Sectors on Earnings Week Read
38 City planner / urban designer City Planner Balancing a New Transport Corridor, a Housing Project, and Public Input Read
39 Policy lobbyist / government affairs Policy Lobbyist Prepping Lawmakers for a Committee Hearing Read
47 Penetration tester / security consultant Penetration Tester Handling Two Engagements Plus Reporting Read

Work – SME & Multi-Role Founders

# Who am I? Scenario Read
6 SME owner / studio founder SME Owner Running the Business From 6 Different Apps Read →
23 Real estate agent / broker Real Estate Agent on the Road Between Buyers and Sellers Read
28 YouTuber / content creator / streamer YouTuber / Streamer Jumping Between Prep, Live, and Post Read
29 NGO program manager NGO Program Manager Between Field Updates and Donor Reports Read
40 Remote-first founder / CEO Remote-First Founder Doing Investor Pitch, Hiring Interview, and Roadmap Review Read →
46 Veterinary clinic owner Veterinary Clinic Owner Balancing Patients, Staff, and Business Read
59 Artist / creative entrepreneur Artist Turning a Hobby Into a Small Online Shop Read

Work – Legal & Crisis

# Who am I? Scenario Read
24 Doctor / GP / clinician Doctor in Clinic Moving From Routine Checkups to a Scary Lab Result Read
31 Public defender (criminal defence) Public Defender in LA, 100 Degrees, Court in 10 Minutes Read →
34 Hospital social worker Hospital Social Worker Handling Three Complex Discharges Read

Life Use Cases

Life – Admin, Money & Systems

# Who am I? Scenario Read
10 Anyone doing tax prep / personal finances Personal Finances & Taxes – With an Accountant in the Loop Read
58 Person relocating internationally Person Planning a Big Move to Another Country Read
67 Estate executor / administrator Executor Handling Estate and Paperwork After a Death Read

Life – Health, Recovery & Performance

# Who am I? Scenario Read
52 First-time marathoner / fitness beginner Bill, 240lbs, Training for His First Marathon Read →
56 Person in recovery Recently Sober Person Balancing Recovery, Work, and Rebuilding Life Read
65 Patient facing surgery Preparing for Surgery in 4 Weeks Read →

Life – Family, Care & School

# Who am I? Scenario Read
5 Parent of school-age child (often ND) ND Parent With School Chaos and Shared Mental Load Read →
50 Parent planning family travel Parent Planning a Multi-Country Trip With Their Partner Read
51 Parent of child with special needs Mum With a Son Who Has Special Needs – The Call From the School Read →
55 Adult child caring for ageing parent Caregiver for an Ageing Parent Read →

Life – Crisis, Loss & Legal Aftermath

# Who am I? Scenario Read
53 Laid-off professional in job search Anne, Laid Off, on a Weekly Accountability Call With Three Also-Fired Friends Read
66 Adult child planning a parent’s funeral Funeral Planning While Grieving Read →

Life – Dreams, Second Act & Identity

# Who am I? Scenario Read
61 Retired professional starting chapter 2 Retiree Starting a Second Act Instead of Just Drifting Read →
68 Midlife professional reassessing Midlife ‘Quiet Crisis’ – Life’s Okay, But They Know It’s Not Fine Read
69 Academic entering politics Professor Running for State Senator Under Fire Read
70 Homeowner seeking food independence Ger: Feeding His Family From the Back Garden in Two Years Read
71 Former creative returning to first love Mary, Who Acted 20 Years Ago and Buried It Read →
72 Climate-conscious professional Climate-Anxious Engineer Building a Local Resilience Project Read
73 Professional with hidden creative ambition Nurse on Night Shifts, Secretly Writing a Novel Read

Life – Learning, Education & Future Self

# Who am I? Scenario Read
45 Dungeon master / TTRPG game master Dungeon Master Running Multiple Campaigns Read
49 Genealogy researcher / family historian Genealogy Hobbyist Piecing Together a Family Line Read
54 Career-changer learning to build Anne Building an App, One Customer at a Time Read
57 Community organizer / activist Community Organizer Leading a Tenant Group Read
60 University student with side projects Young Adult Balancing Uni, Side Hustle, and Family Expectations Read
62 High school senior applying to college Youth Trying to Get Into College – Applications, Essays, Panic Read
63 Struggling student Failing Student Overwhelmed and Quietly Drowning Read
64 Chronic procrastinator The Procrastinator Who Keeps Saying ‘It’s Fine’ While Ignoring Alarms Read

Full Stories

The stories below use the original content from our use case collection. For the 16 Core Heroes, click their links above to read their dedicated pages.

3. Sales Rep Chasing a Whale Account

You’re working a big enterprise prospect: NordicGrid Energy.

You’ve got:

  • CRM opportunity page
  • LinkedIn accounts for champion + blockers
  • Email chains
  • Proposal deck in progress
  • A competitor pricing sheet
  • Internal Slack thread
  • Call recordings from discovery

Without TabStax

Before each interaction, you hunt: where’s that deck, what did they say about budget, which competitor are they evaluating again?

With TabStax

You’ve created “NordicGrid – Deal Cycle” Stax:

  • All research, CRM, docs, and call recaps in one persistent environment

  • Start Page Next Actions like:

    • “Clarify renewal timeline”
    • “Align pricing with energy usage tiers”

Before the next call:

  • Open Stax → “NordicGrid – Deal Cycle”
  • All tabs are instantly live.
  • Your own notes about the last call are front and center.
  • The deck opens on the right slide.

Then you share the Stax internally:

  • Pre-sales engineer adds a technical FAQ tab.
  • Your VP adds an “Exec Summary” draft.
  • Marketing adds a case study.

Optionally, you create a “NordicGrid – Shared Materials” Stax just for the client:

  • Proposal PDF
  • ROI calculator
  • Case studies
  • Implementation timeline

You share that link with the client. Now both sides are literally looking at the same curated space.

Outcome: Every time you touch this account, you’re stepping into a fully-loaded war room, not reconstructing it from memory.

7. Corporate Manager Living in 12 SaaS Tools All Day

You’re a manager in a big company. Your days are:

  • Calendar hell
  • Jira / Asana / internal tools
  • 3 dashboards
  • Email + Teams/Slack
  • Docs for each project
  • Constant 30-minute context cuts

Without TabStax

Each meeting requires hunting: “Where are the notes? Where’s the dashboard? What did we decide last time?”

With TabStax

You have:

  • “Team – Weekly Leadership Meeting” Stax
  • “Project – Platform Revamp” Stax
  • “Project – Cost Optimisation” Stax

Each Stax includes:

  • Agenda doc
  • Notes
  • The right dashboard
  • Relevant Jira board
  • Key email thread

Before a meeting:

  • You hit Open Stax → “Project – Platform Revamp”.
  • By the time the video call connects, your tools and last notes are ready.

Between meetings:

  • You close that Stax.
  • Open “Cost Optimisation”.
  • New dashboards, new notes, new context — instantly.

You share each Stax with the project team:

  • They join the call with the same context open already.

Outcome: You switch projects with the same ease you switch tabs, but the entire context comes along.

9. Emergency Manager Handling a Gas Leak With Multiple Agencies

There’s a gas leak reported in a residential area.

To manage it, you need:

  • Live map of the area
  • Utility provider dashboard
  • Weather data
  • 911 / emergency call feed
  • Evacuation procedures doc
  • Media / press release template
  • Internal comms platform

Without TabStax

You’re firing links to fire brigade, police, utilities, press office separately. Everyone builds their own tab mess.

With TabStax

You have “Incident – Gas Leak (Zone A)” Stax ready:

  • All core tools, maps, procedures

  • Start Page with a step list:

    • “1. Confirm leak location and radius”
    • “2. Trigger evacuation”
    • “3. Notify media with pre-approved template”

You share that Stax link with:

  • Fire / emergency responders
  • Utility operator
  • Press officer
  • City leadership

Each stakeholder opens one link and gets the same operational picture.

Outcome: You’re not just sending links — you’re distributing a ready-made command environment.

10. Personal Finances & Taxes – With an Accountant in the Loop

It’s tax time.

You’ve got:

  • Revenue/ROS login
  • Bank statements
  • Expense tracking sheet
  • Pension docs
  • Receipts in Drive
  • Email thread with your accountant

Without TabStax

You re-open these every time you work on taxes, then lose them, then forward random info to your accountant.

With TabStax

You make “2024 – Tax Prep” Stax:

  • All relevant portals and docs

  • Start Page Next Actions like:

    • “Upload missing receipts”
    • “Check health expenses eligibility”
    • “Confirm pension contributions total”

Every time you give it 20 minutes:

  • You open that one Stax.
  • Continue from the next action.
  • Nothing gets lost.

Then you share the Stax with your accountant:

  • They open it and see the same portals, docs, and structure you’ve been using.
  • They can say “log into this, click that, check this” while knowing exactly what’s on your screen.

Outcome: Tax prep becomes a guided workflow with a shared cockpit, not miscellaneous chaos across email and downloads.

12. Sales Engineer Prepping Two Completely Different Demos in One Afternoon

You’re a Sales Engineer. At 1pm you’re doing a compliance-focused demo for a bank. At 3pm you’re doing a developer-focused deep dive for a startup.

Same product, utterly different angles.

For the bank, you need:

  • Locked-down demo tenant
  • Compliance dashboard
  • Audit logs page
  • Slide with certifications
  • Security FAQ doc

For the startup, you need:

  • Sandbox tenant
  • API docs
  • Code examples
  • GitHub repo
  • Live logs

Without TabStax

You’re constantly reconfiguring your browser: logging into different tenants, hunting for the right docs, closing tabs from the previous demo, praying you don’t show the wrong environment.

With TabStax

You build two separate worlds:

  • “Demo – Bank / Compliance (ACB Bank)”
  • “Demo – Developer Deep Dive (LaunchCraft)”

Each Stax includes:

  • Pre-authenticated demo environment
  • The specific pages you’ll show
  • Tailored slide deck
  • FAQ / objections doc

  • Start Page with a scripted flow:

    • “1. Start with their risk concerns”
    • “2. Show audit trail first, not last”

At 12:55, you Open Stax → Bank Demo. Everything is ready. No scramble.

At 2:55, you close it and Open Stax → Developer Deep Dive. New tenant, new docs, new script.

You share each Stax with the AE and product lead so they can review the flow and add last-minute tweaks without a sync meeting.

You walk into each demo like you built the product for them.

13. Customer Success Manager Surfacing From One Renewal Into Another

You’re a CSM and today is Renewal Day.

At 10:00 you have a QBR with a happy, expanding account. At 11:00 you have a tense call with a renewal-risk customer.

The happy account:

  • Usage dashboard glowing green
  • NPS quotes
  • Upsell deck
  • Your internal notes: “Pitch expansion to Team B”

The at-risk account:

  • Dropping logins
  • Spike in support tickets
  • Executive sponsor who’s gone quiet
  • Notes from last call: “Concerned about adoption”

Without TabStax

You carry the emotional residue of the first call into the second. Your tabs bleed together. You keep almost sharing the wrong deck, searching for the last email, checking the wrong dashboard filter.

With TabStax

You set up:

  • “CS – QBR: Brightwave Media (Happy)”
  • “CS – Renewal Risk: Atlas Freight”

Each Stax has:

  • Account’s usage dashboard (pre-filtered)
  • Support history
  • QBR / Renewal deck
  • Internal notes

  • Start Page with:

    • For Brightwave: “Lead with wins, then expansion path”
    • For Atlas: “Start by listening; mirror their concerns; offer adoption plan”

You share the Brightwave Stax with your AE & PM, and the Atlas Stax with Support lead & PM.

When you finish Brightwave:

  • You close that entire emotional context
  • Open Atlas Stax
  • Your brain reads your own note: “This call is about empathy + rescue, not selling”

You show up with the right posture for each account, not one blended tone.

14. Data Analyst With Three Urgent Requests From Different Execs

It’s 9:30. Slack pings:

  • COO: “Need a quick view of weekly active users before 11”
  • CMO: “Can you break down signups by channel pre/post campaign?”
  • Head of Product: “Any early read on churn for the new pricing?”

Each question:

  • Hits a different table
  • Has a different dashboard
  • Needs a different story

Without TabStax

You open 12 tabs, drown in queries, and by the time you answer the first, you’ve forgotten what the second was even about.

With TabStax

You make:

  • “Analytics – COO WAU Request”
  • “Analytics – CMO Channel Performance”
  • “Analytics – Pricing → Churn Read”

Each Stax holds:

  • Relevant dashboard
  • SQL editor with saved query
  • Spec / context doc
  • Slack thread with the request
  • Start Page with a sharp “What this needs to answer in one sentence”

You share each Stax with the requester as you work:

  • “Here’s the environment I’m using; I’ll drop the final chart here.”

Now they can peek in if they want.

You time-box 25 minutes each:

  • Open COO Stax → answer question → paste chart + 2-line summary
  • Close → open CMO Stax → different world, different filters, clean mental shift
  • Same for Product

You’re not juggling queries in your head; you’re stepping into three well-defined, named investigations.

15. Startup Founder Doing Board Prep Between Fires

You’re a founder.

Morning:

  • You’re trying to finish the board deck.
  • Engineering pings you about a production bug.
  • A big prospect wants updated pricing details.
  • You’re also meant to be drafting a hiring plan.

Everything is urgent. Everything is fragmented.

Without TabStax

Your browser becomes a junk drawer: Notion, Slides, Stripe, Slack, Jira, Google Sheets, Gmail… all on top of each other. You open the board deck, then remember the bug, jump to Jira, forget where you left the deck, miss a detail in the email to the prospect.

With TabStax

You deliberately slice your day into:

  • “Founder – Board Pack Prep”
  • “Founder – Fire: Production Bug 4819”
  • “Founder – Prospect Pricing (Acme)”
  • “Founder – Hiring Plan Q3”

Each Stax has:

  • Only the relevant tabs

  • A Start Page with:

    • Clear goal for that block
    • The 1–3 next moves

You share Board Pack Stax with your CFO / finance person. You share Bug Stax with eng lead & support head. You share Prospect Pricing Stax with sales lead.

Then you work in time blocks:

  • 60 mins in Board Pack Stax
  • 30 mins in Bug Stax
  • 30 mins in Prospect Stax
  • 45 mins in Hiring Stax

Each time you switch, you close one world and open the next, rebooting fully instead of context-leaking across.

16. DevOps Engineer Moving From Postmortem to Reliability Review

You just finished writing a postmortem for a nasty incident. In 10 minutes, you’re leading a weekly reliability review.

Postmortem world:

  • Incident ticket
  • Logs
  • Timeline doc
  • Runbook links
  • Engineering notes

Reliability review world:

  • SLO dashboards
  • Error budgets
  • Upcoming risky changes
  • Capacity planning sheet

Without TabStax

You finish the postmortem surrounded by emotional debris and scary graphs. You try to spin up reliability dashboards while Slack pings you about something else. You drag the mood of “we just fought a fire” into what should be a cool-headed review.

With TabStax

You have:

  • “SRE – Incident #742 Postmortem” Stax
  • “SRE – Weekly Reliability Review” Stax

Each Stax has different dashboards, docs, and goals.

Postmortem Stax Start Page: “Write root cause summary in human language; capture 3 action items max.”

Reliability Stax Start Page: “Look at SLO burn-down → identify top 2 violators → assign owners.”

You also share the Reliability Stax with PMs and leads so they show up already looking at the same SLOs.

At the end of the postmortem:

  • You literally close that world.
  • Open Reliability Stax.
  • Fresh dashboards, fresh framing, fresh tone.

You feel the difference in your body.

17. Emergency Manager Switching From “Gas Leak” to “Storm Prep”

You’re the emergency manager for a city.

You’ve been deep in the gas leak incident for two hours: gas company dashboards, local maps, evacuation zones, police and fire updates.

An hour later you’re due in a planning call about a storm system due this weekend.

Different risk. Different partners. Different tools.

Without TabStax

You leave your gas leak tabs open, open new tabs for weather, flood maps, shelters. You’re mentally still half in the last crisis, glancing at the wrong map, mixing protocols.

With TabStax

You prepared:

  • “Incident – Gas Leak (Zone A)” Stax
  • “Preparedness – Storm Alpha Weekend” Stax

Gas Leak Stax:

  • Utility dashboard
  • Real-time map
  • Intake logs
  • Evacuation checklist

Storm Alpha Stax:

  • Weather service models
  • Flood zone overlay
  • Shelter capacity map
  • Public messaging plan
  • Call agenda

You share Gas Leak Stax with field commanders & utility. You share Storm Alpha Stax with city leadership, police, public works, Red Cross.

When it’s time to switch:

  • You close the gas leak Stax (the incident team still has it).
  • Open Storm Alpha.
  • You’re now fully in “anticipation + planning” mode, not reacting.

18. Corporate Manager With Back-to-Back “Different Universe” Meetings

You manage a team inside a huge corporate.

Your Tuesday:

  • 11:00 – Team 1: Delivery sync (Jira, capacity, blockers)
  • 12:00 – Market strategy review (market analysis, competitor slides)
  • 13:00 – HR calibration meeting (performance docs, comp bands)

These are three completely different hats.

Without TabStax

All three hats sit in one tab soup. You join the HR meeting and still have Jira and slide decks open, flipping around, stalling while you find the performance spreadsheet.

With TabStax

You build:

  • “Manager – Team Delivery” Stax (Jira, metrics, action log)
  • “Manager – Strategy Review” Stax (market slides, competitive matrix, notes)
  • “Manager – HR Calibration” Stax (people list, performance docs, HR policies)

You share each Stax with the people in that specific meeting (team leads, strategy folks, HR).

Before each meeting you simply:

  • Close the last world
  • Open the one for the next call

By the time Zoom connects, your tools, notes, and frame of mind have already changed.

You look like someone who walks in prepared to every room, not someone who “is very busy”.

19. UX Researcher Jumping Between Live Sessions and Synthesis

You’re running 5 usability sessions today.

In between, you’re also trying to synthesize yesterday’s sessions.

Live session world:

  • Zoom/Meet
  • Prototype in Figma/InVision
  • Research notes doc
  • Script

Synthesis world:

  • Tagging board
  • Thematic clusters
  • Affinity diagram
  • Summary report draft

Without TabStax

You end a session, promise yourself you’ll just take “two minutes” to start synthesis, but can’t find the right doc. Then the next session starts, and you’re still half in analysis mode.

With TabStax

You have two Stax:

  • “UXR – Live Sessions: Onboarding Study”
  • “UXR – Synthesis: Onboarding Study”

Live Sessions Stax:

  • Meeting link
  • Prototype
  • Script
  • Note-taking doc

Synthesis Stax:

  • Miro/Whimsical affinity map
  • Tagging sheet
  • Report draft
  • Stakeholder questions doc

You share Live Stax with observers (PM, designer) so they can join and take notes without asking for links. You share Synthesis Stax with the same folks so they can see the emerging picture.

Between sessions, you close Live Stax, open Synthesis, tag a few notes, then swap back.

Your brain always knows “I am here to run sessions” or “I am here to make sense”, not both at once.

20. Marketing Lead Orchestrating a Launch Across Channels

You’re launching TabStax Cloud Sync.

Live pieces:

  • Launch brief doc
  • Landing page editor
  • Email campaign in your ESP
  • Social media calendar
  • Paid ads dashboard
  • PR outreach list
  • Product Hunt page draft

Without TabStax

Your browser becomes a graveyard of half-remembered tabs. You fix copy on the landing page, then get distracted by ads performance, forget to update the email, lose the PR sheet.

With TabStax

You spin up “Launch – TabStax Cloud Sync” Stax:

  • All the tools and docs

  • Start Page that says:

    • “Today’s focus: finalize landing copy, schedule emails, prep PH draft.”
    • Checkboxes with direct links.

You share this Stax with:

  • Founder / PM (for messaging alignment)
  • Designer (for visuals, thumbnails, OG images)
  • Ads manager (for campaigns)
  • PR helper (for outreach)

When anyone asks “Where’s the latest version?”, the answer is: “Open the Launch Stax.”

You work in focused bursts, each time re-opening the Stax and continuing from the last completed Next Action instead of re-assembling the launch in your head.

21. Small Agency Founder With Three Clients Pulling at Once

You run a tiny creative agency. Today:

  • 09:00 – Brand review with Aurora Fitness
  • 10:00 – Landing page critique for Nova Fintech
  • 11:00 – Crisis call with Harbour Foods about a campaign that’s underperforming

Each client has:

  • Figma files
  • Email chains
  • Metrics dashboards
  • Shared folders
  • Random Looms and notes

Without TabStax

You Frankenstein your morning: search Gmail for “Aurora deck”, dig through Slack for Nova’s Figma link, open the wrong Harbour dashboard, and start each call slightly frazzled and half-loaded.

With TabStax

You’ve already carved your day into three Stax:

  • “Client – Aurora Fitness (Brand)”
  • “Client – Nova Fintech (Landing Page)”
  • “Client – Harbour Foods (Crisis Review)”

Each Stax includes:

  • Figma / docs / dashboards for that client only
  • Their main Slack/Teams channel
  • Last meeting notes

  • A Start Page with:

    • “Last time we…” bullets
    • Next Actions for this call

For Harbour, your Start Page literally says:

  • “Open with ‘I’ve looked at your numbers’”
  • “Walk them through CTR vs industry benchmarks”
  • “Leave with 1–2 test ideas and dates”

You’ve shared each Stax with the designer, copywriter, and account manager on that client. When you say “Open the Harbour Stax,” the whole team lands in the same cockpit: same Figma file, same metrics, same notes.

You hang up with Aurora, close that world, hit Open Stax → Nova and your brain snaps into a totally different brand, tone, and problem.

22. Solo Developer/Indie Hacker Pinballing Between Code, Bugs, and Launch

You’re solo, building a SaaS. Today:

  • Fix a nasty auth bug
  • Ship a small UI improvement
  • Reply to support emails
  • Prepare for a Product Hunt soft launch

Each of those is a separate mental canvas:

  • Code editor docs, API ref, error logs
  • UI library docs, sandbox, design reference
  • Support inbox, user profiles, admin panel
  • Launch checklist, landing page builder, PH draft

Without TabStax

You open everything at once. You start debugging, then an email comes in, you open support, forget your stack trace, bounce to the landing page, tweak copy, then “oh yeah, the bug…”

With TabStax

You create four worlds:

  • “Dev – Auth Bug #192”
  • “Dev – UI Polish (Dashboard Cards)”
  • “Support – Inbox Triage”
  • “Launch – Product Hunt Prep”

Each Stax has:

  • Only the tabs needed for that task

  • A Start Page with:

    • “Goal for this session”
    • 2–3 Next Actions

For the auth bug:

  • Logs
  • Error trace
  • Auth provider docs
  • Test account in your app
  • Start Page: “Reproduce bug → isolate conditions → add failing test.”

You share the Launch Stax with a friend helping with copy/PH comments so they can see landing page, draft, and analytics at once.

You work in tight blocks, always switching by closing one Stax, opening another, not by adding new chaos to the same browser window.

23. Real Estate Agent on the Road Between Buyers and Sellers

You’re in the car (parked, being sensible), juggling:

  • A morning of house viewings with a buyer
  • An afternoon valuation visit for a seller
  • A follow-up negotiation call in between

Different contexts:

  • Buyer: shortlisted homes, maps, BER ratings, your notes on what they liked
  • Seller: recent comparables, valuation spreadsheet, staging tips, photos
  • Negotiation: offer history, email thread, seller notes

Without TabStax

Your phone browser is a mess: maps, listings, WhatsApp, email, portals. You show up to the valuation trying to remember which comparables you used, fumble between tabs on a tiny screen, and hope you don’t mix up properties.

With TabStax

You build:

  • “Buyer – The O’Reillys (Viewings Today)”
  • “Seller – 14 Oakridge Drive (Valuation)”
  • “Negotiation – Apt 3C / Murphy vs Landlord”

Buyer Stax:

  • Daft/MyHome tabs for each viewing
  • Google Maps routes
  • Notes: “Hates road noise; loves south-facing kitchen”
  • Start Page with the viewing sequence

Seller Stax:

  • Comparable sale listings
  • Valuation spreadsheet
  • Staging checklist
  • High-res photo examples

Negotiation Stax:

  • Offer spreadsheet
  • Email chains
  • Your notes on both parties’ bottom lines

You share the Buyer Stax with your assistant so they can adjust routes / timings in real time. You share the Seller Stax back at the office with admin staff to prep the valuation pack.

Between appointments, you just hit Open Stax → next client, and your brain is now fully in “seller mode” or “negotiation mode”, not half remembering what street you’re even on.

24. Doctor in Clinic Moving From Routine Checkups to a Scary Lab Result

You’re in a GP clinic.

  • 10:00 – Routine blood pressure check with a long-term patient
  • 10:15 – Urgent review: lab just flagged abnormal results on another patient you saw last week
  • 10:30 – A new patient consult you’ve never met

All three are different headspaces.

Without TabStax

You rely on your EHR’s clunky navigation, flipping between patients, reopening guidelines, and scanning for labs. You rush into the urgent consult scanning for the right tab, a bit behind emotionally and cognitively.

With TabStax

You set up:

  • “Clinic – Morning List” Stax

    • EHR patient list in today’s order
    • Lab inbox
    • Clinical guidelines (hypertension, diabetes, etc.)
    • Note template

  • For the flagged patient, you open a dedicated internal Stax:

    • “Patient – Urgent Lab Review (ID: 4827)”

That Stax contains:

  • Their EHR record open at today’s lab results
  • Previous visit notes
  • Relevant guideline page

  • A quick note you left yourself:

    • “At last visit: discussed fatigue; no red flags then. Today: focus on X, Y, Z.”

You share the Clinic Stax with your nurse / admin so they see the same list and prep/room patients in sync with your flow.

Before you enter the room for the urgent lab review:

  • You close the routine checkup tabs mentally by closing that chart
  • Glance at the Urgent Stax and your own note
  • You walk in already oriented, not reacting on the back foot.

25. Teacher Running Back-to-Back Classes and Then a Parent Meeting

You teach at a secondary school.

Today:

  • 09:00 – 3rd Year Maths
  • 10:00 – 5th Year Applied Maths
  • 11:00 – Parent-teacher meeting for a struggling student

Different prep, different resources, different emotional tone.

Without TabStax

Your browser is some mix of past papers, YouTube videos, worksheets, Google Classroom, and the school admin portal. You scramble between classes, hunting for the right set of questions and then desperately trying to find the student’s record before the parent sits down.

With TabStax

You create:

  • “Class – 3rd Year Maths (Simultaneous Equations)” Stax
  • “Class – 5th Year Applied Maths (Vectors)” Stax
  • “Meeting – Parent of Aoife K.” Stax

Class Stax contain:

  • Today’s lesson slides
  • Past paper questions you’ll use
  • LMS / Google Classroom for that class
  • Notes: “Yesterday they struggled with step 2; slow down there.”

Parent Meeting Stax:

  • Student record
  • Recent grades
  • Behaviour/attendance notes

  • Notes doc with:

    • “Start with strengths: X, Y.”
    • “Then discuss: missing homework, focus in class.”
    • “End with concrete plan: extra help / parent support.”

You share the Parent Stax with the year head, so they can see what you’ll say and align.

You finish 3rd Year, close that Stax, open 5th Year. Different level, different tone, everything ready. Before the parent arrives, you open Aoife’s Stax and step fully into her story, not “generic student” mode.

26. Conference Organizer Switching Between Sponsors, Speakers, and Venue

You’re organizing a mid-sized conference.

You have three simultaneous tracks going on in your head:

  • Sponsors: contracts, logo assets, invoicing
  • Speakers: bios, talk titles, scheduling, AV needs
  • Venue: rooms, layouts, catering, tech

Without TabStax

Your browser becomes a junkyard: Stripe, DocuSign, Google Sheets, deck mockups, speaker DM threads, venue portal. You join calls half-prepared, flicking through tabs to remember what you last agreed with whom.

With TabStax

You build three core Stax:

  • “Conf – Sponsors”
  • “Conf – Speakers & Program”
  • “Conf – Venue & Logistics”

Sponsor Stax:

  • Sponsor tracker sheet
  • Contract templates
  • Email threads
  • Asset folder

Speakers Stax:

  • Speaker list spreadsheet
  • Bio and headshot folders
  • Program draft in Docs
  • Scheduling tool

Venue Stax:

  • Venue portal
  • Floorplans PDF
  • Catering menu
  • AV requirements list

You share Sponsor Stax with your bizdev/finance helper. You share Speakers Stax with your content/program co-owner. You share Venue Stax with volunteers/ops coordinator.

When you have a sponsor call, you open Sponsor Stax and step into that world: money, deliverables, logos. When you hang up, you close it, open Speakers Stax, and now you’re thinking about time slots and topics, not invoice terms.

27. Wedding Photographer Moving From Planning to Shooting to Editing

You’re shooting a wedding this weekend, and have three distinct phases:

  • Planning: shot list, schedule, family dynamics, locations
  • Shooting: checklists, gear, timeline
  • Editing & delivery: Lightroom, culling, gallery, album design

Without TabStax

You plan in one mess of tabs, then the day before you’re searching Gmail for the timeline, the client’s Pinterest board, and the form with names of VIPs. After the wedding, you can’t find your own notes when editing.

With TabStax

You create:

  • “Wedding – The Donnelly’s (Planning)” Stax
  • “Wedding – The Donnelly’s (Shoot Day)” Stax
  • “Wedding – The Donnelly’s (Editing & Delivery)” Stax

Planning Stax:

  • Client questionnaire
  • Pinterest inspo board
  • Shot list doc
  • Timeline from planner

Shoot Day Stax (on your laptop or tablet):

  • Timeline
  • Shot list
  • Family group combinations
  • Weather forecast
  • Map for locations

Editing Stax:

  • Online gallery/Lightroom cloud
  • Culling tool
  • Export presets doc
  • Album layout software
  • Email draft for delivery

You share Planning Stax with the planner and the couple so everyone agrees on what’s happening. You share Editing Stax with your editor/retoucher so they can see inspo, shot list, and delivery expectations.

Your brain treats each phase like a different mode. TabStax lets you switch modes with one click instead of reconstructing the wedding from memory.

28. YouTuber / Streamer Jumping Between Prep, Live, and Post

You run a channel.

Today:

  • Prep a new video
  • Go live for a stream
  • Edit a past stream into clips
  • Schedule social posts

Each mode uses:

  • Script / outline
  • Research tabs
  • OBS / streaming dashboard
  • Chat moderation tools
  • Video editor
  • Thumbnail designer
  • Social scheduler

Without TabStax

Everything piles into one monstrous browser: you’ve got Twitter open while you’re meant to be scripting, OBS while you try to edit, your brain pinging between “what’s my hook?” and “is the bitrate okay?”

With TabStax

You define three worlds:

  • “Creator – Video Prep: ‘How I Use TabStax’“
  • “Creator – Live Stream: Q&A”
  • “Creator – Editing & Clips”

Video Prep Stax:

  • Script doc
  • Research tabs
  • Past related videos
  • Idea backlog

Live Stream Stax:

  • OBS Dashboard
  • StreamElements/alert tool
  • Twitch/YouTube Studio
  • Mod tools
  • Notes of topics to cover

Editing Stax:

  • Video editor
  • Past stream recording
  • Docs with timestamps / highlight notes
  • Thumbnail editor
  • Social caption doc

You share Prep and Editing Stax with your editor and thumbnail designer. You share Live Stream Stax with your mods.

Before going live, you close Prep Stax, open Live Stax, and you’re in showrunner mode. After, you close Live, open Editing, and now you’re in “what’s the best 60 seconds?” mode.

29. NGO Program Manager Between Field Updates and Donor Reports

You’re running a community program for an NGO.

You have two overlapping worlds:

  • Field reality: updates from local staff, WhatsApp photos, spreadsheets of attendance, issues on the ground
  • Donor reality: logframes, KPIs, highly structured reports, deadlines

Without TabStax

Your browser shows donor report templates next to grainy WhatsApp images and half-translated messages, and you mentally flip between “messy, human, local detail” and “polished, formal, structured” without any separation.

With TabStax

You build:

  • “Program – Field Ops (Youth Centre)” Stax
  • “Program – Donor Reporting (Youth Centre)” Stax

Field Ops Stax:

  • Shared spreadsheets from local team
  • Messaging web version / shared photos folder
  • Internal incident tracker
  • Notes on staff meetings

Donor Reporting Stax:

  • Donor portal
  • Report template doc
  • Indicator definitions
  • Past reports

You share Field Ops Stax with field coordinators. You share Donor Stax with HQ / fundraising.

When you’re aligning with field staff, you open Field Stax and stay in “truth on the ground” mode. When you’re crafting the report, you open Donor Stax and stay in “translate this into logframe language” mode without the noise.

30. Recruiter Running a Full Interview Loop for One Candidate

You’re a recruiter.

For one critical role, you’re running:

  • Screening call
  • Tech interview
  • Hiring manager conversation
  • Reference checks

For this candidate you need:

  • ATS profile
  • CV / portfolio / GitHub
  • Notes from screening call
  • Interview feedback forms
  • Email thread
  • Hiring manager’s requirements
  • Reference contact details

Without TabStax

You’re hunting the candidate’s profile before each step, digging through Gmail for their GitHub, reopening the feedback form link, mixing up which manager wanted what.

With TabStax

You create a dedicated world:

  • “Candidate – Sara K (Staff Engineer)” Stax.

Inside:

  • ATS profile open
  • CV and GitHub in tabs
  • Spreadsheet or doc summarizing requirements
  • Links to each interview scorecard
  • Email thread with candidate
  • Reference contact doc

  • Start Page with:

    • Timeline of stages
    • Next Actions: “Collect tech panel feedback by EOD”, “Schedule references for Friday”

You share this Stax with the hiring manager and interview panel.

Before any interview debrief, everyone opens the same Stax:

  • Same profile
  • Same expectations
  • Same feedback forms

You’re not re-forwarding CVs, not re-explaining context. You’re all in the “Sara K world” together.

32. Manufacturing Ops Manager Between Factory Floor, Supplier Crisis, and Audit

She runs operations for a small manufacturing plant.

Today:

  • A machine on Line 3 is intermittently failing
  • A critical supplier shipment is delayed
  • An external quality audit is happening this afternoon

Each one involves different tools:

  • Factory floor dashboard, maintenance logs, SOPs
  • Supplier portal, email threads, cost spreadsheets
  • Audit checklist, documentation, non-conformance reports

Without TabStax

She drags everything into one chaotic browser: live machine metrics, half-open PDFs, emails from the supplier, and an audit checklist she keeps misplacing. When the auditor asks for a specific record, she hunts frantically.

With TabStax

She builds three Stax:

  • “Ops – Line 3 Intermittent Fault”
  • “Ops – Supplier Delay: SteelCo”
  • “Ops – Quality Audit (Today)”

Line 3 Stax:

  • Live machine dashboard
  • Maintenance ticket history
  • SOP doc
  • Notes: “Intermittent since last firmware update; cross-check with vendor.”

Supplier Delay Stax:

  • Purchase order in ERP
  • Supplier portal
  • Email thread
  • Contingency planning sheet

Audit Stax:

  • Audit checklist
  • Document index
  • File share with certificates and procedures
  • Non-conformance log

She shares the Line 3 Stax with the maintenance supervisor so they see the same logs and SOP. She shares the Audit Stax with QA lead so they can pre-open docs and tag gaps.

In the morning, she focuses on Line 3: Open Line 3 Stax, walk the floor, update notes. Then she closes it and opens Supplier Delay for a call with SteelCo. Just before the audit starts, she opens Audit Stax — everything they’ll ask for is one click away.

She moves through the day as if each crisis has its own cockpit — because it does.

33. Film Editor Cutting a Feature and a Trailer for a Different Client

He’s in an edit suite, working on:

  • A feature film rough cut for Director A
  • A punchy 90-second trailer for Brand B’s campaign

The tools overlap but the worlds don’t:

  • Feature film: long timeline, character arcs, director’s notes, continuity sheets
  • Brand trailer: brand guidelines, endcard requirements, legal lines, media specs

Without TabStax

His browser and reference windows are a tangle: script PDFs, frame.io comments, two different brand folders, music licensing pages. When Director A drops in on Zoom, he still has Brand B’s style guide open and spends the first five minutes finding the last cut.

With TabStax

He defines:

  • “Edit – Feature: ‘Glass Harbor’ Rough Cut”
  • “Edit – Trailer: Brand B Spring Campaign”

Feature Stax:

  • Script
  • Scene breakdown
  • Frame.io comments from the director
  • Shared continuity notes
  • Music temp tracks folder

Trailer Stax:

  • Brand guidelines
  • Asset folder (logos, fonts)
  • Client feedback doc
  • Legal disclaimers
  • Target placement specs (length, formats)

He shares Glass Harbor Stax with the director and producer. They add reference clips and notes. He shares Brand B Stax with the agency producer, who drops in the latest brief and media specs.

He blocks his day:

  • Morning: Open Glass Harbor Stax – he’s living in scenes, emotion, pacing.
  • Afternoon: Open Brand B Stax – now he’s living in punchy hooks, brand beats, and timing for ads.

Each world feels intact, self-contained. When a Zoom invite hits from Director A, he opens that Stax and everything — including the last comment thread — is already live.

34. Hospital Social Worker Handling Three Complex Discharges

She’s the social worker covering a busy hospital ward.

Today she’s juggling three complicated discharges:

  • An elderly patient going home alone with mobility issues
  • A young parent needing community mental health support
  • A homeless patient who needs coordinated discharge to temporary accommodation

Each case requires:

  • Electronic health record
  • Community services directory
  • Housing or benefits portals
  • Notes from multidisciplinary team meetings
  • Contact logs

Without TabStax

Her browser is a maze of portals, PDFs, and notes. She keeps 6–10 tabs pinned and prays she doesn’t close one accidentally. Each time she switches patients, she wastes time re-opening the right combination of records and websites.

With TabStax

She sets up:

  • “Case – Mrs. O’Shea (Mobility + Home Support)”
  • “Case – Daniel M. (Mental Health + Parenting Support)”
  • “Case – ‘John Doe’ (Homeless Discharge)”

Each Stax contains:

  • EHR open to that patient
  • Relevant portals (home care services, benefits, housing, mental health services)
  • Notes doc summarizing family situation and MDT decisions

  • A start tab with:

    • Key risks
    • Key agencies involved
    • Next Actions

For John Doe, the Start Page might say:

  • “Call outreach worker at X charity”
  • “Submit form Y for temporary accommodation”
  • “Update discharge planner by 15:00”

She shares each Stax with the ward discharge coordinator and, where appropriate, another social worker.

As she moves between cases:

  • She closes one Stax and opens the next, fully re-entering that patient’s story and support network in seconds.

She doesn’t carry all three in short term memory; TabStax holds the complexity so she can be fully present in the conversation at hand.

35. Festival Ops Lead Juggling Security, Weather, and Artist Schedules

It’s day two of a three-day music festival.

The ops lead is balancing:

  • A minor security incident at one gate
  • A changing weather front threatening the main stage later
  • An artist whose flight is delayed

Tools:

  • Security incident log
  • Radio/communications hub
  • Weather radar
  • Stage schedule
  • Airline/travel tracking
  • Artist liaison chat

Without TabStax

They click through browser tabs on a laptop in a noisy operations cabin, trying to remember which window held the gate camera and where they bookmarked the backup weather model. Every new issue adds more noise.

With TabStax

They’ve created:

  • “Festival – Live Ops Cockpit” Stax
  • “Festival – Weather Risk: Stage A” Stax
  • “Festival – Artist Logistics: Day 2” Stax

Live Ops Cockpit:

  • Security live view
  • Incident ticket log
  • Radio/dispatch dashboard
  • Site map

Weather Risk Stax:

  • Detailed weather radar
  • Forecast model pages
  • Risk matrix doc
  • Contingency plan with “move show to Stage B” protocol

Artist Logistics Stax:

  • Airline tracking page
  • Spreadsheet of artist travel details
  • Messages with agents
  • Updated stage schedule

They share Live Ops Cockpit Stax with security supervisors and medical. They share Weather Risk Stax with stage managers and production. They share Artist Logistics Stax with artist liaison team & booking manager.

As each problem heats up or cools down, they switch Stax: when they’re in Weather, they’re 100% thinking “wind, rain, schedule,” not “where did we log that lost phone?”

The whole team starts talking in shorthand: “Check the Weather Stax; check the Artist Stax.”

36. HR Generalist Dealing With a Grievance, an Offer, and a Policy Rollout

She’s HR in a 200-person company.

Within three hours, she needs to:

  • Prepare for a grievance meeting with an upset employee
  • Get an offer letter out to a senior hire
  • Finalize a new hybrid work policy to roll out next week

Each uses different data sensitivities and emotional tones.

Without TabStax

She has Gmail, HRIS, Google Docs, Slack, and a contract template all open at once. She jumps from grievance notes to offer letter paragraphs to policy bullets without resetting. Easy to mis-send the wrong doc or carry the emotional weight of the grievance into the cheerfulness of the offer call.

With TabStax

She defines:

  • “HR – Grievance: Case #2025-04”
  • “HR – Offer: Senior PM Candidate”
  • “HR – Policy: Hybrid Work Rollout”

Grievance Stax:

  • Case log
  • Relevant policy documents
  • Emails
  • Notes from previous meetings

  • Meeting plan:

    • “Listen first, clarify, summarise back.”

Offer Stax:

  • Offer letter template
  • Comp bands doc
  • Candidate profile
  • Email draft

Policy Stax:

  • Draft policy doc
  • Legal review notes
  • FAQ for employees
  • Rollout plan

She shares Grievance Stax (internal version) with HR director and legal. She shares Policy Stax with leadership team for final comments. She shares a curated version of Offer Stax with the hiring manager to align on details.

When she moves from grievance prep to offer call, she closes the Grievance Stax — mentally closing that loop — and opens the Offer Stax. Her environment shifts to “welcoming, excited, clear” instead of “tense, investigative”.

37. Investment Analyst Covering Three Sectors on Earnings Week

He’s an equity analyst.

This week, three of “his” companies across three sectors are reporting earnings:

  • Tech: CloudCo
  • Consumer: FreshFoods
  • Industrials: RailTrans

Each earnings story uses different KPIs, comps, and narratives.

Without TabStax

His Bloomberg/terminal windows and browser tabs are a tangle of PDFs, models, call transcripts, and competitor charts. He keeps reopening the wrong model or clicking into the wrong transcript.

With TabStax

He sets up:

  • “Coverage – CloudCo Earnings Q2”
  • “Coverage – FreshFoods Earnings Q2”
  • “Coverage – RailTrans Earnings Q2”

Each Stax holds for that company:

  • Model (spreadsheet)
  • Last quarter’s deck
  • Today’s deck PDF
  • Live transcript / call webcast
  • Notes doc with key questions
  • Comps table

He shares each Stax with his PM and associate.

When it’s CloudCo’s call:

  • He opens CloudCo Stax; his notes and model are exactly where he left them.
  • After the call, he updates assumptions and writes a quick note in the same world.

Later, he closes CloudCo and opens FreshFoods:

  • New model, new comps, new thesis.
  • His start page says: “Focus on margin recovery & store count, not just top-line.”

He doesn’t carry three theses in his working RAM; TabStax loads one coverage “universe” at a time.

38. City Planner Balancing a New Transport Corridor, a Housing Project, and Public Input

She’s working in a city planning office.

Right now she’s deep in:

  • A new bus rapid transit corridor proposal
  • A controversial housing development under review
  • A scheduled public consultation evening where both will get shouted about

Each topic needs:

  • GIS maps
  • Traffic models
  • Policy documents
  • Developer submissions
  • Public feedback portal
  • Internal memos

Without TabStax

Her browser is piled with shapefiles, PDFs, forms, and council minutes. She hops from transport to housing to consultation logistics without ever feeling fully anchored in any.

With TabStax

She creates:

  • “Planning – Transit Corridor North-South”
  • “Planning – Housing Development: Elm Street”
  • “Planning – Public Consultation: June 18”

Transit Stax:

  • Route maps
  • Environmental assessments
  • Technical studies
  • Funding options

Housing Stax:

  • Site plans
  • Developer proposal
  • Objections and submissions
  • Zoning regulations

Consultation Stax:

  • Event agenda
  • Slide deck for public
  • FAQ doc
  • Online feedback form builder

She shares Transit Stax with transport engineers. She shares Housing Stax with legal and councillors. She shares Consultation Stax with comms and event staff.

On the day of the consultation, she closes Transit/Housing Stax and opens Consultation Stax only. Her machine, her notes, her slides are all in “listen & explain” mode, not in “tweak the model” mode.

39. Policy Lobbyist Prepping Lawmakers for a Committee Hearing

He works for an advocacy org.

Tomorrow, there’s a parliamentary committee hearing on a topic his organisation cares deeply about. He needs to:

  • Prep three supportive lawmakers with tailored briefing packs
  • Track opposition talking points
  • Coordinate media follow-up

Without TabStax

His browser is full of bill texts, amendments, op-eds, polling, MP profiles. He copies/pastes into docs and emails, hoping not to send the wrong briefing to the wrong office.

With TabStax

He builds:

  • “Hearing – Core Evidence & Arguments” Stax
  • “Briefing – MP A (Education angle)”
  • “Briefing – MP B (Economic angle)”
  • “Briefing – MP C (Constituency impact)”

Core Evidence Stax:

  • Bill text
  • Amendment documents
  • Research papers
  • Polls

Each MP Stax:

  • MP’s profile and speeches
  • Constituency data
  • Tailored 1-page brief
  • Suggested questions for the hearing

He shares the Core Evidence Stax internally with his team. He shares each MP Stax (curated) with that MP’s staffer:

  • They open their Stax and see everything: suggested lines, supporting stats, local angle.

On hearing day, he also has a Media Follow-up Stax:

  • Press list
  • Draft press releases
  • Social copy

He swaps between them as the day unfolds, each world representing a different audience and frame of the same issue.

41. Emergency Vet Switching From One Crisis to the Next

It’s 7:45pm at an emergency vet clinic.

In the last hour:

  • A labrador came in with suspected bloat
  • A cat is on fluids after a bad fall
  • A terrier is waiting for stitches
  • Three anxious owners keep asking for updates

Your world is:

  • Practice management software
  • Lab results
  • Imaging
  • Drug dosage calculators
  • Treatment protocols
  • Whiteboard of “who’s where”

Without TabStax

Your browser is chaos: three different patient records open, Google tabs for dosages, imaging viewer, PDF protocols. You keep flicking between them, trying not to mix up which animal has which condition. When you step into a consult room, you’re half-thinking about the last case.

With TabStax

You’ve set up:

  • “Case – Max (Labrador, Suspected GDV)” Stax
  • “Case – Luna (Cat, Trauma)” Stax
  • “Case – Milo (Terrier, Laceration)” Stax
  • “Shift – ER Overview” Stax

Each case Stax contains:

  • Patient record
  • Imaging (if any)
  • Lab results
  • Relevant protocol tab (GDV, trauma, wound care)

  • A quick structured note of Next Actions:

    • For Max: “Stabilize → X-ray → prep for possible surgery”
    • For Luna: “Monitor vitals q15min, reassess neuro signs”

You share each Case Stax with the vet nurse and techs so they know:

  • What stage each patient is at
  • What’s next without asking you five times

You share the Shift Overview Stax with the receptionist so they can give realistic updates to owners.

When you move from Max to Luna, you close Max’s Stax and open Luna’s:

Your brain reloads the entire story: mechanism of injury, current vitals, owner’s concerns. You bring clean attention into each treatment room, even in the chaos.

42. Airline Operations Controller in a Storm

You’re in the airline ops center. A line of storms is rolling in across the region.

At once you’re dealing with:

  • One flight in a holding pattern
  • Another needing a diversion airport
  • Crew nearing duty time limits
  • Passengers missing connections

Your tools:

  • Flight tracking system
  • Weather radar
  • Crew scheduling system
  • Airport ops dashboards
  • Internal chat with ground staff

Without TabStax

You’re juggling 20 tabs and three monitors, flipping between radar, a particular flight, Slack DMs, and an Excel with crew duty times. The mental context for each flight blurs.

With TabStax

You make:

  • “Ops – Storm System Delta (Overview)” Stax
  • “Flight – AB123 Diversion” Stax
  • “Flight – CD456 Crew Duty Limit Risk” Stax

Storm Overview Stax:

  • Big-picture radar
  • List of affected flights
  • Airport capacity info

Individual Flight Stax:

  • Flight AB123 live track
  • Weather + diversion airport data
  • Passenger loads and connections
  • Notes: “Preferred diversion: City X (maintenance base, hotel contracts)”

You share Storm Overview Stax with the whole shift team so everyone sees the same macro picture. You share Flight AB123 Stax with ground ops at both airports, so they see the plan: inbound status, expected diversion time, passenger counts.

As priorities shift, you’re opening and closing Flight Stax like tabs of reality:

When you step into AB123 world, everything you need for that flight — not the entire airline — is right there. You make a call, update notes, close it, open the next world.

You look calm because your environment is carrying the complexity.

43. Construction Site Foreman Between Subcontractors, Deliveries, and Safety

You’re running a large construction site.

Right now:

  • The electricians are late and blocking the drywall crew
  • A steel delivery is due any minute
  • There’s a safety walk with the inspector this afternoon

Your life is:

  • Gantt charts
  • WhatsApp groups with subcontractors
  • Delivery notes
  • Email threads
  • Safety checklists

Without TabStax

You’ve got the schedule open in one tab, supplier portal in another, PDFs of safety documentation buried somewhere, and three chat apps dinging. You react to whoever shouts loudest.

With TabStax

You define:

  • “Site – Daily Control Room” Stax
  • “Site – Electrical / Drywall Coordination (Level 3)” Stax
  • “Site – Steel Delivery (Today)” Stax
  • “Site – Safety Walk (Inspector)” Stax

Control Room Stax:

  • Project schedule
  • Site layout
  • High-level issues sheet

Coordination Stax:

  • Today’s work area plan
  • Messages with elec + drywall subs
  • Photos of current state

Safety Stax:

  • Safety checklist for the walk
  • Outstanding action items from last inspection
  • Relevant regs / method statements

You share Coordination Stax with both subcontractors so they see the same drawings and constraints. You share Safety Stax with the safety officer and site manager.

When it’s time for the walk, you open Safety Stax, and your checklist, old actions, and documents are ready. No rummaging through email while the inspector waits.

Each Stax is like a “scene”: when you open it, you know exactly who you’re dealing with and what success looks like.

44. Financial Planner Running Three Client Reviews in One Morning

You’re a financial planner with back-to-back annual reviews.

  • 09:00 – Couple nearing retirement
  • 10:00 – Young professional focused on aggressive growth
  • 11:00 – Business owner balancing company cash and personal wealth

They all need completely different conversations, numbers, and tone.

Without TabStax

You pull up the wrong portfolio, briefly blank on what stage of life they’re in, click through the CRM while they’re on Zoom, and feel yourself warming up mid-meeting instead of starting sharp.

With TabStax

You set up:

  • “Client – Mark & Lynda (Retirement Review)”
  • “Client – Priya (Growth & Risk)”
  • “Client – Alvarez Ltd. / Sofia (Business & Personal)”

Each Stax has:

  • Portfolio dashboard for that client
  • CRM notes
  • Plan doc
  • Risk profile
  • A simple Start Page:

For Mark & Lynda:

  • “Open with how they feel about slowing down work.”
  • “Check: are they still okay selling the second property?”

For Priya:

  • “Revisit volatility; check if last dip spooked her or not.”

For Alvarez/Sofia:

  • “Clarify what’s business buffer vs personal investment; highlight tax angles.”

You share each Stax with your paraplanner/admin:

  • They prep notes and update follow-up tasks in the same environment.

After the 9:00 call, you close that entire life story, and open Priya’s Stax — now you’re in “single, career, growth” headspace, not “couple, security, legacy”.

Clients feel it. You’re present, not generic.

45. Dungeon Master Running Multiple Campaigns

You DM games for three different groups:

  • A gritty low-magic campaign on Tuesdays
  • A high-chaos, meme-filled group on Thursdays
  • A serious long-form story you’ve been running for years

Each has:

  • World map
  • NPCs
  • Ongoing plots
  • Player backstories
  • Encounter notes

Without TabStax

Your browser has five different D&D Beyond tabs, three map tools, fifteen random “name generator” tabs, and session notes buried in Docs. You show up on Thursday remembering Tuesday’s plot twist.

With TabStax

You build:

  • “Campaign – Greybridge (Tuesdays)”
  • “Campaign – Goblin TikTok (Thursdays)”
  • “Campaign – The Iron Dominion (Sundays)”

Each Stax includes:

  • Campaign notes
  • Character sheets
  • Encounter builder
  • Map
  • Playlist or ambience tab
  • A Start Page with:

For Greybridge:

  • “Tonight: reveal the traitor in the guild.”

For Goblin TikTok:

  • “Lean into chaos; give them a ridiculous magic item.”

For Iron Dominion:

  • “Advance the war; show consequences of last session’s choice.”

You share each Stax with your players (or a player-facing version):

  • They open it and see the map, recap, and key NPCs.

Before each session, you open the right Stax and instantly re-enter that world — tone, stakes, threads. Your players feel like you’ve been thinking only about their story all week.

46. Veterinary Clinic Owner Balancing Patients, Staff, and Business

You own a busy vet clinic.

Your roles:

  • Vet seeing appointments
  • Manager dealing with staff rota and HR
  • Owner watching the books, marketing, and growth

Each mode uses different tools:

  • Clinical software, radiology, labs
  • Scheduling system, HR docs
  • Accounting, bank, social media, Google reviews

Without TabStax

You have everything half-open all day: x-rays next to payroll, Facebook ads next to lab results. You stay in a fuzzy, stressed “everything at once” state.

With TabStax

You carve out:

  • “Clinic – Consult Room Mode” Stax
  • “Clinic – Staff & HR” Stax
  • “Clinic – Business & Growth” Stax

Consult Stax:

  • EHR
  • Lab portal
  • Imaging viewer
  • Client education resources

Staff & HR Stax:

  • Rota
  • HR documents
  • Staff feedback forms

Business Stax:

  • Accounting
  • POS reports
  • Marketing tools

You share Staff & HR Stax with your practice manager, and Business Stax with your accountant / marketing helper.

During consult blocks, you live only in Consult Stax. When it’s time to think about the business, you close that and open Business Stax — your brain swaps “this animal, this family” for “this business, this month”.

47. Penetration Tester Handling Two Engagements Plus Reporting

You’re a pentester.

Today you’re:

  • Finalizing tests on a fintech API
  • Starting recon on a manufacturing company’s external perimeter
  • Writing the final report for a third client

Each engagement has scopes, tools, notes, and findings.

Without TabStax

Your browser is full of Burp, recon tools, notes, Jira tickets, PDFs of scopes, and you risk mixing up credentials or URLs between clients — a big no-no.

With TabStax

You define:

  • “Engagement – FintechCo API”
  • “Engagement – ManuCorp Perimeter”
  • “Reporting – RetailBank Web App”

Each Engagement Stax includes:

  • Scope document
  • Tool dashboards
  • Target URLs
  • Notes of findings with severity
  • Client communication channel

The Reporting Stax:

  • Report template
  • Evidence screenshots folder
  • Findings summary doc
  • Risk rating references

You share each Engagement Stax internally with your security team lead. You share nothing cross-client, keeping worlds totally separate and contained.

When you work on FintechCo, you open that Stax only, knowing you’re inside the right scope. When you move to ManuCorp, you close FintechCo completely and open ManuCorp. No chance of accidental cross-contamination.

You’re faster and safer.

48. University Lecturer Split Between Teaching, Research, and Admin

You’re a lecturer.

Today:

  • Morning lecture for 2nd years
  • Afternoon office hours
  • Evening: work on a research paper revision
  • Somewhere in between: respond to a pile of admin emails

Different mental spaces:

  • Teaching mode
  • 1:1 student support
  • Deep research & writing
  • Bureaucratic checklist hell

Without TabStax

Your browser holds lecture slides, Moodle, email, journal submission portal, spreadsheets, Teams, and three random PDFs. You carry the admin frustration into your lecture and the student stories into your writing block.

With TabStax

You create:

  • “Teaching – 2nd Year Algorithms (Week 6)” Stax
  • “Students – Office Hours (Today)” Stax
  • “Research – Paper Revision: Graph Models” Stax
  • “Admin – Emails & Forms” Stax

Teaching Stax:

  • Slides
  • Code examples
  • LMS page
  • Q&A doc

Office Hours Stax:

  • List of students with notes
  • Their project docs
  • Gradebook

Research Stax:

  • Draft paper
  • Reviewer comments
  • Relevant papers
  • Notes of what to fix

Admin Stax:

  • Email
  • University portals
  • Form docs

You share Teaching Stax with your TA. You share Research Stax with your co-author. You might share Office Hours Stax with an academic advisor if they co-support students.

When it’s time to teach, you open only Teaching Stax. When you sit down at night to revise, you close Admin, open Research, and let your brain sink into the theory, not the forms.

49. Genealogy Hobbyist Piecing Together a Family Line

It’s Saturday night and you’re deep in your family tree.

You’re chasing the Byrne line back through:

  • Census scans
  • Parish records
  • Passenger lists
  • DNA matches
  • Old family photos someone uploaded once

Without TabStax

You open 25 tabs from Ancestry/MyHeritage, a map, a notes doc, and get hopelessly lost: “Which Patrick Byrne am I looking at? Was this the one from Boston or Liverpool?”

With TabStax

You create:

  • “Family Line – Byrne (Galway → US)” Stax
  • “Family Line – Murphy (Cork)” if needed

Byrne Stax has:

  • Tree view focused on the relevant branch
  • Census records tabs you’re comparing side by side
  • Passenger list for likely matches

  • Notes doc:

    • “Patrick b. 1884: likely match with ship record from 1905 – check father’s name.”
  • A Start Page with questions you’re trying to answer this session.

You share the Byrne Stax with a cousin who’s also obsessed.

They open it and see:

  • Exactly which records you’re weighing
  • Your working theories
  • Links to the documents

Next time you come back — whether it’s a week or a month — you open Byrne Stax and your investigation restarts exactly where your last brain left off.

50. Parent Planning a Multi-Country Trip With Their Partner

You’re planning a summer trip with your partner and kids.

It’s complicated:

  • Flights into one city, out of another
  • Trains between two countries
  • Airbnbs and hotels
  • Things to do that work for both adults and kids
  • Budget you don’t want to blow

Without TabStax

You screenshot things, send each other random links on WhatsApp, have 40 tabs open with “maybe” ideas, and constantly ask, “Where was that cool apartment you found?”

With TabStax

You spin up:

  • “Trip – Summer 2026 (Master Stax)”

  • Optional sub-Stax:

    • “Trip – City 1 (3 days)”
    • “Trip – Lakes / Mountains”

Master Trip Stax includes:

  • Flights search
  • Train timetables
  • Accommodation options
  • Shared Google Sheet for budget
  • Map with pinned locations

  • Start Page with:

    • “Lock flights by Sunday”
    • “Decide between Option A (cheaper, fewer days) vs Option B (longer, more $$).”

You share this Stax with your partner.

They open it and see the same:

  • Options
  • Notes
  • Budget

When it’s “trip planning time,” you both open the Trip Stax — maybe on different devices in the same room — and make decisions from a single shared context instead of juggling 15 threads.

The planning itself stops being a chore and starts feeling like collaborating inside a shared mind.

53. Anne, Laid Off, on a Weekly Accountability Call With Three Also-Fired Friends

Anne just got laid off. So did three of her friends from the same company.

They start a weekly accountability call. Each has their own goals:

  • Anne: build a pipeline of interviews
  • Friend 1: launch a freelance consulting offer
  • Friend 2: explore a career pivot
  • Friend 3: finally ship a personal project

Without TabStax

The calls devolve into updates like “yeah, I did some stuff”. Their browsers are chaos: job boards, half-written resumes, random notes, bookmarked posts. The group energy is good, but the execution is fuzzy.

With TabStax

They create a shared Stax for the group: “Laid Off, Leveling Up – Accountability Crew”.

Inside:

  • A shared doc with each person’s quarter goal
  • A sheet with weekly checkpoints
  • Links to: job boards, networking communities, key resources
  • A recurring meeting link

Then each person creates their own personal Stax:

  • “Anne – Job Search & Interviews”

    • CV and tailored versions
    • LinkedIn profile and saved searches
    • Applications tracker
    • Draft outreach messages

    • Start Page Next Actions:

      • “Apply to 2 roles today.”
      • “DM 1 person I know at companies I care about.”

On call day:

  • They all open the shared group Stax.
  • Then each opens their own Stax when it’s their turn.

Between calls, they can peek at each other’s Stax (if they choose to share them) and see real work, not just self-reported stories.

The accountability becomes grounded: not “I’ll do something by EOW,” but “I will move the next action in my Stax.”

54. Anne Building an App, One Customer at a Time

Different Anne. She’s building an app, and she’s decided: she doesn’t care about “scale” yet. She cares about “one real paying customer at a time”.

Her reality:

  • A basic landing page
  • A Supabase or Firebase backend
  • A Notion doc of customer interviews
  • Stripe or payment link
  • A list of 20 people she thinks she can help
  • DM threads and email replies

Without TabStax

It’s all one soup: code editor, landing page builder, Stripe dashboard, Gmail, DMs. When she tries to focus on “just one customer,” she still has 11 other tabs whispering in her face.

With TabStax

She creates a separate Stax for each prospective customer she’s truly dancing with:

  • “Customer 001 – Jamie (Freelance Designer)”
  • “Customer 002 – Priya (Ops Manager)”
  • and so on…

Each Customer Stax contains:

  • Their email / DM thread
  • Notes from conversation
  • A one-page doc: “What I think their world looks like”
  • The specific prototype / view she’s assembling for them

  • Start Page with 1–2 Next Actions:

    • “Ship small tweak they asked for by Thursday”
    • “Ask: would you pay €X/month if it did ABC?”

She also keeps a “Build – Core Product” Stax for her own engineering work.

She shares specific Customer Stax with a mentor or friend who’s helping her validate. That person can see everything about that customer — the thread, the prototype, the notes — and give feedback like “you’re overbuilding” or “this pain looks real”.

Her metric becomes: “How many Customer Stax have moved from ‘exploring’ to ‘paid’?”

56. Recently Sober Person Balancing Recovery, Work, and Rebuilding Life

They’re newly sober. Life is now three overlapping, fragile layers:

  • Recovery: online meetings, sponsor contact, readings, journaling
  • Work: still have a job, still have responsibilities
  • Rebuilding: money, relationships, health

Without TabStax

The recovery tabs (meeting list, readings, chat boards) sit in the same window as work email and YouTube. One bad day, they go searching for help but fall into distraction instead.

With TabStax

They create:

  • “Recovery – Daily Kit” Stax:

    • Online meeting directory
    • Daily reading
    • Journal
    • Number / contact page for sponsor (or equivalent)

    • Start Page:

      • “If craving: 1) text X, 2) open meeting link, 3) write 5 sentences.”

  • “Work – Today” Stax:

    • Email
    • Task list
    • Project docs

  • “Rebuild – Money & Life” Stax:

    • Bank accounts
    • Budget tracker
    • Small goals list

They share Recovery Stax (or a subset) with their sponsor / trusted friend:

  • “If I text you, this is the world I’m using. You can see the readings and plan I’m working from.”

When things get wobbly, the action is: open Recovery Stax. No search. No choice architecture. Just the next right tools.

57. Community Organizer Leading a Tenant Group

She’s helping tenants in a building organize around rent hikes and repairs.

Her world:

  • Group WhatsApp/Signal
  • Local tenant rights resources
  • City housing department portal
  • A spreadsheet of tenants, flats, and status
  • Petition or complaint form
  • Meeting notes from past discussions

Without TabStax

Every WhatsApp ping sends her back into ad hoc mode. When the city asks for specifics, she wastes time re-building the list or searching for the last reference link. Tenants ask “what’s the latest?” and she has to reconstruct the state of play manually.

With TabStax

She defines “Tenants – Building 42 Oak Street” Stax:

  • Shared spreadsheet of tenants, unit numbers, contact, issues
  • Local tenants’ union site
  • City complaint/inspection portal
  • Shared doc of demands and timeline
  • Meeting notes doc

  • Start Page:

    • “Current phase: collect 30 signatures.”
    • “Next Actions: reach out to flats 2B, 3C, 5A.”

She shares this Stax with the tenant committee:

  • Anyone who joins can onboard themselves: read history, check demands, see who’s already involved.

When someone new says “how can I help?”, instead of a 40-minute info dump she can say:

  • “Open the Tenants Stax. Start with the doc ‘Read first’, then text me.”

58. Person Planning a Big Move to Another Country

They’re moving from Dublin to Berlin.

Tabs everywhere:

  • Visa / registration requirements
  • Housing websites
  • Job prospects
  • Cost-of-living comparisons
  • Language resources
  • Airline and moving quotes
  • Spreadsheet of “things to cancel, things to set up”

Without TabStax

Their move exists as 50 tabs across devices plus notes in three apps. They forget which “how to register in Germany” guide they trusted. Every time they sit down to plan, they feel like they’re starting again.

With TabStax

They create “Move – Dublin → Berlin 2026” Stax:

  • Official city registration site
  • Trusted “moving to Germany” guide
  • Flat rental portals
  • Job board / LinkedIn
  • Budget & cost-of-living sheet

  • Checklist doc:

    • “Ireland: cancel X, close Y, change Z.”
    • “Germany: register, bank, insurance, SIM, etc.”

They share the Stax with their partner / family / friend helping them.

Now conversations are:

  • “Can you look at the Move Stax and see what’s left under ‘Before leaving Ireland’?”
  • “I added a new flat to the Stax tab, take a look.”

When anxiety spikes (“this is too much”), they don’t have to remember everything. They just open their Move world and do one Next Action.

59. Artist Turning a Hobby Into a Small Online Shop

She’s been painting for years. She’s finally decided to sell prints and originals.

Current needs:

  • Decide on a platform (Etsy, Shopify, Squarespace)
  • Photograph/scan artwork
  • Set prices
  • Set up payment and shipping
  • Promote on Instagram / TikTok
  • Track orders and commissions

Without TabStax

She flutters between tutorials, shop platforms, pricing advice articles, and Instagram, never anchoring the project structure. Every time she thinks “I should work on the shop,” she has to remember what the next step even is.

With TabStax

She creates “Art Shop – Launch” Stax:

  • Chosen platform admin (say, Etsy draft shop)
  • A doc listing each piece, size, medium, suggested price
  • Resources on shipping/packaging
  • Payment account setup page
  • Canva or photo editor for images

  • Start Page with a 3-step launch path:

    • “1. Finalize 10 pieces and prices”
    • “2. Upload photos + descriptions”
    • “3. Post first launch teaser on IG.”

She shares this Stax with a trusted friend / partner who’s cheering her on:

  • They can see, concretely, how close she is.
  • They can add notes or links (“use this packaging supplier”).

Every launch session starts by opening that one Stax; the “I’m just an artist, I’m bad at admin” voice has less power when the admin world is already arranged.

60. Young Adult Balancing Uni, Side Hustle, and Family Expectations

They’re doing a degree, trying to spin up a little freelance income on the side, and also dealing with family pressure about grades and “real jobs”.

Their worlds:

  • Uni: learning platform, lecture slides, assignment portals
  • Side hustle: portfolio, Upwork/Fiverr listings, invoicing, client chats
  • Family: budget, long-term planning tabs, maybe visa or loan info

Without TabStax

Everything collides. They sit down to work on an assignment and end up scrolling Upwork. They try to do client work with a lecture PDF half-open and WhatsApp from home asking about exam results.

With TabStax

They split reality into:

  • “Uni – Current Modules (This Week)” Stax
  • “Side Hustle – Clients & Pipeline” Stax
  • “Life – Money, Family, Future” Stax

Uni Stax:

  • LMS
  • Current assignment brief
  • Revision notes
  • Past paper bank

Side Hustle Stax:

  • Portfolio site editor
  • Freelance platform dashboard
  • Client comms tabs
  • Invoicing system

Life Stax:

  • Budget tracker
  • Long-term plan doc
  • Tabs for visas/loans or next steps

They share the Side Hustle Stax with a friend or mentor, and maybe share a “Safe View” of Uni Stax with a study buddy.

When they say, “I’m doing uni work now,” they open Uni Stax and close the others. When they say, “I’m doing client work now,” they open Side Hustle Stax and stand in that frame.

The work doesn’t get easier — but switching between selves gets intentionally controlled instead of chaotic.

62. Youth Trying to Get Into College – Applications, Essays, Panic

He’s 17, final year of school, trying to get into college.

His world is:

  • CAO / UCAS / Common App or local equivalent
  • College websites
  • Course descriptions
  • Grades and predicted scores
  • Personal essay/statement drafts
  • Scholarship info
  • Teachers’ and counsellors’ advice

Without TabStax

He’s got 25 tabs open: three universities, a half-finished essay, a WhatsApp chat about “which course is easiest to get into”, a random Reddit thread. Every time he sits down to “work on college stuff,” he gets overwhelmed and does almost nothing.

With TabStax

He defines two Stax:

  • “College – Research & Choices”

    • Tabs for each realistic course/university
    • Spreadsheet comparing requirements, deadlines, and “why I care”
    • Notes from guidance counsellor

  • “College – Applications & Essays”

    • Application portal(s)
    • Personal statement / essay drafts
    • List of deadlines
    • Doc titled: “My story and what I bring”

    • Start Page with short-term tasks:

      • “Finish first full draft of personal statement by Friday.”
      • “Confirm teacher reference from Ms. Byrne.”

He shares the Research Stax with a parent or mentor so they can see choices instead of nagging abstractly. He shares the Essays Stax with an English teacher or older sibling who can leave comments in context.

Now “college stuff” isn’t amorphous. It’s: open the Applications Stax, do the next visible thing, close it. Less swirl, more progress.

63. Failing Student Overwhelmed and Quietly Drowning

She’s in university. Her grades are tanking. She’s behind in three modules, ashamed, and dodging emails.

Her mental browser:

  • LMS / Moodle / Canvas
  • Overdue assignments
  • Confusing lecture slides
  • Emails from lecturers she hasn’t answered
  • Student support pages she can’t quite click on

Without TabStax

She opens the LMS, sees the mountain of red “late” labels, and closes the tab. Maybe scrolls TikTok. The story in her head is “it’s too late anyway.”

With TabStax

She constructs “Uni – Triage Mode (Saving This Semester)” Stax with help from a tutor or friend:

  • LMS homepage
  • One tab per module she’s still trying to pass

  • A single Google Doc: “Reality Check & Plan”

    • For each module: current grade, missing pieces, pass threshold
  • Student support / tutoring / counselling links

  • Start Page that says:

    • “This is not about being perfect. This is about not disappearing.”

    • “Today’s Next Actions:

      • Email one lecturer and say ‘I’m behind, can we make a plan?’
      • Submit ANY version of Assignment X, even if incomplete.”

She shares this Stax with someone safe—a counsellor, tutor, older friend, or sibling.

  • They can see the real state, not just “I’m fine.”
  • They can co-write the Reality Check doc with her.

When she opens this Stax, the chaos is structured: modules listed, deadlines visible, one action highlighted.

It doesn’t magically fix everything. But it turns “I’m failing, so I’ll avoid it” into “Here is my failing, and here is one thing I can do today.”

64. The Procrastinator Who Keeps Saying “It’s Fine” While Ignoring Alarms

He’s the kind of guy whose life looks okay on the surface.

  • Bills mostly paid
  • Work okay
  • Relationships… fine-ish

But under the hood, there are nagging alarms:

  • A credit card balance that’s growing
  • A small health issue he’s been ignoring
  • A certification he needs to maintain for his job
  • A side project he claims he “really wants” but never moves

Without TabStax

He dismisses each worry as it pops up:

  • “I’ll deal with the card when it’s bigger.”
  • “If it was serious, my body would shout louder.”
  • “The cert renewal email is months away.”

So he does nothing. The alarms become background noise.

With TabStax

He builds “Alarms – Stuff I Keep Dismissing” Stax:

  • Bank / credit card account
  • Health portal or doctor’s booking site
  • Certification requirements page
  • Doc titled: “If I ignore this for a year, what happens?”
  • The side project doc/tab

  • Start Page brutally honest:

    • “Credit: interest is compounding. Health: small issues rarely fix themselves. Cert: missing it could cost your job.”

    • Next Actions:

      • “Set up €X/month automatic extra card payment.”
      • “Book GP appointment for 4 weeks from now.”
      • “Block 2 hours this Sunday for certification study.”

He shares this Stax with a partner or accountability friend—”these are my quiet alarms; don’t let me pretend they don’t exist.”

Once a week, he opens this Stax on purpose. Not to catastrophize, but to take one small corrective action per alarm.

Procrastination becomes a pattern he can see in a single workspace, not a vibe he endlessly rationalises.

67. Executor Handling Estate and Paperwork After a Death

A few weeks later, the same person (or someone else) is now executor of the estate.

Their world is:

  • Will & probate docs
  • Bank accounts
  • Insurance policies
  • Utility accounts to close or transfer
  • House sale or transfer
  • Letters from lawyers and tax authorities
  • Siblings asking “what’s happening?”

Without TabStax

They drown in envelopes, PDFs, and browser tabs. It all feels endless. They keep promising to “deal with the estate soon,” but never want to open that pile.

With TabStax

They create “Estate – [Name] (Executor Workspace)” Stax:

Tabs:

  • Probate / court guidance
  • Lawyer email thread
  • Spreadsheet of accounts, policies, assets
  • Shared doc: “Tasks & Status”
  • Tax authority portal (if relevant)

Start Page with grouped Next Actions:

  • Bank & Money: close account A, get statement from B
  • House: get valuation, contact estate agent
  • Siblings: write one update email summarizing where things stand

They share a read-only version of this Stax with siblings:

  • They can see the same checklist and know progress.
  • Fewer “so what’s going on?” phone calls.

They open the Stax once or twice a week as “estate time,” handle one cluster, then close it. Instead of “I should be doing everything,” they’re doing something in a defined container.

68. Midlife “Quiet Crisis” – Life’s Okay, But They Know It’s Not Fine

She’s 42. Life is… fine.

  • Stable job she doesn’t love
  • Relationship that’s more logistics than connection
  • Health “basically okay”
  • A creative dream she’s been saying “I’ll do later” for 15 years

These are quiet alarms, not emergencies. Which makes them easier to ignore.

Without TabStax

She feels a low-level dissatisfaction and occasionally binge-reads self-help or checks job boards. Then she goes back to autopilot.

With TabStax

She creates “Life – Nagging Thoughts I Don’t Want to Lose” Stax:

Tabs:

  • Journal doc: “What’s bothering me that I keep minimising?”
  • Job market / roles she’s curious about
  • A doc: “If nothing changes in 5 years, what does life look like?”
  • An outline for a creative project (book, podcast, business)
  • Therapy/coaching resources page

Start Page with 3 gentle but pointed questions:

  • “What is one experiment I could run in the next 90 days?”
  • “What am I afraid will happen if I never try?”
  • “Who is one person I could talk to about this?”

She shares this Stax only with one trusted person—a partner, best friend, coach, or therapist.

  • They can see the shape of her unease.
  • They can reflect it back without it being hand-wavy.

Once a week, she opens this Stax on purpose. Not to fix her entire life, but to move one experiment forward: book a therapy consult, sign up for a class, send an email, set a coffee with someone in a job she admires.

Instead of letting the “everything’s fine” mask smother the alarms, she gives those alarms a contained, named place to live and evolve.

69. Professor Running for State Senator Under Fire

He’s a tenured professor. He’s also now a candidate for state senate.

He cares about policy, ideas, students. But the campaign is a different beast:

  • Opposition oppo teams digging into 20 years of career
  • Local radio and TV interviews
  • A campaign team that’s half volunteers
  • Family under new scrutiny
  • His own health and mental bandwidth at risk

The opposition thinks he’s roadkill: too soft, too academic, not built for the mud.

Without TabStax

His laptop is a disaster: academic papers, campaign strategy docs, health portal, school emails, and security briefings all in the same tab bar. One minute he’s reading poll crosstabs, the next he’s grading, then panicking about a hit piece someone just sent him. His partner asks “what’s the plan if they go after us?” and he says “we’ll figure it out” — but there’s no actual place where that plan lives.

With TabStax

He deliberately splits his life into four Stax:

  1. “Campaign – Strategy & Field”

    • Polling and district data
    • Voter file tools
    • Field plan / canvass scripts
    • Issue briefs
    • Slack/Discord for the campaign team

    • Start Page:

      • “This week: lock down education & healthcare message, support field on weekend canvass.”

  2. “Campaign – Media & Messaging”

    • Press list
    • Talking points by issue
    • Media training resources
    • Calendar with interviews / debates
    • A doc titled: “Stories I actually want to tell”

    • Next Actions:

      • “Review Q&A for tonight’s local radio.”
      • “Practice 3 clean soundbites out loud.”

  3. “Personal – Health & Mental Bandwidth”

    • Health portal
    • Sleep / exercise tracker
    • Therapist / coach session scheduler

    • ‘Non-negotiables’ doc:

      • “At least X sleep; no calls after Y; walk every day.”

  4. “Family – Safety, Boundaries, & Support”

    • Notes from conversation with security advisor
    • School / kids’ portals

    • A doc where he and his partner list:

      • “What do we keep private?”
      • “What we will never engage with online.”

He shares these Stax carefully:

  • Strategy & Media Stax with campaign manager + senior volunteers
  • Health Stax (part of it) with his doctor/therapist (“this is what my life looks like now”)
  • Family Stax with his partner only

Before an interview, he opens Media & Messaging Stax and the world narrows: no grading, no Twitter, just the prep doc, the talking points, the last recording of him practicing.

After a brutal day, he closes the campaign worlds, opens the Health Stax, and books the next therapy session while he’s still clear he needs it.

He might still get hit hard. But he isn’t living inside one giant undifferentiated chaos tab. Each role has its own cockpit, and he chooses which one to inhabit.

70. Ger: Feeding His Family From the Back Garden in Two Years

Ger lives in a semi-detached house with a decent garden.

He has a big, simple, terrifying goal:

“In two years, we get the majority of our veg from out that back door.”

He needs:

  • Soil testing and improvement plan
  • A polytunnel
  • Crop rotation plans
  • Season-by-season task list for his climate
  • Advice from people who’ve actually done this
  • Buy-in from his partner and kids

Without TabStax

He spends winter opening random gardening blogs, watching homesteading videos, looking up polytunnels on his phone at 11pm… and then forgetting what mattered. Seasons roll past: “Ah, we missed planting time again. Next year.” Next year can vanish very fast.

With TabStax

He sets up a master world: “Back Garden – Food by 2027”.

Inside:

  • Soil analysis service open in one tab

  • A spreadsheet:

    • Beds layout
    • Sun/shade notes
    • Rough crop rotation plan (Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3)
  • Shortlist of polytunnel suppliers
  • A region-specific planting calendar
  • A doc titled: “What We Actually Want to Eat” (so he doesn’t grow 10kg of kale nobody eats)

The Start Page is explicitly seasonal:

  • This Winter:

    • “Get soil test done.”
    • “Order polytunnel & basic tools.”

  • Spring Year 1:

    • “Build beds, get compost, plant potatoes, salad, peas.”

  • Summer Year 1:

    • “Keep things alive, learn, don’t overcomplicate rotation yet.”

He also creates sub-Stax:

  • “Garden – Polytunnel Setup”
  • “Garden – Year 1 Crops”

He shares the main Garden Stax with his partner:

  • They can see budget, suppliers, realistic timelines.
  • They can comment “let’s skip X this year and do Y; we actually eat that.”

He also shares a read-only version with a local gardening group or online mentor:

  • “Here’s my plan; what am I missing?”

Instead of endless vague “I’d love to be self-sufficient someday,” Ger has a literal two-year project cockpit he opens every weekend.

He is not just gardening. He’s running a quiet, deeply personal food security project — with TabStax holding the plan.

72. Climate-Anxious Engineer Building a Local Resilience Project

He’s a software engineer who reads too much climate science to sleep well.

He knows:

  • National politics is slow
  • Individual lifestyle tweaks aren’t enough

  • But local resilience is something he could influence:

    • Community solar
    • Tool libraries
    • Local food co-ops
    • Emergency prep

His brain lives in:

  • Climate reports
  • Mutual aid examples
  • City zoning rules
  • Community Facebook/Discord groups
  • 1000 “we should really…” conversations

Without TabStax

He doom-scrolls climate Twitter, shares an article, feels sick, does nothing structured. Everything feels both urgent and impossible.

With TabStax

He defines “Local Resilience – Project (My Town)” Stax:

  • City / town plan & climate adaptation docs
  • Examples of successful local projects (tool library, co-ops, microgrids)
  • A Google Doc: “Assets & People in My Town”
  • A map with important locations (schools, community centers, flood zones)
  • Slack/Discord server for the group he either joins or starts

The Start Page is deliberately narrow:

  • “Phase 1 (3 months):

    • Meet 5 people already doing something locally.
    • Pick ONE pilot project (e.g., tool library) and commit.”

Once the pilot is chosen, he creates a dedicated Stax for it:

  • “Tool Library – Pilot”

    • Examples from other cities
    • Space options
    • Cost sheet
    • Volunteer roster

He shares Local Resilience Stax with his initial small group, then shares the specific project Stax with whoever commits.

Now climate anxiety has a container. A project universe. He can schedule “Local Resilience time,” open that Stax, and work on structure, not just feelings.

73. Nurse on Night Shifts, Secretly Writing a Novel

She’s a nurse working rotating night shifts.

She’s also been carrying a story in her head for years — a novel based on the kinds of things she’s seen and felt, but fictionalized.

Her world:

  • Shift schedules
  • Exhaustion
  • Emotional overflow from work
  • Scraps of dialogue noted in her phone
  • Word documents with half-started chapters

Without TabStax

On a day off, she opens a Word doc called “Novel draft v3,” stares at it, then ends up doing laundry, doomscrolling, or sleeping. Her story feels like a foggy dream she keeps waking from before the ending.

With TabStax

She creates “Novel – Night Shift Stories” Stax.

Inside:

  • A main manuscript doc
  • A separate note doc: “Scenes, feelings, snippets”
  • A simple outline (even if messy)
  • Articles / resources on “writing in small bursts”
  • Calendar showing realistic writing windows between shifts

Start Page:

  • “You do NOT have to be a full-time writer.”
  • “Goal this quarter: 3 finished chapters, no matter how bad.”

  • Next Actions:

    • “Today: write one messy scene where [character] meets [patient].”
    • “Add 3 bullet points to outline for Act 2.”

She shares this Stax with no one at first — it’s her private sanctuary.

Later, when she’s ready, she shares it with one trusted reader or writing coach.

When she has 40 minutes of alive brain, she doesn’t waste it looking for the right file or talking herself out of being “not a real writer.” She opens the Novel Stax and continues the story.

Over a year, that’s the difference between “I always wanted to write” and “I wrote a damn book while saving lives at night.”

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