Ask HN: Do you read reactively or proactively?

With HN, RSS feeds, email subscriptions and all other sources of content I read and watch not what I actually need, but what these sources give me. YouTube and other recommendations add to that.

On the one hand, it expands my awareness. But on the other hand there's no point in adding anything else to my already giant ToRead/ToWatch list.

I don't know if it's a term, but I call it "Reactive Information Consumption": you consume what is given.

I see it's a procrastination issue, but sometimes it's not so easy to understand what's going on, because those sources are credible and "hey, I learn new stuff!" (though in most cases I don't).

And for me it goes even further, when I start reading something I really need, like docs of a tool I am going to use and then spend an enormous amount of time to read every available page on it so I can say "I understand this thing in detail!" (which is often far from truth anyway, but time's spent and no visible progress has been achieved).

The counterpart of this behavior is "Proactive Information Consumption": first you have a specific question, second you try to answer it ASAP. If you manage to answer the original question, you immediately stop. No aimless link hopping.

I've found a mention of "Proactive Reading" (http://academic.regis.edu/ed205/proactiveread.html), but not much on how to nurture this style of reading and how to prevent yourself from diving into info-devouring.

So I wonder, how do you balance between these two styles of consumption? Do you consciously control what and for how long you read?

As a very busy individual, I have to manage the amount of time I spend reading things provided through sites such as HN. If I did not monitor or control the time spent on these sites I would never get the things done that are high priorit. It is simply too easy to be drug down rabbit trails through endless links, etc.

Reaching for the sake of business/work is a requirement in and of itself that I can only control to a point. However, I do not allow myself to be sent down trails unless it is for the sake of product improvement, skills enhancement, etc.