Ask HN: Do you read reactively or proactively?

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?