documents folder open and reopen, and reopen......

I feel like when I'm accessing documents in my Documents folder, there's a lot of repetitive action.....Surely I'm doing something wrong....

Example....I open the Documents icon on the Dock, open a particular folder, and a particular document in that folder. Once I close that document, then I start all over....the accessed folder doesn't remain opened to access something else within it.....

Is this how it really is?

thanks