The Best Chrome Extensions for Productivity
Whether we like to admit it or not, our life runs on computers. From your iPhone to your Apple Watch or MacBook, screen time has soared as we turn to our devices for everything from Netflix to social media. But there’s one device that reigns supreme over our workday tasks: the traditional computer. And with our rampant computer usage comes heavy browser reliance — what did people do before Google?!
In the browser world, Google-backed Chrome is one of the best options and has some of the best productivity functionalities. If you didn’t know yet, the browser has a litany of “Chrome extensions,” specifically designed to make your life on the web easier. Who would turn down the opportunity to save time and increase efficiency?
To help you be your most productive self, we’ve compiled a list of the top ten productivity extensions for Chrome that you can download today. Scroll through and check out our picks. You’re just a few clicks away from making your 2019 the most productive year yet.
1. Boomerang for Gmail
(Screenshot courtesy of Boomerang for Gmail)
Boomerang is for those moments when you have an off-hours epiphany — like figuring out an answer to your bosses question at 12 AM — but don’t want to send emails at an ungodly time. Fear not, Boomerang is here to save the day!
Boomerang for Gmail allows you to schedule delayed sends for emails, essentially allowing you to program a specified “send-time” for correspondence. This Chrome extension also lets you schedule times to receive inbound emails, schedule recurring messages, and set emails to “boomerang” back to the top of your inbox in a month’s time.
2. Checker Plus for Gmail
(Screenshot courtesy of Checker Plus for Gmail)
Checker Plus for Gmail puts a small envelope-like widget in your toolbar to alert you when you receive new mail — no more clicking back and forth to your Gmail browser every five minutes to see if any new inquiries have rolled in! With Checker Plus, you can read and answer right from the extension, or you can also choose to open it in a Gmail tab.
3. Noisili
(Screenshot courtesy of Noisili)
Work in a crowded workspace that’s always buzzing with chatter? Noisili helps to cut all that background noise out, replacing it with calming soundtracks like rainfall and lovely chirping birds. Research has shown that nature sounds actually help boost productivity at work, and it makes people even more productive than traditional white noises. Score!
4. Strict Workflow
(Screenshot courtesy of Strict Workflow)
Fun Fact: Having more than a few internet tabs open at once can greatly impair your productivity. The principal (and end-goal) of Strict Flow is simple: remove unnecessary distractions from your desktop browser to help you stay focused.
As an added bonus, you can also limit time spent on specific sites. Let’s say you want to cut the time you spend on Facebook to just 15 minutes a day. Simply add Facebook to your list of blocked websites and choose “15 minutes of activity.” This will help you shift your attention onto the more important tasks at hand.
5. Papier
(Screenshot courtesy of Papier)
Tired of having to comb through an endless sticky note and highlight options on a Google or Word Document? Well, Papier is here to bring you no-frills note-taking.
Once installed, you’ll see a simple text input page where you can jot down your thoughts or notes as they hit you. Better yet, Papier automatically saves everything you write — so there’s no worry of losing anything, should your computer accidentally shut off or lose battery.
Pro Tip: If you’re interested in a more integrated note-taking capability, we recently launched Hive meeting notes — an easy way to take notes, create actions, and assign next-steps directly in Hive.
6. Todobook
(Screenshot courtesy of Chrome Webstore)
We all know that social media can send you down an endless rabbit hole. One minute you’re checking out a recently tagged photo, and the next thing you know you’re on your cousin’s ex-boyfriends sister’s Facebook page.
Thankfully, Todobook is here to transform your Facebook experience. This extension transforms your Facebook homepage into a to-do list that highlights your daily or weekly to-dos. So before you start your scrolling spree, you’re reminded of just how much you need to get done. Additionally, you can also customize Todobook to work in a certain time window, and you can also use it on other social media like Reddit, YouTube and Twitter.
7. Clockify Productivity Tracker
(Screenshot courtesy of Clockify Productivity Tracker)
Clockify’s Productivity Tracker is a tool that helps you track exactly where, when and how your time is being spent (whether you want to know or not). With this extension, Chrome helps you collect your user data (aka time spent on certain pages and sites) and displays it in an easy-to-read graph, so you can see just how much time you’re allocating to certain tasks.
This tool could be helpful for your personal computer in addition to your work computer — sometimes its good to know exactly how much time you’re spending on Netflix.
8. Win the Day
(Screenshot courtesy of Win the Day)
Win the Day is probably one of the best named apps we’ve ever come across. Who doesn’t want to “win” their day?
This Chrome extension is specifically designed to remind you of and help you achieve your goals, which are displayed on your browser homepage. With “Win The Day,” you can set large goals and “sub-goals,” that will break out the subtasks that will ladder back into your big goal.
This extension also helps you build new habits — you can enter up to three new habits you want to work on within the extension and set time period you want to focus on each. The extension also includes a “Focus Mode” to thwart off-task distractions.
9. Momentum
(Screenshot courtesy of Momentum)
Opening-up Momentum brings you to a webpage with calm, inspirational images and sounds to help you focus and relax. Better yet, you can choose which calming backgrounds you’d like to see. So, if you feel you’d work better looking at imagery a wooded area instead of a waterfront, go for it.
10. OneTab
(Screenshot courtesy of OneTab)
For those looking for a basic, straightforward productivity extension, look no further than OneTab.
We’ve all been subject to scrolling through tab after tab, losing working hours doing so. OneTab, thankfully, helps organize all those tabs into one place. OneTab puts all of them in a handy, easy-to-scroll list in, you guessed it, one tab.
This will save you from clicking through each individual tab to see what they are and if you still need them open.
So, what are you waiting for? Download one (or two, or three) of these Chrome extensions with a few clicks. Productivity awaits!
