8 Top Chrome Productivity Extensions

Working productively is one of the most challenging aspects of work – sometimes even more so than the content of the work itself. When we don’t work productively, we pay for it with what would otherwise be our free time, and sometimes financially too. Even though most people know this, sitting down and completing a task or project is still difficult, even more so when we know Facebook is just a few clicks away. This list of Chrome productivity extensions is designed to keep you on the straight and narrow so you can stop feeling guilty about your work, and start enjoying all the extra spare time you’ll have.

Discipline

Nothing beats productivity issues like some good old discipline. When you’re in the throes of productivity problems, however, you might need a third party to take control and instill some discipline into your work situation for you. Luckily, Chrome has produced several extensions that take the tough love approach, and assist you in focusing on the task at hand.

Nanny for Chrome enables you to block certain URLS at certain times of the day. As well as specific websites, you can also enter expressions to block websites containing certain individual words. By adding domains to the whitelisted websites, you can still access them, but Nanny will track how much time you spend there.

Stay Focused is similar to Nanny for Chrome, except it enables you to limit how long you spend on certain websites. For example, if you want a half hour Facebook break, you can set the Stay Focused timer to 30 minutes, after which Stay Focused will block the site for the rest of the day, and you will be forced to return to work.

If you’re a fan of the Pomodoro Technique but need it enforced online, try Strict Pomodoro. The basic principle of the Pomodoro Technique is to work with focus for 25 minutes, then have a five minute break. Strict Pomodoro encourages this by blocking websites that aren’t conducive to work for the duration of the 25 minutes, then unblocking them for five minutes, before the whole cycle starts again. The extension is customizable; you can input blacklisted URLS, the amount of time you need to block them, and how much time you’re allowed to spend on them during your break.

Web Tools

The web is a wonderful creation, but it’s easy to get lost among tabs, browsers and visual clutter. If you find yourself constantly getting distracted by adverts, pop-ups and shiny things online, you’re less likely to work at your optimal level.

For times when you need to get that report, blog post, or proposal written, Write Space comes into its own. This extension creates a full-screen text editor that lives in your Chrome web browser but is available online or offline. It’s designed to minimize the number of on-screen distractions you encounter, and increase your writing output. Write Space comes with additional features that outshine even some word processing programs, including a persistent auto-save feature, live word count statistics, and a customizable appearance.

Session Buddy also tidies up your screen by organizing your Chrome tabs and browser windows into an easy-to-manage list. You can save sessions to restore later, or use the extension’s automatic capture feature to restore your 10 most recent windows in the event of a browser crash. Particularly useful for large projects that require lost of research, Session Buddy enables you to create named lists of browser tabs so you can access them with ease at a later date.

If you frequently use two websites at once, and find it distracting to switch back and forth between tabs, Split Screen can help. This extension enables you to view two webpages at the same time on the same page, making it particularly useful for research. The extension also comes with a notepad feature, which saves whatever you write ready for your next split screen session.

Effective time management is one of the most easily avoidable aspects of productivity. No one wants to be faced with the ugly truth of how much time they spend looking at cats, or aimlessly browsing Wikipedia. Knowledge, however, is power, and to work productively, we need to be aware of how we’re spending our time.

Time Tracker is a simple yet effective extension that logs how much time you spend on individual sites. Useful if you want to know how long your “10 minute” Twitter breaks really last, Time Tracker logs time spent by detecting keyboard or mouse movement.

Similar to Time Tracker, but with the added element of shame, Rescue Time Chrome Productivity Meter also sits in the background and records which websites you look at and for how long, automatically suspending tracking if you don’t use your keyboard for over two minutes. Where Rescue Time pips Time Tracker, however, is that at the end of the day it gives you a productivity score, and tells you whether you are less or more productive than most people. The extension calculates this score using collective data from Rescue Time users around the world, and you can customize which sites count as “productive” time and which don’t.

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Hannah Clare
Hannah is a freelance writer from London, UK. Having completed a degree in English, she discovered a passion for all things digital, and enjoys nothing more than writing about online communication, marketing and anything Apple-related. When she's not researching the latest app releases or ogling new gadgets, Hannah enjoys writing about personal development, yoga, and exploring the world. | Google Plus

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