Productivity Hacks 2.0: 8 of the best Google Chrome extensions
In Sarah’s last productivity hacks article, she gave you a few of our favourite tricks of the trade to be more productive during the day. Now it’s time for the Google Chrome extensions addition.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Google Chrome Extensions Store, you’re missing out on a veritable treasure trove of internet gadgetry. Extensions are basically mini-programs which work in your Chrome browser to give added functionality – they can be built by Google itself, your favourite websites or developers who just want to help people out – and they’re super helpful shortcuts to getting stuff done (our favourite thing at OneFifty).
Here are 8 of our favourites…
Momentum replaces your boring old ‘new tab’ screen with a motivational dashboard to help you get through the day – it’s popular with the team at OneFifty because it’s got motivational quotes, gorgeous background photos and even has a little to-do list for you, which is great, unless, like us, you use Todoist (read all about how we love it here)
If I achieve anything with this blog, it’s persuading you to take out a LastPass subscription (free or paid). I get nerdy about having different passwords for everything and making them super secure, which means it’s impossible to remember any of them. With LastPass, it saves them all down for you (securely) and you only need 1 mega-long master password to access all of them. The extension then securely fills in your data on websites without having to rifle through your memory – it genuinely saves so much time and effort with the added bonus of keeping your accounts more secure. LOVE.
As champions of the Google corporate system, we open up a LOT of new google docs every day. Presentation? Throw it on Google slides. Call notes? Share them with your colleagues on a Google doc. You get the picture. This nifty extension quickens up the process and lets you open a new document up directly from your browser bar. Saves you a few clicks and much time.
Another ode to how much we love Google – the Keep extension enables you to write a new Google Keep Note attached to the page or document you’re working on at that moment – great for taking quick notes during a Google hangout or when you’re looking at a website, and don’t want to move tabs or use the fancy features of a Google doc.
Without being extreme, Grammarly makes life worth living (okay, maybe a bit extreme). This nifty extension checks your grammar and spelling on emails, documents and social media as you type then gives you tips and hints as to how you can improve your writing, use better grammar or change your choice of word. It’s no replacement for learning the proper use of ‘less v. fewer’ or ‘you’re v. your’ BUT it will save you from an embarrassing email mistake to a client.
A recommendation from sports-analogy loving Dan, Nimbus helps you take screenshots and screen record without having to hold down an awkward combination of buttons on your keyboard, which inevitably you get wrong and end up closing all your windows or screenshotting the whole screen. It’s the little things.
You’ll never miss another meeting when you’ve got the Google Calendar extension right there in your browser bar telling you that it’s 4 minutes or 18 hours until your next meeting. Also super helpful to click on and check what you’ve got coming up, without having to open your calendar up on a new tab or your phone.
So technically this isn’t a productivity hack, but it is my favourite extension. Every time you open a new tab, you get a little pet cat to enjoy, complete with accessories that you ‘earn’ over time and a totally random but adorable name. It genuinely brings me so much joy during the workday, and everyone knows a joyful team produce better work. Download it and enjoy, you won’t regret it (unless you’re a dog person).
Let me know if you install any of these or have any recommendations!
