The best Chrome extensions for productivity

Every now and again, you get frustrated with your web browser’s limited functionality. But if you’re using Google Chrome, there’s a good chance someone has created an extension to make your work life easier. There are thousands of extensions just waiting to boost your productivity with just a click of a button. Here’s a preview of the best ones.

Taco

The first on our list is the Taco extension that focuses on integration to boost productivity. It works by replacing Chrome’s ‘new tab’ page with a customizable framework for all of your third-party services. With various templates and layouts, you can organize and combine tasks and notes from over 40 services including Evernote, Google, Salesforce, Trello, and more.

Any time you’re about to start a new project, simply open a new tab to search for the app you need. But before you hit that ‘Google Search’ button, drag the task item into your ‘doing’ lane and off you go. Once you’re done with work and need to check on the status of your home team’s game, simply open a new tab, move the task to your finished lane, and check the score.

Strict Workflow

Strict Workflow is based on the renowned Pomodoro productivity approach. It’s a time management technique that lets you focus on your task at hand and eliminates any distraction by having you block non-work related websites during your 25 minute work time and unblock it on your appointed 5-minute break.

OneTab

A lot of us open tabs as notes, reminders, and things to check again some time in the distant future, which is why you’ll love OneTab. It’s ideal for work days when you find a stack of tabs sandwiched along the top of your screen, which can cripple your available memory. This extension allows you to condense all of your open tabs into one page that lists each of them for easy access when you’re ready to return to them.

JustRead

When it’s time to slow down your browsing and read the most recent election article or a recipe you want to try, the page is often cluttered with social sharing buttons, advertisements and stock photos. With the JustRead extension, all of this gets cleared away with the press of a button, leaving you with a clean, text-only page.

These are just some of our favorite extensions. If you’d like more suggestions or support for anything Google related, we’re here for you — don’t hesitate to call.

Top 4 benefits of web monitoring

Although the occasional three-minute YouTube video never hurts anyone, wasting hours of your working day on these websites reduces productivity. When it comes to increasing employee productivity, keeping a close eye on their internet behavior reaps various benefits.

Time-saving measures

Internet monitoring software saves employees from visiting entertainment, gaming, or online shopping sites by restricting access to them. Internet monitoring software doesn’t necessarily block access to social media sites, but it lets your employees know that you’re monitoring their internet activity. This is aimed at discouraging them from taking prolonged visits to their Facebook, Twitter or Instagram page.

Avoid harmful websites

The internet hosts plenty of unsavory links and websites. Employees who haphazardly click phishing links or access malware-ridden pornography sites can put your business at risk. Working with infected machines can slow down the entire system and, in some cases, completely halt operations. By using internet monitoring tools, you can restrict access to dangerous websites and identify reckless employees who access them and remove their internet privileges, if necessary.

Control bandwidth usage

Even while using the internet for the right purposes, bandwidth can be used up quickly. Internet monitoring gives you up-to-the-minute reports on staff’s bandwidth usage. Once you have a clear understanding of your company’s overall bandwidth usage, you can better control internet expenditure. Ultimately, this feature allows you to prioritize bandwidth for critical business applications and reduce bandwidth for less necessary websites.

Increase productivity on the internet

Internet monitoring software may be a powerful tool, but it should be used responsibly. As a business owner, you need to walk a fine line between over-surveillance and under-surveillance. What you should do is establish a clear internet policy, which should explicitly define the disciplinary measures to be dispensed on anybody who goes against the company’s internet policy. You should also deal with time-wasting employees on a case-by-case basis because it’s unreasonable to remove everyone’s Facebook privileges because one or two abused theirs.

Employee productivity can be difficult to achieve, especially with the proliferation of the so-called “procrastination software.” But with web monitoring software, you can truly get your business — and your employees — back on track. Looking for more ways to increase business productivity with technology? Give us a call. We’ll be happy to make suggestions.