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Thomas Frank
The 10 Best Chrome Extensions for Productivity
The 10 Best Chrome Extensions for Productivity
Thomas Frank
·
15:59 · Mar 25, 2021
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Hello,
my
name
is
Thomas
Frank
and
I
have
a
browser
tab
problem.
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- Hello, my name is Thomas Frank and I have a browser tab problem.
0:04
I just can't seem to help myself from having 50
0:06
or 80 browser tabs open at one time
0:08
and completely taking up all my computer's ram,
0:11
which is why I now have this little extension
0:13
that automatically hides the browser tabs I'm not using
0:15
and groups them into projects,
0:17
and that's not all?
0:18
Today we're gonna break down 10 of the best browser extensions out there for
0:22
boosting your productivity.
0:23
And this video is sponsored by Hover.
0:25
So we're gonna focus mainly on Chrome in this video since it is the
0:27
most popular browser out there
0:29
and it's the one
0:29
that I happen to use,
0:30
but if you're using something else like Firefox or Safari fear not,
0:33
a lot of these extensions are on multiple browsers
0:35
so when I call each one out you're gonna see some icons to show
0:38
which of the major browsers
0:39
that extension is also on.
0:41
So with all of
0:42
that out of the way let's get into our first extension,
0:43
the one that I teased in the intro, called Workona.
0:46
This is probably my new favorite extension on Chrome
0:48
because to make a bit of an admission here I'm a really bad tab
0:52
hoarder.
0:52
My friends love to make fun of the fact
0:54
that I often have 50
0:55
or 100 tabs open,
0:56
but that's just my nature.
0:57
I always have multiple research projects going on
1:00
and before I know it the browser header bar on my computer screen is
1:03
just this unintelligible mess of tiny slivers of tabs.
1:06
I can't even see what they are at
1:08
that point and that's the problem
1:09
that Workona helps people like me to solve.
1:12
It basically gives you this dashboard where you can create multiple projects
1:15
and then group your tabs into those projects.
1:17
Now if you've watched my past videos you've probably heard me talk about an
1:20
extension called TabCopy,
1:21
which lets me basically copy all the tab links to my clipboard,
1:24
but I gotta say this is better.
1:27
In addition to letting you do that,
1:28
if you wanna just paste your links somewhere else,
1:30
it also saves all of your tabs in organized projects
1:34
and you can even close those tabs after saving them
1:36
as resources so you can keep a bunch of different websites in a specific
1:40
project without having to keep them open.
1:42
You can also switch between projects
1:44
and Workona actually suspends the tabs
1:46
that you're not using
1:47
and hides them if they're not an open project
1:49
so you only see what is relevant to the project
1:51
that you're working on.
1:52
So basically Workona makes context switching a lot better within Chrome
1:57
but it also encourages you to be working on one specific project at a
2:00
time because you know the grouping of tabs you have open are only related
2:04
to that project.
2:06
Our next extension is called Habitica Pomodoro SiteKeeper,
2:09
which is kind of a mouthful
2:11
but it is now my pomodor app of choice.
2:14
So, if you're unfamiliar with the pomodoro technique,
2:16
I've got a whole video on it
2:17
and I'll link to
2:17
that down in the description below,
2:19
but in short it is probably the most effective
2:22
and easiest to use productivity technique out there.
2:25
You simply pick a task you wanna work on, set a timer,
2:28
an actual timer for 25 minutes,
2:30
and work on just
2:31
that task during the duration
2:33
then you take a break
2:34
and because you're using an external timer to guide you
2:37
and because you're reframing your task
2:39
as work for just 25 minutes,
2:41
it's an extremely effective way to get over the resistance you feel to doing
2:44
a tough task.
2:45
I use pomodoro sessions all the time to get myself doing things
2:49
that I don't want to actually do.
2:51
And I've tested a lot of pomodoro apps out there.
2:54
This is now my favorite one because I use a habit tracker called Habitica.
2:58
Now, if you haven't used Habitica before it uses RPG
3:01
and video game elements to sort of build a habit-tracking app
3:04
that keeps you a bit more motivated to track your habits,
3:07
especially if you're a nerd like me.
3:08
But I will note that even if you're not into the RPG stuff,
3:11
Habitica is a fantastic habit-tracking app,
3:13
possibly one of the best out there because it's open source,
3:16
which means it has a ton of advanced features
3:18
that don't cost anything where other apps
3:21
that have similar features always want you to pay,
3:23
which is pretty nice.
3:24
And in keeping with
3:25
that way of doing things this extension for pomodoro timing has a lot of
3:29
cool features that a lot of other pomodoro apps
3:31
that I've seen want you to pay for,
3:33
like tracking your pomodoro stats.
3:35
A lot of 'em want you to pay for that.
3:36
This one does it for free
3:37
and it does a few other cool things
3:39
as well,
3:39
namely it connects to Habitica and adds pomodoro-based habits to your habit tracking.
3:45
It also has a site blocker
3:47
so you can add whatever sites you want to its block list
3:49
and during pomodoro sessions all of those sites are gonna be blocked.
3:52
You can also add costs to websites
3:55
and if you add a cost to a website it's gonna be blocked all
3:58
the time,
3:58
even outside of pomodoro sessions
4:00
and you can get into them for a limited amount of time by paying
4:03
gold from Habitica.
4:04
Now, personally I love having this extension connected to Habitica since I use the
4:08
crap out of it,
4:09
but if you don't happen to use
4:10
that or you want something a little less nerdy,
4:12
there is another extension called Tide, which has a pomodoro timer,
4:15
it's got the stat keeping for free, it's got the site blocker,
4:18
so it's very similar but it doesn't have the Habitica connections.
4:21
So check that out as an alternative.
4:23
Next up on our list is an extension called AudioBlogs,
4:26
which translates written articles into podcast narrations that you can send to your phone,
4:30
which are narrated by a scarily good AI narration algorithm.
4:35
This thing is way better than it has any right to be
4:38
and I have never heard a text-to-speech algorithm
4:40
that works anywhere near
4:41
as good as this thing.
4:42
Sometimes it gets inflections wrong, sometimes it's a little wonky,
4:45
but 95% of the time it's perfectly listenable. - This guide was originally published
4:50
in March 2012.
4:51
Since then, hundreds of students
4:53
and even non-students have created their own personal websites using it. -
4:57
And the reason I have this on my list is
4:59
because for me one of my top priorities
5:01
and values in life is daily,
5:03
low-level movements, walks and bike rides in addition to my sessions in the gym
5:07
and more intense exercise.
5:08
For me, this is a non-negotiable priority in my life
5:11
and when I go for these walks
5:12
and bike rides I love to listen to usually audiobooks
5:15
so I can keep learning
5:16
or keep myself entertained
5:17
while I'm out on them.
5:18
Right now I'm actually listening to a book called Walkable City,
5:21
which is kind of making me hate the way we Americans design our cities,
5:25
but I digress.
5:26
Sometimes, I'm on my computer, I come across an article,
5:29
and I wanna read
5:30
that but I also wanna go out for a walk
5:32
or a bike ride.
5:32
So AudioBlogs let's me turn
5:34
that article into a podcast narration
5:36
and listen to it
5:37
while I do that.
5:38
Next up on our list we've got uBlock Origin,
5:40
which is a great lightweight ad-blocking extension for most browsers.
5:43
There are a lot of ad blockers out there.
5:45
I like uBlock Origin because it is again lightweight,
5:48
it doesn't use a lot of resources,
5:49
and if you want you can add sites to a white list
5:52
so you can support them
5:53
and see their ads
5:54
if you trust them.
5:55
But I have long held
5:57
that an ad-blocking extension is almost
5:59
as necessary for computer security
6:01
as an antivirus program
6:03
and here is why.
6:04
A lot of website owners do not place their own ads.
6:07
They have third party ad placement extensions
6:10
that they put on their pages
6:11
and they trust the third party to place those ads
6:14
and there have been many instances where those third party networks have placed ads
6:17
that contain malware or exploits.
6:19
So I am not going to trust my computer security to every website in
6:23
the world that I happen to go to.
6:24
I use an ad blocker
6:25
as a default and
6:26
then I white list sites
6:28
if I trust them.
6:28
And one other really nice thing
6:30
that uBlock Origin let's me do is add filters,
6:32
which can block certain elements of websites.
6:35
For instance, that what's happening section on Twitter is always full of these like
6:39
sensationalist headlines that just suck me in
6:41
and waste a ton of my time.
6:43
I never wanna see what's happening on Twitter ever again
6:46
and luckily in the my filters section of uBlock Origin I can paste this
6:49
little line of code
6:50
and that is exactly what happens.
6:52
It gets hidden and that is just. (chef's kiss) Readwise,
6:55
the next extension on our list is Readwise
6:58
and if you've seen my previous videos you will know
7:00
that I absolutely love Readwise.
7:02
This is a wonderful highlighter app
7:04
that allows you to make highlights from Kindle books,
7:07
from podcast episodes, from actual print books
7:09
if you use their phone app with the camera
7:11
and the built-in text recognition feature
7:13
and in anything that you read on the internet.
7:16
With the extension installed, all you need to do is highlight some text,
7:19
right-click, and send that highlight to Readwise.
7:21
This is a great way to keep a collection of the things
7:24
that you want to remember.
7:25
If you saw my iPad productivity video from a couple of months ago you
7:28
will know that I talked about an app called Command on the iPad,
7:31
which is a browser
7:31
that let's you make highlights
7:33
that actually stay on the webpage even
7:35
if you refresh and
7:36
then automatically sends those highlights over to Readwise,
7:38
which is freakin' sweet and I really wish that Command was on desktop browsers.
7:43
Unfortunately, it's not but for now we at least have the Readwise extension
7:47
which while it won't leave those highlights on the webpage will send them to
7:50
your Readwise account and
7:52
if you have one of their sync options turned on can send the highlights
7:55
over to RemNote or Rome Research
7:57
or if you're like me,
7:58
to Notion.
7:59
And while we're talking about Readwise we also have to talk about Pocket,
8:02
which is the next extension on our list.
8:04
Unlike Readwise, Pocket is an extension that just lets you save webpages.
8:08
Readwise really wants you to make a selection
8:08
and kind of save a snippet of text.
8:08
Pocket is just for like eh,
8:08
I wanna save this cool webpage
8:08
that I found for later
8:08
and that's exactly what I use it for.
8:08
If I come across an article
8:08
that I don't have time to read
8:09
and wanna read later
8:09
or if I come across just like a cool app
8:09
that I wanna share with my audience I will hit
8:09
that Pocket button in my browser
8:09
and it saves it to my little Pocket list,
8:09
which I can go and review later on.
8:09
And another cool thing about Pocket is their mobile apps have the ability to
8:09
download articles for offline reading.
8:09
So, if you're somebody who commutes on the subway
8:09
or you take a lot of flights
8:10
or you somehow have a lot of time
8:10
or you're offline,
8:10
pocket can be a really, really useful app and extension combo.
8:11
Next up on our list we have an extension called Notion Boost.
8:11
So, as you probably know,
8:11
if you follow this channel or my other channel Thomas Frank Explains,
8:11
I am a huge user of Notion.
8:13
I basically run my entire business through it.
8:13
I've got my task management in it
8:13
and I write all my articles
8:13
and do all my research in it.
8:13
I absolutely love Notion
8:13
but there is a feature
8:14
that I have wished Notion would add for a really long time
8:15
and it's a feature that's in a lot of other notetaking
8:15
and writing apps.
8:15
That is a floating sticky outline.
8:15
I wanna be able to see all of my headings
8:15
and be able to zoom to them
8:15
and a lot of other apps have this.
8:15
Google Docs has it, Dropbox Paper has it, Obsidian has it, Slite has it,
8:15
unfortunately Notion does not.
8:15
They do have a table of contents block
8:15
but when you put
8:16
that somewhere it just stays where you put it
8:16
and you have to scroll up to find it.
8:16
Not that useful.
8:16
So Notion Boost adds Notion, at least in the browser,
8:16
to that hallowed collection of apps
8:16
that have the beautiful sticky floating outline on the sidebar.
8:16
It does a few other things as well,
8:16
but that is absolutely the coolest thing for me that it does.
8:17
I've got a lot of really long articles I write in Notion,
8:17
I've got huge research documents, and having that sticky sidebar is really,
8:17
really nice for being able to zoom to different sections.
8:17
Next up we have Web Clippers.
8:17
There are web clippers for Notion, for Evernote,
8:17
and for OneNote and these extensions basically take the entire content of a webpage
8:17
or at least the text part
8:17
and pour it over to the note taking app
8:17
that you're using.
8:17
Now personally I don't use web clippers very often
8:17
because I've got a combination of other apps
8:17
that basically do the same thing for me.
8:17
If I want to make sure a bunch of tabs are saved in my
8:17
resource section,
8:17
well I've got Workona for that.
8:17
If I'm reading an article and I wanna highlight something,
8:17
I've got Readwise for that.
8:17
And if I wanna just put something in my big jumble of stuff
8:17
that I can go look at later,
8:17
I've got Pocket for that.
8:17
But for some people Web Clipper is going to be the thing
8:17
that fits the bill.
8:17
So we're mentioning it here and I'm gonna mention specifically the ones for Notion,
8:17
OneNote, and Evernote because they're the ones that I know about.
8:18
Before I move on to the next extension on our list,
8:18
which might possibly be the most useful one for most people watching this video,
8:19
I do wanna say
8:19
that if you're enjoying this video maybe consider hitting
8:19
that Subscribe button.
8:19
I've actually got a brand new best note taking apps video in the works
8:19
that's gonna compare some of the newcomers like Rome Research
8:19
and Obsidian with our old standards.
8:19
So if you like these kind of videos
8:19
that one is coming in the very near future
8:19
and you're gonna want to be subscribed
8:19
so you don't miss it.
8:19
Plus, according to my analytics,
8:19
only 30% of you are actually subscribed when you watch my content.
8:19
And I know every YouTuber says that these days, it's kind of a trope,
8:19
but subscribing really does help support the channel
8:19
and push it out to more people on this platform.
8:19
So if you do enjoy this content and you wanna help support it,
8:19
you wanna help support me as a creator,
8:19
consider hitting that subscribe button and thank you if you do.
8:19
All right, next extension on our list is called News Feed Eradicator for Facebook.
8:19
Even though it says for Facebook in the title,
8:19
this is an extension
8:20
that can eradicate the newsfeed in a ton of different social media websites;
8:20
in YouTube, in Twitter, in LinkedIn, and Facebook.
8:20
Instagram may not be on the list there
8:20
but most of the distraction usual suspects are
8:20
and ya gotta do is hit a little checkbox
8:20
and the feed on
8:20
that website is going to be deleted essentially.
8:20
It's gonna be hidden so that allows you to use social media,
8:20
if you're somebody like me who needs to make posts on social media
8:20
or you wanna check your mentions
8:20
and engage with your audience,
8:20
without getting sucked into your feed.
8:20
It's something that I keep on almost all the time only turning off
8:21
if I really wanna check the feed for a specific reason.
8:21
And that brings us to our last extension of the day
8:22
which is called Reader View
8:22
and Reader View,
8:22
like the Reader View on mobile Safari takes a page full of distracting elements
8:22
and boils it down to its essentials,
8:22
namely the content that you wanna read.
8:22
It also gives you typography options, which is pretty sweet.
8:22
You can change the font size, you can change the line height,
8:22
it's pretty nice.
8:22
Now, some web designers like yours truly,
8:22
design a website so extensions like this aren't needed.
8:23
If you go on any of my websites; collegeinfogeek, thomasjfrank, we've got single column,
8:23
minimalist, distraction-free columns of text.
8:23
It's designed for pleasurable reading.
8:23
But designers like me seem to be in the minority.
8:23
It seems like almost every website out there these days has a popup asking
8:23
you to subscribe,
8:23
their email newsletter, there's a sidebar, there's mid-content ads,
8:23
all kinds of crap that is just distracting and makes the page load slower.
8:23
So an extension like Reader View is really,
8:24
really nice for being able to get rid of all of
8:24
that and just read the thing
8:24
that you came to read
8:25
and there are a couple of other cool features
8:25
as well built in.
8:25
There's a dark mode filter and actually some light theming options.
8:25
There is a text-to-speech mode, which is honestly pretty bad.
8:25
I would just use AudioBlogs if you really want that,
8:25
but there's also a built-in higlighter and like in Command,
8:25
the highlights you make persist even if you refresh the page.
8:25
Now it's not gonna send your highlights to Readwise
8:25
as well so there is a couple of different actions to take
8:25
if you want both those things to happen.
8:25
That's why Command is still the gold standard for researchers
8:25
as far as I'm concerned,
8:25
but it is pretty cool having that highlighter feature at least.
8:25
So, for all this video we've talked about extensions
8:25
that can make you work more productivity on the internet
8:25
but what about making the internet work more productively for you?
8:25
Well, that's exactly what happens
8:25
when you have your own online presence where you can connect with people
8:25
or you have your own platform
8:25
or you own your content
8:25
and where you can maybe make connections with potential employers,
8:25
potential clients, people who you could work with.
8:25
That's exactly what I do on my website thomasjfrank.com.
8:26
It shows off my work
8:26
and helps me build my personal brand
8:26
and if you haven't started building an online presence for yourself,
8:26
it's something you should definitely think about
8:26
and at least take the first step to doing,
8:26
which is getting your own domain name.
8:26
Even if you're not ready to build your own website yet,
8:26
getting that domain name locked down is crucial
8:26
because if somebody goes out
8:26
and registers it before you can get it,
8:26
well you're kind of out of luck.
8:26
That's how I am with thomasfrank.com.
8:26
I couldn't get that so I at least got thomasjfrank.com,
8:26
but that could've been taken as well.
8:26
So, as soon as you can go over to Hover
8:26
and register yourself a domain name.
8:26
Hover is a great place to do it
8:26
because unlike a lot of other places out there they have a completely hassle-free
8:26
and speedy checkout process.
8:26
They're not trying to upsell you on a bunch of stuff like a lot
8:26
of other websites and registers are.
8:26
They also have over 400 extensions to choose from, your.coms and.mes,
8:26
which are great for your professional presence,
8:26
but also more fun ones like.lol and.ninja.
8:26
I use thomas.lol for my music stuff.
8:28
And once you have your domain, they also have a feature called Connect,
8:28
which lets you easily hook
8:28
that domain up to online website builders
8:28
and online store builders.
8:28
So, if you're ready to claim your domain,
8:28
make sure nobody else can take it,
8:28
go on over to hover.com/thomasfrank to buy it.
8:28
Along with your first purchase using
8:28
that URL you're gonna get 10% off
8:28
and you're gonna be able to support my channel.
8:29
I work really hard to make sure
8:29
that my content is research backed
8:29
and detailed and has a high production value
8:29
and,
8:29
because most of the stuff that I create is free,
8:29
supporting the sponsors who support me is actually the best way to support this
8:29
channel if that's something you wanna do,
8:29
and if it is, thank you!
8:29
Beyond that, make sure you're subscribed to this channel.
8:29
If you like content like this
8:29
and you wanna see some more in the future,
8:29
like I said, I've got that note taking app comparison coming up.
8:29
That's a much more detailed topic than this one
8:29
but I am hoping to get it up in the next month
8:29
or two and if you would hit
8:29
that Like button.
8:29
YouTube's algorithm absolutely uses engagement factors like likes
8:29
and comments when it's determining how far to push a video,
8:29
so big thanks to you
8:29
if you do hit
8:29
that button and if you have other extension recommendations you wanna make,
8:29
let me know down in the comments.
8:29
Let me know what I missed, let me know what's good for other browsers.
8:29
And beyond that I've got a couple of other videos right here
8:29
and here you can check out.
8:29
Make sure you're subscribed right there
8:29
or don't do any of
8:29
that and go I don't know drive a motorcycle off a ramp through a
8:29
bunch of flaming hoops like Evil Knievel 'cause
8:29
as always,
8:29
I'm not your dad but I will see you in the next video.
8:29
Thanks for watching.
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A video for anyone feeling behind in life
Thomas Frank
