5 Chrome Extensions to achieve 10x Web Productivity

Average daily time spent online by teenage and Millennial internet users worldwide is 7 hours.

If you work for an IT Company, then 7 Hours is just a joke. We end up spending more time online – browsing, surfing, organizing and creating content. More than 60% of us use Chrome as our default browser. Hence in this post, I am going to share my Top 5 most useful Chrome Extensions that can drive your web productivity 10X.

Let’s get Started…

1. Ultidash – “The Ultimate Productivity Dashboard”

This is one of the best “new tab” extension which I recommend if you are serious about improving your browser productivity. It provides powerful personalized affirmation statements every time we open a new chrome tab. It offers Task management (TODOs) in 3 formats (Basic, Stefen Covey’s Time Matrix, Todoist), Concentration Timer (Based on Pomorodo Technique), Site Blocker, Site Tracker (to known the sites we spend our most time) and Integrates with our Google Calendar and Gmail. All these awesome productivity web hacks on top of the stunning photograph from some of the world’s best landscape photographers.

This extension will surely minimize distraction and will increase your productivity online. (Try Ultidash)

2. Spreed – “Speed Read the Web”

If there is one skill which I need to master in this information age, I will choose “Speed Reading”. “WPM – Words Per Minute” determine our reading speed, but with poor WPM, we end up taking a lot of time reading articles online. Often times we close the article even before reading halfway through it.

Spreed is a Speed Reading Chrome Extension which helps us to read an article 1/3rd of the usual reading time. I wish I had a similar tool for reading physical books. This extension highlights one letter in every word and plays one word at a time. This scientifically proven technique is a must-have extension if you would love to blaze through more content on the Internet.

Pro Tip: If I need to quickly digest the content from an article, I just give a one-pass reading via Spreed Plugin. If I wanted a deep reading on some topics, I will do one-pass reading via this plugin and then do the successive reading of the same content via traditional reading (along with taking notes). (Try Spreed)

3. Evernote Web Clipper – “Distraction-Free Reading”

While the Spreed Extension discussed above is helpful in Speed Reading, Evernote Web Clipper is a great chrome extension used to save sections of a web page or screenshot or an entire page to Evernote for future read and content curation. The Extension also provides a highlighting feature where you can highlight key points while you read and save the whole annotated article to your Evernote.

While the main objective of this extension is to bookmark sections of a web page to your Evernote Cloud, I recommend and use this extension for its fabulous feature – Simplified Article. If you click on the extension and choose “Simplified Article” – You get a distraction-free layout where it helps you to focus on the content.

I recommend and use this extension for its fabulous feature – “Simplified Article”. 

To me, traditional Bookmarking is slightly different than saving sections to Evernote, as Evernote is more organized note taking than curating bookmarks. Enjoy the distraction-free reading and save as you read using the Evernote Web Clipper. (Try Web Clipper)

4. Pocket – “Pocket the future read and Move on!”

We encounter lots of recommended reads on Topic 1 while we are busy working on Topic 2. We also get future reads on few topics of our interest. Never get distracted by these side tracks. Just Pocket them for future reads and Keep focusing on the task at hand. 

I open the Pocket app during my spare time and weekends to reflect on the bookmarks and crunch some content using distraction-free “Web Clipper” extension and “Spreed” Speed Reading Extension which I discussed above. This way, I have created a reading funnel which constantly supplies fresh content to my mind. (Try Pocket)

5. Noisli – “Improve Focus and Boost Productivity with Background Noise”

I love listening to music 24×7. But soon I realized that my playlist decreased my focus at work. Hearing to favorite songs while at work distracts us in many ways. Lyrics, humming the music, remembering the past memories associated with the songs or visualizing the future as we hear the song. All these stops us from focusing at work.

Recent researches prove that listening to ambient background noise while at work increases our productivity. Based on these research, several awesome apps are created and available to use.

Noisli is a fabulous chrome productivity companion which provides background noise tracks to improve our focus at work. (Try Noisli)

Health Tips: In spite, I love the Noisli app, I don’t recommend using any listening app more than 2 hours a day as continuous listening can cause hearing fatigue and can be counter-productive (my 2 cents).

Share your favorite chrome extension in the comment section. Wishing everyone happy and productive days ahead. Cheers! 

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