A home business entrepreneur has to become the MacGyver of home office solutions, patching together a semi-mobile office from what they have around them. While big, established businesses can afford to invest in software and hardware that might not even get used, these costs just don’t scale down proportionately to the independent business owner.
If that means that many of us end up cobbling together a makeshift software suite from the freeware, apps, and web tools that are available, all the better for us. Of course, there are some processes that are difficult without shelling you out for expensive gear. But as far as everyday office work goes, you’ll actually find free stuff online that is even more usable and adaptable than that which costs.
And nobody powers this opportunity quite like Google.
Nobody, that is, except for Google’s users and developers who smooth the corners of Google’s Chrome browser and office suite to make them a bit more amenable to the grit and grind of daily work.
In particular, a great number of browser extensions have been created to make Chrome do the things you believe it should be able to do, and a few more that you may never have imagined – but which will blow your mind.
Let’s take a look at some of the extensions that are best for your productivity.
How to Browse Better
Forefront of your mind when using your browser, is browsing. Or rather, the habit of surfing from page to page is so dominant that you barely notice yourself doing it.
Unfortunately, mindless browsing is one of the leading enemies of productivity. Between ads, pop-ups, social media, and stuff that just looks more interesting than what you’re supposed to be doing, it’s a wonder you get anything done once you’ve clicked that red, green, and yellow Chrome icon.
There are different tools for dealing with each of these issues. Just Read simplifies the pages you visit by zapping pop-ups, and comments. It’s much easier to keep focus when everything on the periphery disappears. Ublock Origin does the same for ads, and filters content to make the pages you visit run more smoothly.
As for the clutter you bring on yourself, that tends to be a question of the things you need for work (but which get overwhelming) and the things you look at because they’re nicer than work.
For the former, try Session Buddy. This one is ideal for tab fiends who almost require a map to find their way around all the pages they have open for research and communication. It saves your open tabs for when you need them, so you can easily click between the ones you need right now before you get yourself in a tangle.
And for your little social media habits, try Stay Focusd. This one locks up the websites you identify as timewasters after you’ve spent your allotted daily time on them. You have no choice but to crack on with your work!
How to Stay Organized with Chrome
Now you’re up and working, you’ll need a virtual secretary. There are a number of Chrome extensions to help you with the organization of your daily work.
Todoist, for example, is a task manager into which you can enter your to do-list, setting up reminders and alerts to keep you on track. That’s if Google Calendar isn’t doing it for you. Actually a lot of people aren’t using Calendar in the most efficient way: rather than always browsing to your Google Calendar to make an entry or change something, you can add the Calendar extension to your browser for instant access.
Momentum is an extension to make your ‘new tab’ page a bit more useful. Rather than bringing up a blank tab or your homepage, Momentum will replace it with a dashboard, daily photo, and a number of ways to keep track of your schedule.
And Toggl Button (developers are running out of names, okay?) is a timer that you can add to the pages you use so that you can track just how productive you are with each online tool.
Power Through Your Email
Finally, a word about email: it’s not very productive! Or rather, emails tend to take up a disproportionate amount of your time, since they distract you from the task at hand and it takes around 15 minutes to get your focus back.
It can be far more efficient to have allotted email sessions two or three times a day, and shut your email off the rest of the time. And naturally, there’s an extension or two for that. Snooze Email is a function of Google’s Inbox, whereby you can click ‘Snooze’ on an inbound email so that it goes away and comes back to you later.
Inbox When Ready hides your inbox until pre-scheduled times. And Sortd For Gmail rearranges your Gmail inbox to make it more usable if it is the beating heart of your home business.
So what are you waiting for? Time to get extended!
