17 best Chrome extensions for productivity

23 of February, 2021

The online world provides an awful lot of distractions that make can it hard to focus on your work, especially when working remotely. In the comfort of your own home, a 5-minute break can easily transform into an hour-long Facebook scrolling session or a cat video YouTube marathon. But the Internet also contains the solution to the problem it has created. Indeed, numerous Chrome extensions exist to help you avoid distractions, organise your work and boost your productivity.

Extensions to keep everything organised

Todoist

As the name suggests, this extension’s purpose is to create and manage tasks via a system of to-do lists. Create tasks, organise them in projects, and specify their frequency and their due date. That way, you simply have to open the extension to know exactly what you have to do that day. Mark the tasks as completed to reach you daily goal.

Sesame Teams

Sesame Teams is a home office tool and a great extension to use with your coworkers. It allows you to instantly know who is working when and from where. And by using Sesame’s task system, you can easily coordinate tasks with your entire team and keep track of their progress.

Session Buddy

Do you ever get lost in all your open tabs? This extension manages tabs by enabling you to group them by themes. You can also save entire sessions so that the next time you work on the same thing, you can open all the pages you need in a single click.

Extensions to help you stay focused

StayFocusd

If you tend to switch to social media or other non-work-related websites, then you might want to try this extension. With StayFocusd, you can set a time limit for those websites. Once your time is up, you won’t able to access the website, nor change the settings you previously set up.

Productivity Owl

In a similar fashion, the Productivity Owl also restricts the time that you spend the websites you blacklisted. When you have spent all your allotted time, it immediately closes the web page. You will see the owl perched on the page, reminding you of the time you have left.

News Feed Eradicator for Facebook

Facebook is responsible for a lot of time wasting. But not anymore with this extension. With it, your Facebook feed disappears and is replaced by an motivational quote. You still have access to your profile and message, but won’t be able to indulge in mindless scrolling anymore.

Todobook

Like the previous extension, Todobook focuses on eliminating the distractions caused by Facebook. Whenever you open Facebook, you won’t have access to your feed. Instead, a to-do list will appear. You will be allowed to browse through Facebook only when you complete every task of the list.

Strict Workflow

The Pomodoro technique is great time management strategy where you work for 25 minutes then get a 5-minute break. This extension helps you stick to it by blocking any blacklisted website while you work, and unlocking them for your break.

Forest

An extension for nature lovers. This extension creates a virtual forest while you work: all the time you are being productive, a tree will grow, slowly expanding you forest. However, the tree will die if you waste time on unproductive websites!

Extensions to boost your motivation

Win the Day

This extension is perfect for setting goals and tracking your progress. Simply enter the objective you need to reach as well as its deadline. You can then add sub-goals to work toward every day. Win the Day will remind you of the days left to complete your project.

Motivate

With this extension, an inspirational quote will appear every time you open a new tab. So if you meant to procrastinate on Facebook, you will be reminded of your objectives and instead get a motivation boost.

Noisli

Have you ever been distracted by a noisy neighbour or sounds coming from a busy street? Then this extension is what you need. It allows you to customise the perfect background noise for you. Combine the sounds of a raging storm, a soft rain, quiet coffee shop chatter and many more to create just the right mix.

Bliss

Bliss helps you get in the right mindset to be at your most productive. It offers various exercises to make you relax, reflect and focus. It gets rid of negativity to allow you to approach your work in a positive manner.

Extensions to track you productivity rate

Productivity Tracker

This is a great tool to know exactly how productive you have been during your work hours. It records the number of clicks and keystrokes and then generates a graph that shows your activity. This way, you can see if you managed to increase your productivity.

RescueTime

If you wonder where all your time goes, RescueTime is the extension for you. It automatically tracks how much time you spend  on which websites and class them according to how productive or distracting they are. That way, you can understand which pages cause you to waste time the most.

Extensions to make work go more smoothly

The Great Suspender

Do you have 36 tabs opened when you work? Does it take a toll on your computer’s processing power? Then give the Great Suspender a try. It suspends the tabs you aren’t actively using while keeping them open. That way, you get the best of both worlds: as many tabs as you want and a fast computer.

Extensify

After downloading so many extensions, you might need this extension manager. With Extensify, you can easily access and manage all your extensions from one single place.