Never underestimate the power of a good Chrome extension. Just like a good smartphone app, these bad boys can help you be more productive and accomplish more during the day. Here are a few solid extensions to get you headed in the right direction.
Mercury Reader
Reading online content can be distracting. With all those ads and images, things can get a little messy and feel as if you’re reading a 5-year-old’s coloring book. But don’t worry. Mercury Reader is here to help. Enable this extension on your desktop, and it’ll remove all those annoying distractions for you. Once enabled, you’ll be left with only the text and images associated with the blog or article you’re trying to read.
Google Dictionary
We aren’t all blessed with a photogenic memory, and we don’t all have the skills of a 5th grade genius. But thankfully for every mediocre person out there, Google Dictionary has our backs. Use this Chrome Extension to learn what all those random, never-head-of-before words mean. All you have to do is double-click the word or search for a word in the toolbar.
Grammarly
Just like we won’t always know what a word means, we won’t always be able to spell words correctly. But it’s not just spelling; it’s the grammar, too. Apostrophe or no apostrophe? The right use of the word or no? With an ‘s’ or without an ‘s’? Grammar is a beast… a beast that Grammarly can help you tame. Add this extension to Chrome and it will correct you as you type. But it won’t automatically fix it for you. First it will let you know something is off, explain why it’s off, and then give you the option to fix it or not.
Timer
Whether you need a reminder to do something at a specific time or you’re simply counting down the seconds until your next break, this Chrome extension can help. With Timer, that’s all you get… a timer. Nothing crazy. Nothing extra. Nothing that’s not needed. Start, stop, and reset time with a “minimal, offline-ready timer.”
Momentum
This Chrome extension is the type of extension that you’ll want to keep open on your desktop at all hours of the workday. Every day you open your browser, Momentum will greet you with a new photo and an inspirational quote – it will be beautiful, and it will motivate you. The extension will say hi, provide you with the time and weather, and even show you what your to-dos look like for the day.
RescueTime
Ever ask yourself, “Self, what the heck did I do all day?” Whelp, this extension will answer that question for you. RescueTime will help you figure out where you’re spending your working hours and pinpoint what’s taking up the majority of your time. For example, you can see how long you were looking at the news and how many websites you visited to do so. Or, you can receive an overall picture of how long you spent on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. At the end of the day, you can see how many hours you were actually productive and then receive a productivity percentage based on your daily stats.
