We understand: You sit in front of your computer all day long, typing reports, answering email messages, and creating presentations. It’s difficult to resist the temptation to run over to TMZ.com to catch up on the latest celebrity gossip.
But all those side trips to the Internet’s guilty pleasures can add up to a lot of wasted time during the day. They can cut into your productivity, something your boss won’t appreciate.
Fortunately, if you use the Chrome web browser, you can add several extensions designed to keep the Internet’s distractions from cutting into your workday.
The Huffington Post recently took a look at the best distraction-blasting Chrome extensions. Use these and you just might be surprised at how productive you can be.
Stay Focused
The Post story rightly starts with Stay Focused. This add-on places a time limit on all those time-wasting websites that you like. Once the timer on each site runs out, it will remain blocked for the rest of the day, preventing from clicking on CNN or The Onion for an anti-productivity visit.
Cool Clock
If your lack of focus causes you to miss too many meetings or lunch dates, add Cool Clock to your Chrome browser. This add-on comes with a clock, calendar, alarm, timer and hourly desktop time notifications. As the Huffington Post says, it’s designed to make sure that you no longer miss any important appointments. You can also set Cool Clock so that it reminds you of the most important tasks you need to complete during the day.
Last Pass
How much time do you waste trying to remember your password to Gmail or to your online banking website? Last Pass, another nifty Chrome add-on, can change all this. This extension allows you to easily manage and monitor the many online passwords with which you have to contend. You’ll be surprised at how much more time you’ll have once you eliminate those pesky attempts to remember which passwords have numbers and which ones have capital letters.
Turn off the Lights
Sometimes we have to watch rather boring videos as part of our jobs. It can be hard to focus on those videos when there are so many distractions online and on your desktop. That’s where the Chrome extension Turn off the Lights comes in. As the Huffington Post says, this add-on keeps your media player bright but dims everything else on your screen. Use this extension, and you’ll have no excuse for drifting from that corporate video.
Read more at HuffPo: http://kbit.co/chrome-extensions-productivity