It’s easy to feel like the pandemic stole time away and messed with life plans, so Stolen Time looks at how to do things more efficiently. Whether it’s tech hacks, podcasts or apps you need, or just saving two minutes, we’re helping ourselves feel more in control. We need this.
Time is one thing you can’t buy more of. You can, however, try and make the most of yours by using savvy tools that will help save you valuable minutes.
Chrome Extensions are a great example of such tools; tiny little software snippets that embed into your Google browser ready to help when needed. From a tool that can auto-type your commonly used phrases to one that will stealthily correct your spelling mistakes, read on for a a superb suite of services that will see you saving some serious time.
If you spend too much time checking in on your Gmail inbox, you need this nifty extension. Checker Plus for Gmail is a handy tool that provides customized Gmail notification pop-ups. This way, you can keep up-to-date with what’s happening in your inbox without having your email open in a separate browser tab. You can also click on this extension’s icon to get an inbox preview window to briefly check the first few messages in your inbox without opening — and being distracted by — full-fat Gmail. You can also compose from the preview window, ideal if you want to fire off a quick missive without launching and loading a new tab.
Dualless is described as “a poor man’s dual monitor solution” and is a fabulous free tool for anyone who would benefit from the time-saving advantages of multiple screens, but doesn’t have the money or desk space required Multiple screens can really save you time by letting you look from the window you’re working on to a second window with a document you need to reference perhaps, or a chat screen, or r the news. Dualless can double your productivity by splitting your browser window into two on your single screen in ratios that suit your needs. These can be 3:7, 4:6, 5:5, 6:4, or 7:3.
Focus To-Do is described as “a science-based app that will motivate you to stay focused and get things done” There are task management tools to explore, but on a simple level you can use this as a timer to break your working day up into half-an-hour chunks. This is based on the theories behind Francesco Cirillo’s “Pomodoro Technique.” This technique, developed in the 1980s, sees a timer being set for 25 minutes during which time you work intensely, then when the timer goes off you take a five-minute break.
Grammarly can save you time by checking your spelling and grammar as you type. This can improve the written content you produce, and up your credibility. This extension will automatically correct your text in Gmail, Google Docs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, and across millions of other sites. It will underline words in red if they’re misspelled, and also flag up grammatical errors, and misused punctuation, and even analyze how concise your writing is. If you set up a Grammarly account, you can get a personalized writing report each week to help you track your progress and identify areas in need of improvement.
Magical is just what its title suggests, from a time-saving point of view. This text-expanding extension helps you to save time, and increase your typing accuracy, by creating shortcuts of text you commonly use. Whether it’s email addresses, phrases about your company, answers to FAQs, frequently used email templates, or simply greetings, sign-offs, and signatures, this tool can take a string of characters and automatically expand it. For example, you can set up “-TINV” to auto-expand into “Thank you for your interest in our company but we currently have no vacancies. Please keep an eye on the recruitment page of our website for future opportunities”. Magical can also be used to correct words you consistently spell wrong.
Momentum, a very popular Chrome extension boasting over three million users, can help you save time by starting your online day the right way. If you’re the type of person that likes to center yourself and take a calming deep breath before you hit the power button on your laptop, Momentum is for you. It replaces your normal new tab page with a “personal dashboard” featuring a beautiful landscape photograph, a to-do list so you can start to plan your day, your personalized weather report to save you having to check it elsewhere, and inspirational quotes. Momentum also asks you what your “main focus” is each day, a handy reminder to keep yourself on track.
If your time management issues make you like you’ve been working hard all day but have achieved very little, then RescueTime is worth a look. You do have to sign up for an account, but once you do, RescueTime will automatically keep track of the time you spend when using the Chrome browser, and provide you with a clear picture of what you were doing all day. RescueTime gives you daily and weekly reports letting you know how productive you’ve been and what sites you’ve spent your time on. You can also use the Extension to set productivity reminders, to block certain sites for certain time periods, and to get alerts if you spend too long on one site.
The Simple Notepad extension is just that; a streamlined way to make notes without leaving your browser window. This time-saving tool will save you having to find a physical notepad, or launching a separate program. If you have the Simple Notepad pinned to your Chrome toolbar, you simply need to click on the pencil-shaped icon to bring up a notepad you can instantly start typing into. You can make multiple notes by clicking on the plus icon in the notepad, and you access previous notes by hovering over the left hand edge of the notepad to view a list of all the notes you’ve made. If you’ve enabled Chrome syncing, Simple Notepad will sync your notes when you use different machines.
If you’re the kind of person that’s capable of multitasking, in that you can carry out an online task whilst listening to audio, you’re going to love Speechify. This extension, which requires a premium subscription, promises to help you get through more reading in less time. Since listening to text can be as much as three times faster than reading it, this extension allows you to “listen” to any website, to Gmail, to content within Google Docs, to Wikipedia articles, blog posts, news articles, online courses, PDFs, and more. Speechify has great customization options that allow you to create folders, change the speed of the audio being read to you, and sync content onto a mobile device by downloading the Android or iOS companion app.
The StayFocusd extension stops you from wasting time on websites that ruin your time management efforts. StayFocusd has a robust settings section that lets you add the URLs of sites you know you use for procrastination when you should be focussing on production. You can then set time limits of how long you will allow yourself to spend on each site on a daily basis. Once you hit that time limit StayFocusd will block that site for the rest of the day. You can also block sites only on certain days, e.g., workdays, and certain times, e.g., work hours leaving you free to browse during “me time.” .
Video Speed Controller enables you to speed up, slow down, advance, and rewind HTML5 audio/video. This tool will revolutionize your online video viewing by allowing you to quickly speed through unnecessary parts of a video, as well as rewind the video to hear the last few seconds one more time. Once the extension is installed, on any page that offers HTML5 video, you’ll see a speed indicator in the top left corner of the video player. Hover over the indicator to accelerate, slow down, or rewind the video. Alternatively you can save even more time by using keyboard shortcuts. These are set by default in the extension, but if you go into the extension’s settings you can customize them to suit you.
If you use the Zoom platform often, either for cloud meetings or for online socializing then you need this extension in your life. The Zoom Chrome Extension allows any user to schedule Zoom cloud meetings directly from Google Calendar. With the click of your mouse, you can start an instant meeting right there and then, or schedule a future meeting for a time that suits you. Once you’ve set up a Zoom meeting, the meeting URL and any other information you’ve added is sent via a Google Calendar invitation so the person, or people, you’ve invited can join with a single click.
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