Five Chrome Extensions to keep you productive

We love our Android devices, but we’re not always using them. There comes a time when we use a proper computer, but we still want to easily use all the same apps we find on our Android device. With Chrome extensions, it’s possible to not miss a beat, whether on desktop or mobile. Today, we take a look at some extensions that can keep you organized and efficient.

Pocket

Pocket’s ubiquity is hard to ignore. Even with our favorite email client, CloudMagic, Pocket is one of the features in their new cards feature. With a Chrome extension, it’s easy to take articles you find online and save them to your pocket account simply and easily.

When you’re on a page you want to save for later, jus click the Pocket extension and it saves to your account automatically. A simple drop-down alert will give you a notice your page has been saved, and even give you the option to add tags as needed straight away. If you need to get to your pocket account quickly, hitting “view list” will take you there. For offline reading, or simply bookmarking pages for viewing later, Pocket is amazing. We use this exension often for reading articles on a tablet later in the day.

Any.Do and Keep

Any.Do has one of the easier, simpler note-taking apps we’ve found. the extension is no different. Any.Do, along with their calendar, are a good one-two punch for keeping you organized and on task. The extension and Android app are also a good combo, and we like the duo for keeping life organized while on the go. The layout is simple, letting you see what you have planned that day, week, month, or longer. Like the next extension on our list, it’s just like the Android app it accompanies.

Keep is similarly great, and the Panel View extension is one to look to if you’re a heavy Keep user on Android. It pops open in its own window, and has all the same functionality we enjoy with the app on Android. As you might imagine, it all syncs beautifully, and makes for an excellent one-two whether you’re at your desk or on the go.

Black Menu

Okay, so this is not one that’s going to translate with Anroid, but it’s too good to leave out. Black Menu opens up all things Google in a drop-down format, making it easy to navigate to things like the Play Store, Search, or any other Google service you might need. It also keeps your extensions to a minimum, so your bar isn’t bogged down with tasking services that might eat up battery life or real estate.

We like it for its simplicity and ease of use. Just click Black Menu, and you’ll find all those things you might rely on daily. Hovering your cursor over the service will give you a preview, while clicking on the button will open a tab with, say, YouTube. If you want to work within the extension, that’s easy to do — once you’re hovered over the desires service, just mosey on over to what you want to do, all from within the extension. Black Menu is one that will keep you navigating quickly, efficiently, and without loading a bunch of pages just to accomplish a few tasks.

Extensity

Extensions can bog Chrome down, eating up CPU and battery. Extensity is great because it provides a quick way to activate and deactivate extensions on Chrome. With two clicks, you can have your favorite extension up and running, or shot them down for a while..

Once loaded, Extensity finds all your extensions and puts them into an alphabetical list. Those that are active show as lit up (but you’d probably see them on your bar anyway, so…), while those that aren’t are shaded. Extensity is a lot like Black Menu for apps in general, leaving you free to load as many extensions as you like without having to dig into settings to activate or deactivate them.

Conclusion

Of course, these are only a few of the extensions that will keep you humming along during your day, so if you have a suggestion for one, please feel free to mention it in the comments section below. When it comes to staying on task and not getting bogged down in dozens of tabs, wasting time and energy, we like these extensions to get you going.