Productivity Hacks — Part IV (Quality enhancing Productivity Tools)

Content

Part I - Gmail & Slack

Part II - Phone & Trello

Part III - Google Sheets > Excel

Part IV - Quality enhancing Productivity Tools

• Browser / Chrome
• Muzzle
• Grammarly
• Google Photos

Part V - Speed enhancing Productivity Tools

1) Browser / Chrome

Optimising your browser is one of the first thing anyone should do to enhance their work productivity. We spend the majority of our time in browsers - inbox, sheets, docs, articles, etc etc. It kills a little part inside of me every time when I see people have a billion tabs open and they start toggling between them, can't find it and often have the same one open twice. (I'll use Chrome as an example, but you can do the below in all browsers)

A couple of quick fixes:

a) Pin Tabs

• Find your most commonly used tabs (ie for me that's Work Gmail, Private Gmail, Trello, Google Drive and two Google Sheets/Docs)
• Pin the tabs to the window in order of what you use most often
• Benefit: Pinning keeps tabs there forever + makes them smaller

b) Reopen Closed Windows (the way they were)

Make sure on "Settings" (top right) --> "On Startup" --> "Continue where you left off"

Sometimes I see that people don't have that ticked. If you don't every time you close a window you lose all tabs in that window, so people never closer their windows and shut down their laptop (which isn't a bad idea once in a while). Once selected - you will never lose a window again. When you close it and reopen it will reopen with the exact same tabs as you closed it with.

c) Reopen Closed Tabs

It's super annoying and happens all the time that I mistakenly close a tab, or close it and realise I want to go back to it.

Then you spend quite a bit of time searching for the URL again or going through your browser history to reopen.

Shortcut: Cmd + Shift + T

If you didn't know this shortcut, this alone will have been worth reading this article!

d) Type in your Chrome URL bar

Another thing, I do all the time. Instead of going through your dropbox, google drive or any other foldering system...

...just start typing in the Chrome URL box.

It's the fastest way to find any of your files.

ie I would type "dropbox unit register" and Chrome shows me the latest 3 Dropbox files which include 'unit register' in the file which I would have viewed.

Caveat: you need to know a couple of the words in the Title of the file you want.

2) Muzzle (FREE)

How often have you presented something to your colleagues and had annoying (or embarrassing) notifications come up on your screen?

Muzzle: "a simple mac app to silence embarrassing notifications while screensharing."

Install it once and never look at it again - it just works by itself, whenever you plug into a screen.

If you're still not convinced head to their website - it's the best Landing Page I've ever seen.

3) Grammarly (FREE)

Another no brainer.

Install it once and it will keep working away in the background telling you every time something is misspelled or you use incorrect grammar.

Another great landing page so head over if you need more info.

4) Google Photos (FREE)

Don't you wish every picture you ever took was in one location?

Available on your phone at all times?

Searchable?

By person, by date, by colour of the pants you wore?

That's what Google Photos enables you to do.

Unlimited storage to upload Every Single Picture you Ever took.

Once they're on Google Photos you can access any picture any time from any browser (also your phone). Not just that - but you can also search for "Ice cream in Venice" or "Michael Red Pants" and any picture you ever took will be screened and shows up instantly.

I had my pictures across 2 computers, 3 hard drivers, 2 phones and spread across my whole family. I hooked all devices up to Google Photos for 3 days uploading everything day and night and now I've got every single picture my family or I ever took accessible at any time.

In Summary

These are a couple of tools I love which improve my productivity:

• Browser shortcuts - quality of web search
• Muzzle - quality of meetings
• Grammarly - quality of writing (email, blog posts, etc)
• Google Photos - quality of picture engagement

Four tools which are free, super easy to use and work for you.