March 18, 2025 • 27 mins
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Are you tired of juggling a million tabs and still feeling behind in your business? If so, this episode was made for you! I’m sharing 21 must-have Chrome extensions that will help you work smarter, not harder. Whether you’re trying to stay organized, track your sales, or boost productivity, these tools will transform the way you run your business.
I know, I know, 21 extensions is a lot (and you won’t need all of them)! That’s why I’m dividing them into five clear categories to support your productivity, security, content creation, and more. You’ll hear about tools that block distractions and extensions that help you easily record tutorials or SOPs. I’ll also share hidden gems that will streamline your workflow and seamlessly manage tasks - all from the comfort of your browser.
These must-have Chrome extensions will make managing your business easier than ever. Choose your favorites and you’ve got a custom virtual toolbox for simplifying your business and getting more done in less time! Remember, don’t overwhelm yourself by installing all of them. Start small and add new ones as you need them!
01:32 - Must-have Chrome extensions for focus and productivity
13:16 - Design and visual tools that help your business look polished and professional
15:37 - Chrome extensions for documentation and creating content
19:48 - A few helpful tools that will ensure your writing is top-notch
21:24 - Must-have Chrome extensions for the operations side of your business
➡️ Check out all the Chrome extensions I mention in the show notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode139
Links & Resources:
- Episode 103, Free & Low-Cost Tools for Online Entrepreneurs
- Episode 77, Tools of the Trade: My Favorite Things for Savvy Teacher Sellers
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- The Savvy Seller Collective
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Tired of constantly hustling to sell your digital products? Check out my free 19-minute training where I show you how to turn all those products you already have into a profitable, automated business.
Get more freedom and less stress ➡️ watch now at kristendoyle.co/training
Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Doyle (00:00):
Hey there. As online business owners, we are
always looking for ways to savetime and boost our productivity
without having to work morehours. Today, I am sharing 21
Chrome extensions that can helpstreamline your business and
save you work. And trust me,some of these are absolute game
(00:22):
changers. You are using Chromeright? If you're not, you should
be. Whether you're sellingdigital products, running
courses, offering services, orsome combination of all of them,
these tools can help you worksmarter, not harder.
Unknown (00:37):
Are you a digital product or course creator,
selling on platforms liketeachers pay teachers, Etsy or
your own website? Ready to growyour business, but not into the
kind of constant hustle thatleads straight to burnout? Then
you're in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
(01:00):
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
Kristen Doyle (01:16):
I've organized these extensions into five main
categories to make it super easyfor you to find exactly what you
need. We'll start with thecategory that probably impacts
us all the most, at least I knowit does for me! Focus and
productivity.
First up. I know we all probablystruggle with having too many
(01:37):
tabs open in our browser, andthe problem with that is that
eventually it will start slowingdown Chrome, if not your entire
computer. Now, if it is aneveryday occurrence for you that
Chrome starts running really,really slowly, then you need
(01:59):
WorkCona, I think, is how youpronounce it, Tab Suspender.
This is a tool that willessentially just suspend your
CPU usage, your computer'sprocessing usage, on tabs that
you haven't touched in a while,so that the tab can still stay
open. You don't have to lose theprogress or the link that you
(02:21):
have open, but it will keep fromslowing your computer down too
much, and it will keep fromdraining your battery if you're
not plugged in.
The nice thing is those tabs arestill there, so you don't have
to open websites, log back inany of those kinds of things.
They're still there and readywhenever you're ready to come
back to them. Now here's a quickbonus tip that actually isn't
(02:44):
even a Chrome extension. I usedto use a Chrome extension for
this, but chrome now has builtin tab groups.
So if you have lots of tabs openand you want to save them, maybe
to use tomorrow, you can right,click on any tab and click "Add
tab to new group". Or if youalready have groups created, you
(03:06):
can drag that tab into anexisting tab group. And then
there's also the option to savethat tab group so it doesn't go
away when you close your Chromewindow. So you can pull up these
groups of related tabs anytimeyou want to.
I do this for things like all ofthe Logins I'm going to need for
(03:28):
the pages I use on my CEO daywhen I start doing my
accounting. So the login pagefor the bank accounts, the
credit card the QuickBooks, allof the reporting for the
different places where I sellproducts in my businesses. I
keep all of those in one tabgroup called CEO day, and I can
just quickly click on that, openup all of those pages, get
(03:49):
logged in, and get right back towork on that once every month
when that CEO day rolls around.
All right. Extension number two,and if you have ever heard me
talk about Chrome extensions.
You've probably heard me sharethis one because it is so
important for me, specificallyfor staying focused when I have
to open social media while I'mworking. This one is called News
(04:11):
Feed Eradicator. I still loveit. I still use it all the time.
What this extension does is itwill just remove the News Feed
section from a ton of websites,like Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, YouTube, all the thingsTwitter is called x. Now I can't
even keep up.
(04:34):
It will remove the News Feedpart so that you don't get
distracted by the news feed,that endless flow of more and
more and more and more content,but you can still get to the
things you need, like yourbusiness page, your Facebook
groups, messages, things likethat that you need to be able to
access. It just keeps you fromgetting distracted. It hides the
(04:57):
news feed and drops in a littlemotivational quote for you.
Sometimes they are superinspiring. Sometimes they're
kind of funny, but it just dropsin a little quote and hides that
news feed so you don't go downsome rabbit trail that takes you
off track in your work.
All right. Next up is one calledInbox When Ready. This is kind
of like News Feed Eradicator,but for your Gmail. So I know
(05:20):
that sometimes I need to getinto my email in order to find
something. Maybe I need to, youknow, find one of those six
digit codes to log in somewhere,or I need a link to something I
know someone has emailed mewhile I'm working, but I know
what happens for me is I popinto my inbox and I see all
these new messages from people,and I feel like I have to open
(05:41):
them and read them and respondto them right now, and then that
takes me off track and distractsme from the task I came to my
inbox for in the first place.
And maybe I forget about it.
Maybe that authentication codeexpires because I took too long,
or I just don't get around tothe task I wanted to do. So
Inbox When Ready will hide yourinbox so you can still log into
your Gmail. You can send emails,you can search for things. You
(06:04):
can go into your folders. Youjust don't see the actual inbox.
And you can determine on theirsettings, how long you want it
hidden for, how often you wantto be allowed to check before it
hides. All of those kinds ofthings. There's lots of settings
that you can use for that.
Number four is another extensionthat will block distractions for
(06:27):
you. This one is called TimeWar, and it takes things a
little bit further. This oneactually just will not even let
you in, for example, your Gmailor your Facebook or whatever.
When you have that focus settingturned on. So if you need
something a little more harshthan newsfeed Eradicator, then
Time Warp might be a goodsolution for you.
(06:50):
The next one is called Marinara.
Yes, like the pasta sauce. Thisone is a Pomodoro style timer
that sits right up in the GoogleChrome extensions area of your
browser window, if you've neverdone Pomodoro work sessions,
essentially, you just work for25 minutes of focused work, and
then you take a five minutebreak, and then you come back
(07:12):
and you work again, and you dothree of these 25 minute blocks,
and then you take a little bitlonger break, maybe 15 minutes.
I find for me, I am superproductive when I know I have 25
minutes to get this task doneand I'm going to put my head
down and focus and ignore allthe distractions so that I can
get the work done before thattimer goes off. The thing I like
(07:35):
about this extension is, insteadof having to have a separate
window open in your web browser,which we've already talked about
how we all have too many tabsopen. This one runs right up
there in the top of yourbrowser, where the rest of your
Chrome extensions are, so it's areally easy way to glance up and
see how much time you have left,but without distracting you or
having to click over to adifferent tab.
(07:57):
All right, now that we've gotyou focused and productive.
Let's talk about keeping yourbusiness secure and tracking
some metrics and some of theseimportant things that we need to
be doing in our business.
Number seven, let's talk aboutpassword security. This is super
important for everyone who usesthe Internet, whether you use it
(08:19):
personally or for business. Weare in a day and age where you
really should not know any ofyour passwords to anything. You
should be using random, longpasswords that aren't easy to
remember, and they're differentfor every website.
In order to do that, you need apassword vault so that you can
get logged in when you don'tremember your passwords. I
(08:42):
recently made the switch fromLastPass, which I know I have
recommended in the past, toOnePassword, and I'm so glad
that I did. It works verysimilarly. One Password secures
all of your passwords. It alsohelps generate super strong
passwords, those really randomones, for you, and you're able
to share passwords with anyonethat you need to share them
(09:05):
with.
The thing I really love mostabout one password, aside from
the fact that they are far moresecure and haven't had security
breaches like LastPass did, isthat you can create multiple
vaults, so your passwords gointo vaults. You can think of
them like folders. I haveseveral vaults for my businesses
(09:25):
and one vault for my personalpasswords. So the personal vault
is for passwords only I needaccess to, and then I have
multiple vaults for the businessbased on who needs access,
because you can grant differentpeople on your team access to
different vaults.
So I have certain vaults thatonly my Kristen Doyle web design
team gets access to. I haveother vaults that people who
(09:48):
help me out with Chalk andApples get access to. It's a
really easy way to separatethings so that people don't have
more access than they need. It'sa great way to safely share your
login credentials with a team orwith a spouse or even your kids,
because you can create vaultsand share with anyone that you
want to.
Another thing I love about onepassword is it gives you a great
(10:10):
place to share things like APIkeys that you might need for
licenses for things that youuse. It also will let you save
other types of secure notes. Sofor example, I have in my one
password My TSA Pre check numberalong with a note that tells me
when it expires, because I knowthe only other place that lives
(10:31):
is in some paper letter theymailed me and somewhere in my
inbox. So I've got that noteright in one password, it's easy
to pull up. I also have mypassport number and when it's
expiring, all of those kinds ofthings that I tend to forget and
have to go hunt for just live inmy OnePassword now.
All right, next up, Tag Hound isa little newer to my toolkit. I
(10:53):
have recommended other Chromeextensions for this in the past
that have been deprecated, soTag Hound is what I use now and
recommend to show you, if you'retracking, pixels are actually
working. So if you are runningany kind of ads, you need to
track conversions, you want tomake sure the pixel or the
Google Analytics that you'veinstalled is actually working on
(11:15):
your website. You can installTag Hound. Go to your website
and click on tag count, and itwill show you immediately all
the pixels and tracking codesthat are running on your site
right now.
This lets you really quicklyverify if you installed them the
right way, you put them in theright place, and if they're
actually working. This has savedme so many times when I was
(11:37):
trying to figure out why aclient's Google Analytics wasn't
showing any data or help themfigure out why they didn't see
things in their Facebook adsthat they thought they should
based on their website. Itreally is helpful for just
taking a quick peek at what isbeing tracked on your website
and which specific pixels ortracking codes are attached to
(12:01):
that site.
All right. number nine, theGoogle Analytics UTM builder, is
another new extension I've beenusing, and I absolutely love it.
It is just a free tool thathelps you to create and manage
links with those UTM parameters.
Those are those special tagsthat tell Google Analytics
(12:21):
exactly where your traffic iscoming from. If you are on a
marketplace platform and you'vecreated UTM links, there these
Google Analytics UTM links workthe same way, and I always
intend to create them for thingsI'm sharing on my own website,
but then I can't remember thewebsite that does it, or just
going to another site seems liketoo much work.
(12:46):
So instead of having to open upa new website or try to remember
how to do it correctly with theright format yourself, this
extension creates them for youin just a couple clicks. So it's
really easy to go to the pageyou want, click on the
extension, add in the parametersyou want, and then copy the
already formatted link so thatyou can track which of your
(13:08):
social media posts or your emailcampaigns are driving the most
traffic to your site or anywhereelse you need to see where
people are coming from.
All right, let's move to somedesign and visual tools that
(13:37):
On a related note, Number 11 iscalled Color Zilla. This one
will find the hex code. That'sjust the computer code that you
need for any color that is on awebsite. You can pull those
(14:00):
help your business look polishedand professional. Okay, so the
colors from an image or logo ora background or wherever it is
on any website. It's a reallygreat way to make sure you're
keeping things cohesive and tiedinto your branding, because you
can pick and choose those colorsout of your logo to make sure
you're always using the exactsame color.
Number 12 is called View ImageInfo, and this one will tell you
(14:24):
what size any image is on anywebsite. Now, I doubt you need
to go looking at other people'swebsite images to see what size
they are, but the reason I thinkthis one is so great is because
this will help you know whatsize your images actually need
to be on your own website basedon the size that they are
displaying.
See most of the time, what Ifind is that bloggers create
(14:46):
images 234, times as big as theyactually need to be on their
first one, and I adore this one,if you just love fonts, and you
website, and that can contributeto some performance issues on
your site. So if you knowexactly what size the images
need to be, then you can createthem as small as possible for
your blog posts, your productlistings, whatever pages you are
creating on your website.
(15:08):
Next up is one called Go FullPage. And this one lets you take
full page screenshots of anywebsite, and you can save it as
either an image or a PDF. Thisis super helpful for when you
need to save an old version ofsomething, maybe you think you
might need some words from anold sales page down the road, or
(15:31):
you just want to save an entireblog post or something like
that.
Along those lines, let's moveinto some chrome extensions that
see font you like, and you wantto know what they're called,What
can help you createdocumentation and other types of
content that you might need.
The first one is called loom. Ifyou have not heard of Loom, I
(15:52):
don't know where you've been thelast few years. Loom is a screen
recording tool, and I use itconstantly. Now, I will give you
a little caveat. I actuallydon't use the Chrome extension
for loom. They have a desktopapp, and that's what I use,
because the desktop appessentially puts the same thing
as the Chrome extension right atthe top of my computer desktop,
(16:14):
and that means I can use it torecord my Chrome windows, or any
other Windows I have open on mycomputer.
Font is a simple littleextension that will identify the
But they do have a Chromeextension that will let you
record things specifically inChrome, so I would recommend
(16:36):
having one of the two of those.
What I really love about Loom isthat it makes it really
to your clipboard. You don'teven have to highlight it and
copy it yourself. So you canpaste that link in and share it
with anyone. And it makes itreally easy to embed those
videos on any website anywhere.
Next up is one called AwesomeScreen Recorder. And I know I
(16:59):
just shared about loom, which isfor screen recording. This is
kind of an alternative to loomin some ways. I don't use it as
often because I like the waythat loom does their sharing,
and I have a whole library ofcontent in Loom at this point.
But this one is really handywhen you need to create some
fonts that are being used on anywebsite. It also will tell you
sort of quick tutorial orsomething, and you need to be
(17:20):
able to annotate while you'rerecording.
So you can add arrows, you canadd text, you can highlight
certain areas while you'rerecording. And that can be super
helpful depending on what kindof content you're creating. So
if you ever need to annotateyour screen recordings, Awesome
Screen Recorder is what you wantfor that.
Number 17 is Tango. Tango isamazing for creating these Step
(17:43):
by Step Tutorials or SOPs foryour team. If you have one,
while you're working through aprocess, you hit record before
you start and Tangoautomatically captures
screenshots and creates numberedsteps with instructions that are
very specific. It will say,click here, type this, click
that, choose this from the dropdown. It is way faster than
the font size and the fontweight, which is really
(18:07):
taking manual screenshots andwriting out all the steps
yourself. And I use it all thetime for documenting procedures,
whether it's things I need toshare with my team or for
clients and customers.
Quick note about all of these, Ilike Loom the best anytime there
are variables in the processthat I might need to explain
verbally, because Tango doesn'tcreate videos, it's just text.
(18:28):
But I do like Tango for morestraightforward processes. And
added bonus, if you're thinkingabout creating tutorials that
you're going to share with otherpeople, doing it in Tango means
you can come in and editindividual steps to make changes
important, especially on yourown website if you're trying to
down the road if you need to,rather than having to re record
an entire video.
Alright number 18, if you areusing Notion in your business,
(18:50):
and if you're not really, shouldthink about it, because I adore
notion, then you want to get theNotion Web Clipper extension.
This lets you save any web page,article, Podcast, episode,
whatever it is, any web page,directly to your notion
workspace in just a click ortwo, I use it to collect
inspiration for things, to saveresources for later, for
(19:14):
compiling research for somethingnew I'm creating. And you can
choose exactly where in notionyou want to save the content,
and it keeps all the formattingfrom the original for you.
It's really nice for thosethings that you keep going back
to over time that you would bedevastated if someone deleted
make things consistent.
their blog post or somethinglike that. It's a great way to
(19:36):
save some of those resourcesyou've gotten from someone
else's website that are such animportant part of your business
now that you really need to makesure you continue to have access
to those.
All right, let's talk aboutcreating content and making sure
your writing is as good as itcan be. Now, I have always used
Grammarly, and I don't know ifyou've noticed lately, but.
(19:59):
Their ads for their upgradedplans have gotten super
intrusive recently, and Istarted looking for an
alternative because I felt likeit was just always getting in my
way.
anywhere. It does support a lotmore languages than Grammarly
does, and you can customize therules that it follows as well to
(20:27):
match your writing style, whichis really nice. There are a lot
of things that Grammarly wasconstantly correcting for me
that I didn't want it to becausethat's just not my writing
style.
They were trying to make it lotsmore formal. And so I do like on
Language Tool, how I can kind oftweak the rules a little bit.
I'm just using the free version.
Yes, there are upgrade options,but they are not annoying or in
(20:47):
my face at all.
All right. Next up, Quill Bot isanother really cool writing
tool. It's great, especiallywhen I'm stuck staring at a
blank page or I need to kind ofrework some content. It is
primarily to help you paraphrasetext and then rewrite content in
different tones or styles. Thiscan be super helpful when you
(21:08):
are writing product descriptionsand social media posts and
emails and you essentially wantto keep saying the same thing
just in different ways. It'sgreat for helping you to
repurpose content on differentplatforms that make sure
everything sounds fresh but alsostill sounds natural.
All right. Group number five,let's talk about some operations
(21:29):
things for your business.
Number 19, let's talk aboutsaving you some money on your
business expenses. The Honeyextension, if you've never heard
of it, it can save you money onanything you're buying, whether
it's for business or yourpersonal shopping. If you're
buying software, office suppliesor tools for your business,
honey automatically finds andapplies the best discount codes,
(21:52):
so that you don't have to worryabout it or hunt for coupon
codes.
What I really like about it isthat it keeps track of price
history too, so you can see ifsomething regularly goes on sale
before you make a big purchase,maybe you want to wait a few
days.
Number 20 is Toggle. This one isused for time tracking. So if
you need to track your own timeon something that you're working
on, maybe you're doing a littlebit of a time audit of how
(22:15):
you're spending your time, or ifyou're working for someone as a
VA and you need to track yourtime that way, you can use
toggle right in your Chromebrowser to do that. Now,
personally, my team uses ourclient management system Moxie
for all of our time trackingnow, but before we had that
system, or if you just need astandalone time tracker, this is
(22:37):
the one that I used to use.
And number 21, last, butdefinitely not least, is To
doist for Chrome. This extensionmakes it super easy to turn
anything you see online into atask or a reminder. So if you
are browsing and you see aninteresting article that you
want to read later, or you knowyou need to follow up on an
(22:59):
email, just a couple of clicks,and this is immediately in your
to doist to-do list with a linkback to the original content.
It's really perfect for peoplelike me who come across things
throughout the day that we needto remember to come back to
later. Personally, again, I usemy client management platform,
Moxie, for most of my businessto do list tasks. But what I
(23:22):
really like to do ist for iswhen I run across an article or
a podcast episode I'm listeningto and I think, ooh, I should
really do that thing thatthey're talking about.
I can add that task into doistwith my notes about what was on
my mind, what I want to do withthis information. I can add that
right in To doist, and then comeback to it later on, when I have
(23:43):
time. It's really good forkeeping me from going totally
off track on some shiny object Ijust heard on a podcast when I
had other important things Ineeded to do that day.
All right, let's make this superactionable. Here's what I want
you to do. I want you to pickone extension from each category
that addresses some pain pointyou actually have install it
(24:07):
today and start using it. Usethat one consistently for a week
or two or three before you addanother one.
The key is not to overwhelmyourself by installing 21
extensions all at one time. Youprobably don't need all of these
anyway, so just start small andadd new ones as you need them.
If you have a favorite Chromeextension that I didn't mention,
(24:28):
I would love to hear about it.
Send me a DM on Instagram@kristendoyle.co and let me know
what extensions are working bestfor you.
And hey, if you found thishelpful and learned about some
new extensions you didn't knowwere out there, share it with
another online business ownerwho could use these tools in
their business too. I'll talk toyou next week!
Hey there. As online business owners, we are
always looking for ways to savetime and boost our productivity
without having to work morehours. Today, I am sharing 21
Chrome extensions that can helpstreamline your business and
save you work. And trust me,some of these are absolute game
(00:22):
changers. You are using Chromeright? If you're not, you should
be. Whether you're sellingdigital products, running
courses, offering services, orsome combination of all of them,
these tools can help you worksmarter, not harder.
Unknown (00:37):
Are you a digital product or course creator,
selling on platforms liketeachers pay teachers, Etsy or
your own website? Ready to growyour business, but not into the
kind of constant hustle thatleads straight to burnout? Then
you're in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
(01:00):
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
Kristen Doyle (01:16):
I've organized these extensions into five main
categories to make it super easyfor you to find exactly what you
need. We'll start with thecategory that probably impacts
us all the most, at least I knowit does for me! Focus and
productivity.
First up. I know we all probablystruggle with having too many
(01:37):
tabs open in our browser, andthe problem with that is that
eventually it will start slowingdown Chrome, if not your entire
computer. Now, if it is aneveryday occurrence for you that
Chrome starts running really,really slowly, then you need
(01:59):
WorkCona, I think, is how youpronounce it, Tab Suspender.
This is a tool that willessentially just suspend your
CPU usage, your computer'sprocessing usage, on tabs that
you haven't touched in a while,so that the tab can still stay
open. You don't have to lose theprogress or the link that you
(02:21):
have open, but it will keep fromslowing your computer down too
much, and it will keep fromdraining your battery if you're
not plugged in.
The nice thing is those tabs arestill there, so you don't have
to open websites, log back inany of those kinds of things.
They're still there and readywhenever you're ready to come
back to them. Now here's a quickbonus tip that actually isn't
(02:44):
even a Chrome extension. I usedto use a Chrome extension for
this, but chrome now has builtin tab groups.
So if you have lots of tabs openand you want to save them, maybe
to use tomorrow, you can right,click on any tab and click "Add
tab to new group". Or if youalready have groups created, you
(03:06):
can drag that tab into anexisting tab group. And then
there's also the option to savethat tab group so it doesn't go
away when you close your Chromewindow. So you can pull up these
groups of related tabs anytimeyou want to.
I do this for things like all ofthe Logins I'm going to need for
(03:28):
the pages I use on my CEO daywhen I start doing my
accounting. So the login pagefor the bank accounts, the
credit card the QuickBooks, allof the reporting for the
different places where I sellproducts in my businesses. I
keep all of those in one tabgroup called CEO day, and I can
just quickly click on that, openup all of those pages, get
(03:49):
logged in, and get right back towork on that once every month
when that CEO day rolls around.
All right. Extension number two,and if you have ever heard me
talk about Chrome extensions.
You've probably heard me sharethis one because it is so
important for me, specificallyfor staying focused when I have
to open social media while I'mworking. This one is called News
(04:11):
Feed Eradicator. I still loveit. I still use it all the time.
What this extension does is itwill just remove the News Feed
section from a ton of websites,like Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, YouTube, all the thingsTwitter is called x. Now I can't
even keep up.
(04:34):
It will remove the News Feedpart so that you don't get
distracted by the news feed,that endless flow of more and
more and more and more content,but you can still get to the
things you need, like yourbusiness page, your Facebook
groups, messages, things likethat that you need to be able to
access. It just keeps you fromgetting distracted. It hides the
(04:57):
news feed and drops in a littlemotivational quote for you.
Sometimes they are superinspiring. Sometimes they're
kind of funny, but it just dropsin a little quote and hides that
news feed so you don't go downsome rabbit trail that takes you
off track in your work.
All right. Next up is one calledInbox When Ready. This is kind
of like News Feed Eradicator,but for your Gmail. So I know
(05:20):
that sometimes I need to getinto my email in order to find
something. Maybe I need to, youknow, find one of those six
digit codes to log in somewhere,or I need a link to something I
know someone has emailed mewhile I'm working, but I know
what happens for me is I popinto my inbox and I see all
these new messages from people,and I feel like I have to open
(05:41):
them and read them and respondto them right now, and then that
takes me off track and distractsme from the task I came to my
inbox for in the first place.
And maybe I forget about it.
Maybe that authentication codeexpires because I took too long,
or I just don't get around tothe task I wanted to do. So
Inbox When Ready will hide yourinbox so you can still log into
your Gmail. You can send emails,you can search for things. You
(06:04):
can go into your folders. Youjust don't see the actual inbox.
And you can determine on theirsettings, how long you want it
hidden for, how often you wantto be allowed to check before it
hides. All of those kinds ofthings. There's lots of settings
that you can use for that.
Number four is another extensionthat will block distractions for
(06:27):
you. This one is called TimeWar, and it takes things a
little bit further. This oneactually just will not even let
you in, for example, your Gmailor your Facebook or whatever.
When you have that focus settingturned on. So if you need
something a little more harshthan newsfeed Eradicator, then
Time Warp might be a goodsolution for you.
(06:50):
The next one is called Marinara.
Yes, like the pasta sauce. Thisone is a Pomodoro style timer
that sits right up in the GoogleChrome extensions area of your
browser window, if you've neverdone Pomodoro work sessions,
essentially, you just work for25 minutes of focused work, and
then you take a five minutebreak, and then you come back
(07:12):
and you work again, and you dothree of these 25 minute blocks,
and then you take a little bitlonger break, maybe 15 minutes.
I find for me, I am superproductive when I know I have 25
minutes to get this task doneand I'm going to put my head
down and focus and ignore allthe distractions so that I can
get the work done before thattimer goes off. The thing I like
(07:35):
about this extension is, insteadof having to have a separate
window open in your web browser,which we've already talked about
how we all have too many tabsopen. This one runs right up
there in the top of yourbrowser, where the rest of your
Chrome extensions are, so it's areally easy way to glance up and
see how much time you have left,but without distracting you or
having to click over to adifferent tab.
(07:57):
All right, now that we've gotyou focused and productive.
Let's talk about keeping yourbusiness secure and tracking
some metrics and some of theseimportant things that we need to
be doing in our business.
Number seven, let's talk aboutpassword security. This is super
important for everyone who usesthe Internet, whether you use it
(08:19):
personally or for business. Weare in a day and age where you
really should not know any ofyour passwords to anything. You
should be using random, longpasswords that aren't easy to
remember, and they're differentfor every website.
In order to do that, you need apassword vault so that you can
get logged in when you don'tremember your passwords. I
(08:42):
recently made the switch fromLastPass, which I know I have
recommended in the past, toOnePassword, and I'm so glad
that I did. It works verysimilarly. One Password secures
all of your passwords. It alsohelps generate super strong
passwords, those really randomones, for you, and you're able
to share passwords with anyonethat you need to share them
(09:05):
with.
The thing I really love mostabout one password, aside from
the fact that they are far moresecure and haven't had security
breaches like LastPass did, isthat you can create multiple
vaults, so your passwords gointo vaults. You can think of
them like folders. I haveseveral vaults for my businesses
(09:25):
and one vault for my personalpasswords. So the personal vault
is for passwords only I needaccess to, and then I have
multiple vaults for the businessbased on who needs access,
because you can grant differentpeople on your team access to
different vaults.
So I have certain vaults thatonly my Kristen Doyle web design
team gets access to. I haveother vaults that people who
(09:48):
help me out with Chalk andApples get access to. It's a
really easy way to separatethings so that people don't have
more access than they need. It'sa great way to safely share your
login credentials with a team orwith a spouse or even your kids,
because you can create vaultsand share with anyone that you
want to.
Another thing I love about onepassword is it gives you a great
(10:10):
place to share things like APIkeys that you might need for
licenses for things that youuse. It also will let you save
other types of secure notes. Sofor example, I have in my one
password My TSA Pre check numberalong with a note that tells me
when it expires, because I knowthe only other place that lives
(10:31):
is in some paper letter theymailed me and somewhere in my
inbox. So I've got that noteright in one password, it's easy
to pull up. I also have mypassport number and when it's
expiring, all of those kinds ofthings that I tend to forget and
have to go hunt for just live inmy OnePassword now.
All right, next up, Tag Hound isa little newer to my toolkit. I
(10:53):
have recommended other Chromeextensions for this in the past
that have been deprecated, soTag Hound is what I use now and
recommend to show you, if you'retracking, pixels are actually
working. So if you are runningany kind of ads, you need to
track conversions, you want tomake sure the pixel or the
Google Analytics that you'veinstalled is actually working on
(11:15):
your website. You can installTag Hound. Go to your website
and click on tag count, and itwill show you immediately all
the pixels and tracking codesthat are running on your site
right now.
This lets you really quicklyverify if you installed them the
right way, you put them in theright place, and if they're
actually working. This has savedme so many times when I was
(11:37):
trying to figure out why aclient's Google Analytics wasn't
showing any data or help themfigure out why they didn't see
things in their Facebook adsthat they thought they should
based on their website. Itreally is helpful for just
taking a quick peek at what isbeing tracked on your website
and which specific pixels ortracking codes are attached to
(12:01):
that site.
All right. number nine, theGoogle Analytics UTM builder, is
another new extension I've beenusing, and I absolutely love it.
It is just a free tool thathelps you to create and manage
links with those UTM parameters.
Those are those special tagsthat tell Google Analytics
(12:21):
exactly where your traffic iscoming from. If you are on a
marketplace platform and you'vecreated UTM links, there these
Google Analytics UTM links workthe same way, and I always
intend to create them for thingsI'm sharing on my own website,
but then I can't remember thewebsite that does it, or just
going to another site seems liketoo much work.
(12:46):
So instead of having to open upa new website or try to remember
how to do it correctly with theright format yourself, this
extension creates them for youin just a couple clicks. So it's
really easy to go to the pageyou want, click on the
extension, add in the parametersyou want, and then copy the
already formatted link so thatyou can track which of your
(13:08):
social media posts or your emailcampaigns are driving the most
traffic to your site or anywhereelse you need to see where
people are coming from.
All right, let's move to somedesign and visual tools that
(13:37):
On a related note, Number 11 iscalled Color Zilla. This one
will find the hex code. That'sjust the computer code that you
need for any color that is on awebsite. You can pull those
(14:00):
help your business look polishedand professional. Okay, so the
colors from an image or logo ora background or wherever it is
on any website. It's a reallygreat way to make sure you're
keeping things cohesive and tiedinto your branding, because you
can pick and choose those colorsout of your logo to make sure
you're always using the exactsame color.
Number 12 is called View ImageInfo, and this one will tell you
(14:24):
what size any image is on anywebsite. Now, I doubt you need
to go looking at other people'swebsite images to see what size
they are, but the reason I thinkthis one is so great is because
this will help you know whatsize your images actually need
to be on your own website basedon the size that they are
displaying.
See most of the time, what Ifind is that bloggers create
(14:46):
images 234, times as big as theyactually need to be on their
first one, and I adore this one,if you just love fonts, and you
website, and that can contributeto some performance issues on
your site. So if you knowexactly what size the images
need to be, then you can createthem as small as possible for
your blog posts, your productlistings, whatever pages you are
creating on your website.
(15:08):
Next up is one called Go FullPage. And this one lets you take
full page screenshots of anywebsite, and you can save it as
either an image or a PDF. Thisis super helpful for when you
need to save an old version ofsomething, maybe you think you
might need some words from anold sales page down the road, or
(15:31):
you just want to save an entireblog post or something like
that.
Along those lines, let's moveinto some chrome extensions that
see font you like, and you wantto know what they're called,What
can help you createdocumentation and other types of
content that you might need.
The first one is called loom. Ifyou have not heard of Loom, I
(15:52):
don't know where you've been thelast few years. Loom is a screen
recording tool, and I use itconstantly. Now, I will give you
a little caveat. I actuallydon't use the Chrome extension
for loom. They have a desktopapp, and that's what I use,
because the desktop appessentially puts the same thing
as the Chrome extension right atthe top of my computer desktop,
(16:14):
and that means I can use it torecord my Chrome windows, or any
other Windows I have open on mycomputer.
Font is a simple littleextension that will identify the
But they do have a Chromeextension that will let you
record things specifically inChrome, so I would recommend
(16:36):
having one of the two of those.
What I really love about Loom isthat it makes it really
to your clipboard. You don'teven have to highlight it and
copy it yourself. So you canpaste that link in and share it
with anyone. And it makes itreally easy to embed those
videos on any website anywhere.
Next up is one called AwesomeScreen Recorder. And I know I
(16:59):
just shared about loom, which isfor screen recording. This is
kind of an alternative to loomin some ways. I don't use it as
often because I like the waythat loom does their sharing,
and I have a whole library ofcontent in Loom at this point.
But this one is really handywhen you need to create some
fonts that are being used on anywebsite. It also will tell you
sort of quick tutorial orsomething, and you need to be
(17:20):
able to annotate while you'rerecording.
So you can add arrows, you canadd text, you can highlight
certain areas while you'rerecording. And that can be super
helpful depending on what kindof content you're creating. So
if you ever need to annotateyour screen recordings, Awesome
Screen Recorder is what you wantfor that.
Number 17 is Tango. Tango isamazing for creating these Step
(17:43):
by Step Tutorials or SOPs foryour team. If you have one,
while you're working through aprocess, you hit record before
you start and Tangoautomatically captures
screenshots and creates numberedsteps with instructions that are
very specific. It will say,click here, type this, click
that, choose this from the dropdown. It is way faster than
the font size and the fontweight, which is really
(18:07):
taking manual screenshots andwriting out all the steps
yourself. And I use it all thetime for documenting procedures,
whether it's things I need toshare with my team or for
clients and customers.
Quick note about all of these, Ilike Loom the best anytime there
are variables in the processthat I might need to explain
verbally, because Tango doesn'tcreate videos, it's just text.
(18:28):
But I do like Tango for morestraightforward processes. And
added bonus, if you're thinkingabout creating tutorials that
you're going to share with otherpeople, doing it in Tango means
you can come in and editindividual steps to make changes
important, especially on yourown website if you're trying to
down the road if you need to,rather than having to re record
an entire video.
Alright number 18, if you areusing Notion in your business,
(18:50):
and if you're not really, shouldthink about it, because I adore
notion, then you want to get theNotion Web Clipper extension.
This lets you save any web page,article, Podcast, episode,
whatever it is, any web page,directly to your notion
workspace in just a click ortwo, I use it to collect
inspiration for things, to saveresources for later, for
(19:14):
compiling research for somethingnew I'm creating. And you can
choose exactly where in notionyou want to save the content,
and it keeps all the formattingfrom the original for you.
It's really nice for thosethings that you keep going back
to over time that you would bedevastated if someone deleted
make things consistent.
their blog post or somethinglike that. It's a great way to
(19:36):
save some of those resourcesyou've gotten from someone
else's website that are such animportant part of your business
now that you really need to makesure you continue to have access
to those.
All right, let's talk aboutcreating content and making sure
your writing is as good as itcan be. Now, I have always used
Grammarly, and I don't know ifyou've noticed lately, but.
(19:59):
Their ads for their upgradedplans have gotten super
intrusive recently, and Istarted looking for an
alternative because I felt likeit was just always getting in my
way.
anywhere. It does support a lotmore languages than Grammarly
does, and you can customize therules that it follows as well to
(20:27):
match your writing style, whichis really nice. There are a lot
of things that Grammarly wasconstantly correcting for me
that I didn't want it to becausethat's just not my writing
style.
They were trying to make it lotsmore formal. And so I do like on
Language Tool, how I can kind oftweak the rules a little bit.
I'm just using the free version.
Yes, there are upgrade options,but they are not annoying or in
(20:47):
my face at all.
All right. Next up, Quill Bot isanother really cool writing
tool. It's great, especiallywhen I'm stuck staring at a
blank page or I need to kind ofrework some content. It is
primarily to help you paraphrasetext and then rewrite content in
different tones or styles. Thiscan be super helpful when you
(21:08):
are writing product descriptionsand social media posts and
emails and you essentially wantto keep saying the same thing
just in different ways. It'sgreat for helping you to
repurpose content on differentplatforms that make sure
everything sounds fresh but alsostill sounds natural.
All right. Group number five,let's talk about some operations
(21:29):
things for your business.
Number 19, let's talk aboutsaving you some money on your
business expenses. The Honeyextension, if you've never heard
of it, it can save you money onanything you're buying, whether
it's for business or yourpersonal shopping. If you're
buying software, office suppliesor tools for your business,
honey automatically finds andapplies the best discount codes,
(21:52):
so that you don't have to worryabout it or hunt for coupon
codes.
What I really like about it isthat it keeps track of price
history too, so you can see ifsomething regularly goes on sale
before you make a big purchase,maybe you want to wait a few
days.
Number 20 is Toggle. This one isused for time tracking. So if
you need to track your own timeon something that you're working
on, maybe you're doing a littlebit of a time audit of how
(22:15):
you're spending your time, or ifyou're working for someone as a
VA and you need to track yourtime that way, you can use
toggle right in your Chromebrowser to do that. Now,
personally, my team uses ourclient management system Moxie
for all of our time trackingnow, but before we had that
system, or if you just need astandalone time tracker, this is
(22:37):
the one that I used to use.
And number 21, last, butdefinitely not least, is To
doist for Chrome. This extensionmakes it super easy to turn
anything you see online into atask or a reminder. So if you
are browsing and you see aninteresting article that you
want to read later, or you knowyou need to follow up on an
(22:59):
email, just a couple of clicks,and this is immediately in your
to doist to-do list with a linkback to the original content.
It's really perfect for peoplelike me who come across things
throughout the day that we needto remember to come back to
later. Personally, again, I usemy client management platform,
Moxie, for most of my businessto do list tasks. But what I
(23:22):
really like to do ist for iswhen I run across an article or
a podcast episode I'm listeningto and I think, ooh, I should
really do that thing thatthey're talking about.
I can add that task into doistwith my notes about what was on
my mind, what I want to do withthis information. I can add that
right in To doist, and then comeback to it later on, when I have
(23:43):
time. It's really good forkeeping me from going totally
off track on some shiny object Ijust heard on a podcast when I
had other important things Ineeded to do that day.
All right, let's make this superactionable. Here's what I want
you to do. I want you to pickone extension from each category
that addresses some pain pointyou actually have install it
(24:07):
today and start using it. Usethat one consistently for a week
or two or three before you addanother one.
The key is not to overwhelmyourself by installing 21
extensions all at one time. Youprobably don't need all of these
anyway, so just start small andadd new ones as you need them.
If you have a favorite Chromeextension that I didn't mention,
(24:28):
I would love to hear about it.
Send me a DM on Instagram@kristendoyle.co and let me know
what extensions are working bestfor you.
And hey, if you found thishelpful and learned about some
new extensions you didn't knowwere out there, share it with
another online business ownerwho could use these tools in
their business too. I'll talk toyou next week!
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