Boost Productivity with Add-ons

Boost Productivity with Add-ons

Working professionals who join organizations today quickly realize that their employers are requesting task completion at a significantly increased level while maintaining the same amount of weekly working hours. While many individuals rise to this challenge successfully by implementing the same strategies that have kept them successful and productive at previous places of employment, others struggle significantly with little to no understanding as to why.

The answer to bouncing back from this lack of productivity is actually very simple: use add-ons!

With the odds seemingly stacked against professionals at each step of the creative process, the use of add-ons is a welcome change. Here are just a few examples of how add-ons can save you time while impressing your boss with your ability to stay productive:

Google Chrome Extensions (use with Google Chrome Browser):

• Dayboard:
  • With so many distractions online, using Dayboard is a godsend! When you begin your work day, list your Most Important Tasks (MITs) in Dayboard. Then, for the remainder of the day, whenever you open a new tab in chrome, this add-on will remind you of your goals! Social media distractions gone…productivity increased!
• Auto Text Expander:
  • If you currently find yourself sending several repetitive emails a day or writing up the same reports time and time again, save some time by using the Auto Text Expander add-on. This add-on allows you to create shortcuts that when typed expand into full blown paragraphs of information you had previously input by hand. Using a few keystrokes to input entire paragraphs is bound to save you time while increasing productivity!
• OneTab:
  • If your colleagues gasp at you because you have twenty or more tabs open in your browser, you may wish to consider seeking the assistance of OneTab. Basically, this add-on condenses all of your open tabs into one, where you can easily click them in order to open them. Doing this significantly decreases memory use and as a result makes your computer run faster!

Increasing your productivity through add-ons does not just end at your browser of choice. The add-ons actually continue into the tools and programs you use to complete the job as well. Take for example Google Sheets! This program mimics Excel Sheets in many ways but with its ability to add-on additional features it can surpass Excel’s capabilities rather easily.

In order to access add-ons, simply click the Add-ons button in the control ribbon. Once it is clicked a dialogue box will display, giving you access to the many add-on options you have at your disposal. Here are a few to consider:

• Template Gallery:
  • Whether you are starting a company for the first time or simply wishing to update existing budget worksheets, consider downloading this add-on. It will automatically create many of the most basic forms, saving you time, and increasing your productivity.
• Split Names:
  • Have you ever had a spreadsheet with your client’s contact information where their full names are contained in a single cell? This is a nightmare when you want to look someone up by a first or last name. This nightmare is about to end now that you have Split Names on your side. Simply select whether you want first/last name cells then highlight what you want updated. Let Split Names do the rest! Yet another win for your productivity.

While the add-ons mentioned above were likely not designed by those of you who are reading this article, they were created with you in mind and can continue to be developed further with your input. When using these add-ons to increase your productivity do not do so in isolation, provide feedback to the add-ons’ designers so they can determine how to best improve your user experience. Through using these open communication channels with developers you are likely to further increase productivity and we believe that is a wonderful thing!

 

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Categorised in: Technology Information

This post was written by Karen