Best Chrome Extensions for Working From Home in 2020

Google Keep continues to see improvements over time, and it's to the point that you can turn this into your primary task manager. But the great thing about Keep is that you can make it complex or just use it to keep track of links or notes. The Chrome extension automatically adds a link for the site you are visiting, but this can be removed, and you can do whatever you want with the pop-up.

Project management is frustrating, but with a tool like Todoist, you don't have to get stressed out anymore. This extension gives you a mini-view of all of your projects, making it easy to add something new if you need to on the fly.

When it comes to working from home, video conference calls are a necessary evil, and Zoom has taken over for many different companies. Thankfully, there's a Chrome extension not only to join a meeting, but you can also participate in the chat and be reminded before the meeting is getting ready to start.

As is the case with many extensions, Mailto: for Gmail does one thing — open a Gmail compose window. Now, whenever you click on an email link in Chrome, a new compose window will appear, making it easier than ever to fire off emails instead of fiddling with finding the right tab or switching apps.

If you have a lot of projects and need to bill those hours, you'll want Clockify. This app not only lets you track your time with ease, but there is also an array of integrations, including Google Calendar, Todoist, Gmail, and other tools that you may already be using.

It can be tough to remember that you need to take care of your mind when working from home. Current aims to improve your mindfulness with different exercises and "micro-meditations" that can be started and completed right from Chrome.

The biggest benefit of a Pomodoro Timer is not only to keep you on track with a project, but to also act as a reminder to take a break. With Focus To-Do, this will also help you to manage your tasks, calendar, reminders, and much more. This isn't just a Pomodoro Timer; it's an all-in-one task management system.

Dealing with PDF files and annotating documents should not be as frustrating as it is for many. Instead of fumbling around in different apps that may not do the job right, Kami Extension offers quick annotating and more. There's even integration with Google Classroom and other Learning Management Systems.

Plain lists are boring as it can be tough to keep track of your progress on specific tasks. Kanbie adds a Kanban board to Chrome that is customizable, available from any tab, and it will sync across multiple computers with the help of Chrome. Plus, you can add colored labels to your cards to keep better track of projects.

As someone who keeps a few of the same tabs open all day, every day, it can be annoying to have to click through to those sites all the time. Toby makes this easy and consolidates your tabs into groups that can be opened with a single click. It may not sound like much, but you can create various groups of tabs and open them whenever you need to.

The New Tab Page is rather boring, so why not spruce it up a bit with some motivation? Momentum provides a new photo every day, an inspiring quote, and a single line asking what your daily focus is. But you can expand on that even further and a list of tasks you need to complete. Then you'll see those, along with the words of encouragement, every time you open a new tab.

If you are in the process of developing something new, then chances are you use the combination of GitHub and/or Stack Overflow. Initab provides a suite of tools aimed at programmers to get quick information on the topics that you care about and need.

Screenshots are a pain unless you have a tool like Awesome Screenshot. Nobody wants to always take a screenshot of their entire computer, only to have to edit it and annotate it after the fact. This extension provides a suite of screenshot tools right from your browser, and even includes screen recording.

Have you ever been working on a big project only for something to come up, and you need to switch gears but don't want to lose the tabs you have? Session Buddy solves this problem by saving your browsing sessions, regardless of how many windows or tabs you have open at the same time. Then just restore those windows and get back to work.

It's not great for your eyes to look at the white backgrounds of screens in Chrome all day every day. Your eyes will get tired, and eye strain is not good for anyone. With Dark Reader, you can force dark mode on or off for just about any website, and you can set custom filters for different websites that you visit.

Think of Tabby Cat as an in-browser Tamagotchi, but with a cat instead of an 8-bit digital pet. This extension allows you to interact with your virtual pet, and there other pets to choose from with an in-app purchase. And while you are destressing by playing with your pets, you can take a quick picture and save it for later!

Did a new series or movie just get added to Netflix that you and your friends wanted to watch together? Well, if you have to stay at home, you can take advantage of Netflix Party and have those movie nights again. And the best part is that the video playback is synchronized and there's even a group chat, right from the extension.

Podcasts are the new radio stations, and with podStation, this in-browser podcast player will let you keep up to date on your favorite shows. This is a simple podcast aggregator with a built-in search, along with the ability to create playlists and control your playback rate.

Whether it's just a random YouTube playlist or something you need to keep up while performing another task, not having picture-in-picture is frustrating. With Picture-in-Picture by Google, this adds a little video box in the corner of your computer, which can be resized and moved around so you can keep browsing the web.

Those who have multiple streaming services and want to watch shows or movies with their friends will need Scener. This is a "virtual" movie theater, but with only the people there that you want to be there. You can chat over video, voice, or text, and the content will playback in sync with all parties involved.

Sometimes you just need to take a break for a few minutes but don't want to actually get up from your desk. Boxel Rebound is a fun box-jumping game that features more than 50 different levels and cloud backups to sync across devices with Chrome installed. And if you are having a lot of fun, you can download the game on your smartphone too.