Extensions are an important part of all browsers based on Chromium, be it Google Chrome, Brave Browser, Edge, and others. Chrome extensions play a big role in the overall experience of using a browser, as they can add extra functionality or, in some cases, improve the look of the browser. Everyone should use browser extensions because the additional browser features can improve your workflow.
Most people can find extensions for their needs as there are millions of them in the Chrome Web Store. However, in this blog, we will focus on extensions that are specifically designed to solve a problem or improve your workflow so that you, as a student or professional, can complete your tasks with maximum efficiency and productivity. In this blog, we will introduce you to the ten best Chrome extensions to optimize your workflow as a student or professional.
Table of Contents
10 Best Chrome Extensions for Students and Professionals
Block Site: Site Blocker and Focus Mode
So you’re a student, and you’ve finally decided to give your smartphone a break, sat down at your laptop/PC and are trying to study something, but are easily distracted by random notifications from your various social media accounts (the reason you left your phone lying around). Or you take random breaks and start using WhatsApp and Instagram for hours again, but this time on your PC/Mac. If that’s the case, Block Site, our first extension in this list, will be your savior. It will help you procrastinate less and get more done.
Block Site is a productivity tool that helps you block multiple websites that might distract you from your work. It has some unique features that are worth it.
- You can block multiple URLs at once.
- You can block any site for a specific duration.
- You can set break times and the number of breaks from its dashboard.
- The websites you block can also be password protected.
- You can also use this tool to block websites with specific words or phrases.
If you use it correctly, it’s a very useful tool that can help you overcome procrastination and get back to work. It’s free to download and mostly bug-free.
Speechify: Text-to-Speech Voice Reader
As a student, it’s always a good idea to find out which learning style suits you. Are you someone who learns by reading or someone who learns by seeing pictures quickly, or do you fall into the auditory learner category?
If you are an auditory learner, this Chrome extension could be your best friend. This extension is called Speechify. It is a very popular extension that converts text to speech as humanly as possible. Speechify can read aloud any document, from Google Docs to PDFs to web pages. In addition, it has some remarkable features such as:
- You can listen to any document in any language with the most natural-sounding speech.
- You can listen at a speed of 1x to 4.5x to increase your productivity.
- You can use Speechify on all major platforms, such as Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac OS.
- You’re always on the same page because you can pick up from any device and continue where you left off last time.
- Speechify also uses active highlighting so you can read along.
With more than 11,000 reviews, Speechify is one of the top-rated Chrome extensions you should definitely try.
Related Read: Best Text-to-Speech Apps to Use
Forest: Stay Focused, be Present
Forest is a very popular mobile app that helps you stay focused, take control, and stop procrastinating between your work sessions. It is used by many who want to keep their work moving forward and not get distracted. The Forest Chrome extension is the same as the mobile app, and most of it can be controlled directly from your smartphone.
Forest is a goal-oriented timer app that helps you stay on top of your tasks, with a bit of guilt and gamification thrown in here and there. It works in the same way as the mobile app and follows the principles of the Pomodoro technique.
- The app grows a virtual tree in place of your work, helping you to motivate yourself to beat your internet addiction.
- You can also share your progress with your friends and co-workers.
- You can also track how many trees you grow in your analytics, and the focus time can be changed depending on your workflow.
- You can also block websites with this Chrome extension, but it’s not as feature-rich as dedicated website-blocking extensions.
We recommend you give the Forest Chrome extension a try, as there is a growing community of people who really like the app and the extension, and it will certainly help you build a solid workflow where you won’t be easily distracted.
Related Read: 12 Best Productivity Apps for Students to Stay Focused
Auto Highlight
This Chrome extension is one of the best extensions for students. Auto Highlight only does one thing, but it does it very well, highlighting important text on a web page. If you’re trying to learn something or review something before your exam, Auto Highlighter will automatically highlight all the important text on a webpage with a single click.
It works by clicking on the highlight icon that becomes visible when you read something in an article or on a web page. The only downside of this Chrome extension is that it only works with websites and not with locally saved documents or articles.
- It is very simple to use.
- Does what it says very well.
- It finds out important sentences or phrases using term frequencies.
- It’s open-source, so you can also try it out on GitHub.
Enhancer for Youtube
The Enhancer for YouTube is the best YouTube toolkit you should have. If you’re like us and use YouTube for entertainment and learning, as most students do, this Chrome extension can boost your productivity and save you time and effort even on small things.
For starters, this Chrome extension introduces a toolbar below the video you’re playing, and it consists of custom controls that are used for specific purposes. With Enhancer for YouTube, you can control all sorts of things on YouTube, such as changing themes, playing videos in picture-in-picture mode, and even setting custom keyboard shortcuts and taking screenshots of the video being played.
Some of the best features we recommend you use when using this Chrome extension are:
- With Enhancer for YouTube, you can play all videos at standard and high frame rates and resolutions.
- You can take screenshots of the videos, even with or without the creator’s info card.
- You can set the default volume for YouTube videos.
- You should configure custom keyboard shortcuts and use them with global keyboard shortcuts.
This is probably the only all-in-one YouTube Chrome extension you’ll ever need. You should try it out whether you’re a student, professional, or regular user.
Nimbus Screenshot and Screen Video Recorder
Nimbus Screenshot and Screen Video Recorder by Nimbus Note is a great tool if you are a teacher or student trying to teach or present something. This Chrome extension takes screen recording and screenshots to a whole new level. With this tool, you can create, annotate, collaborate and customize screenshots and screen recordings. It’s a cross-platform app available on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac. You can also quickly upload your recordings and share them with others.
Let’s take a look at what else Nimbus Screenshot and Screen Video Recorder can do:
- Capture full or partial screenshots of any size on the screen.
- With the built-in image editing and screenshot tool, you can edit screenshots and add annotations.
- Convert videos into GIF and MP4 files in no time at all.
- With the screencast tool, you can quickly upload screenshots and share them online.
- You can also quickly change the background color and text color.
- You can also take a full-page screenshot or a specific section of the page by scrolling screenshots.
- It also supports scrolling web pages while recording.
- You can even capture video from another active program.
- You can also customize the screen resolution and frame rate of the video.
- You can also upload screenshots and screen recordings quickly and directly to Google Drive and Google Classroom.
These are just some of the features you can use with the free version of this Chrome extension. There’s also a paid version that offers things like custom watermarks and publishing videos directly to YouTube. We recommend you stick with the free version of the Chrome extension.
Download Nimbus Screenshot and Screen Video Recorder
UnTrap for YouTube
UnTrap for YouTube is a great extension if you’re like us and are easily distracted by your YouTube feed. With this Chrome extension, you can customize your YouTube feed to make it less distracting. You can use this extension to hide all videos from your YouTube home page, such as your subscriptions, watched videos, and even suggestions. You can even use it to disable infinite scrolling.
But that’s not even 10% of what this Chrome extension can do: you can also customize your subscriptions page, your videos page, and your search page. You can hide thumbnails, headings, and even the entire sidebar. It’s a really powerful extension designed specifically for people who can focus on YouTube while learning. It also offers some handy features to make your life easier:
- You can password-protect the extension itself, so you can’t disable it.
- You can also schedule the blocking and set a timer and days.
- You can also block a session for a specific duration of time.
UnTrap could be a very useful app if you use YouTube for everything from entertainment to completing tasks to studying. It has a full 5-star rating and works really well.
Save to Notion
Save to Notion is an alternative to Notion Web Clipper on steroids. If you are an avid note-taker and use Notion all the time, you should use this Chrome extension. Now, let’s understand what Save to Notion is. Just like Notion Web Clipper, you can use it to save any webpage to Notion with one click to read it later. While Notion Web Clipper only lets you save web pages, Save to Notion lets you save web pages, articles, tweets, YouTube videos, and even linked posts to Notion so that you can access them later.
- You can also create and populate databases with tags, relations, and checkboxes directly in the extension.
- You can select any images, take screenshots, and upload them to Notion with just one click.
- Highlight any text from anywhere and directly send it to Notion.
- You can also use this Chrome extension to map data, like mapping different articles to database properties, so you don’t have to copy-paste any stuff.
This is a must-have tool if you are an avid Notion user, but in case you are searching for an app to start your note-taking journey and are confused between Notion and other million available apps for note-taking you need to find out what kind of note-taker you are, here is our article on some of the best note taking apps on the internet. Check it out.
Papier
Papier is a very easy-to-use Chrome extension with only one main function: creating notes in the web browser. If you’re using Papier for the first time, it may take a while to get used to it. Every time you open a new tab, Papier replaces it with itself, giving you a blank canvas on which to write down your notes or thoughts.
Papier is a new tab extension for notes. Everything you write down is saved directly in Chrome, but there is no synchronization because there is no login, as with most of the other extensions in this list.
- With Papier, you can see the number of characters on the right.
- You can change the settings on the left.
- You can also print what you’ve written directly from Chrome.
It’s a good note-taking tool for writing down your ideas, but it might take some time to get used to, especially if you use specialized note-taking apps like Notion or Evernote.
Google Keep
Google Keep Chrome extension is our most favorite Chrome extension on our list. We are avid users of Google Keep as it offers many features for our basic note taking and is available on all platforms, from Android to Wear OS and even Watch OS. The Google Keep Chrome extension syncs directly with your Gmail ID when you install it for the first time.
With it, you can perform all the basic functions like creating notes, saving images, saving likes, and labeling your notes right in your browser window, and all these functions are automatically synced with Google Keep on your devices. It’s easy to use and works very well. If you only take notes occasionally or want to quickly jot down ideas, thoughts, and other things that you can access later from anywhere, this could be a great extension for you.
Best Chrome Extensions
These are some of the best Chrome extensions you should use to improve your workflow if you are a professional or even a student. Chrome extensions like UnTrap for YouTube, Nimbus, Auto Highlight, and Papier can help you in many ways, such as studying, taking notes, and creating better presentations, while extensions like Forest, Block Site, and Enhancer for YouTube can help you focus at work and increase your productivity. These are our top 10 Chrome extensions that everyone should try at least once. We’d also love to know what other Chrome extensions you use to stay focused and productive.
