We bet you spend a lot of your time online in web browsers, which usually means you often have a ton of tabs open at any given time. Although opening multiple tabs can be helpful in some situations, the clutter of browser tabs can be overwhelming and distracting.
Furthermore, it can also slow down your computer performance which can affect your productivity. Fortunately, there are several ways to organize your browser tabs and increase your productivity. This article will cover tips and tools to help you overcome browser tab overload.
1. Use a Chrome Tab Manager Extension
Even when you feel like you have to open a dozen tabs to work, for example, when researching and comparing information from various websites, you may only be focused on two or three at any given time. The remaining tabs will become a distraction while taking up a chunk of your computer’s RAM. However, you’ll still need to keep track of these tabs for later reference.
Fortunately, there are several efficient Chrome tab managers that you can use to organize and sort your open tabs. You can also rely on some of these tools to optimize your computer’s performance by automatically suspending or hibernating inactive tabs.
One of the best tab managers you can use is An eyelash. This Google Chrome extension allows you to turn your tabs into a single list that you can save for future reference. You can name this list, restore individual tabs or all at once at any time. This is great for saving tabs that you want to keep track of, but don’t necessarily need to keep open all the time.
2. Bookmark frequently used websites
Most browsers, including Google Chrome and Edge, allow you to bookmark websites to refer to later. This effectively organizes commonly used websites, so you don’t waste time searching for them. For example, if you have multiple tabs open on a particular topic or category, you can bookmark them in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Safari for quick access in the future.
However, while browser bookmarking tools are useful, third-party bookmarking apps may offer more features and options. A great example is raindrop.io, which allows you to quickly store, organize, and access articles, songs, books, and more. You can create collections to keep related websites in one place, and add tags to make items easier to find later. Also, this tool is available on all major browsers as well as Android and iOS.
3. Use apps to read later
Do you remember those days when you were working on something specific and then you fell on some interesting but unrelated articles? Most likely, he opened them and read them, but never returned to the task he was working on. Considering that you will always find yourself with this type of distraction, you will need to have a system to store any interesting items that catch your eye while you work on something else.
Enter the read-after applications. These tools allow you to save articles, videos, and other items for later reference without having them open in your browser. Pocket is one of the best and most popular read back services available. This app works on all major platforms and is packed with features like the ability to save articles for offline reading, customize your viewing settings, listen to articles, and more.
4. Use note-taking apps to keep your links
Note-taking apps are one of those tools you need for a productive day, allowing you to take quick notes, capture your thoughts, and save tasks. If you’re already using a note-taking app like Evernote or OneNote to organize your tasks, you can also rely on it to store the website links you don’t want to lose or forget.
The best part of this approach is that you can quickly access the link from any device at any time. Also, you can add other useful information such as notes, images, videos, and more to the same note. So note-taking apps can be useful if you want to store links to visit later or organize research for a project.
5. Take advantage of Google Chrome tab groups and reading lists
Google Chrome tab groups work similar to some bookmarking tools that allow you to add multiple web pages into a group. With tab groups, you can create categories for different tabs and assign a custom name and color to each group. This makes it easy to manage multiple related tabs. All you need to do is right-click on a tab, select Add Tab to Group > New Groupand then give the group a name (for example, Investigation project) and colour.
Chrome also has a built-in reading list feature, which allows you to save articles for later. To add a website to your list, right-click on the tab and select Add tab to reading list. You can access the web pages you’ve added to your reading list by clicking the Side panel and selecting reading list.
6. Open commonly used tabs at startup
Another effective way to manage your browser tabs is to automatically open your most frequently used websites when you launch Chrome. This allows you to save time and quickly access your most used websites. To do this, click on the vertical ellipsis “⋮” in the upper right corner of the screen, select Settings > At startupand choose Open a specific page or a set of pages.
From here, you can enter the URLs of the websites you’d like to open at startup and click Add. You can also select Pick up where you left off if you are in the habit of leaving the tabs you use most frequently open.
7. Manually Close Unused Tabs
One of the best ways to manage browser tab clutter is to avoid opening more tabs than necessary and close tabs that are not used regularly. You can start by challenging yourself to follow the one tab rule, especially when you need those deep focus work sessions.
This is an effective productivity tip that allows you to channel your focus on one website or task at a time. If you must open more than one tab, you should at least make sure that it is related to the task you are working on and close it immediately after finishing. This will reduce distractions and help you stay organized.
If you find this challenging, you can use a chrome extension called Impulse to remind you to stay focused. The extension allows you to add a list of things you want to focus on, and every time you open a new tab, it will display a beautiful photograph, quote, or your preset focus area.
Take back control of your browser tabs and increase your productivity
Managing your browser tabs is essential to staying productive and organized. You can avoid unwanted distractions, regain your focus, and streamline your workflow with the right strategies and tools. Try the tips above to help you save time and maximize productivity while browsing the web.