Work-from-home settings and remote teams are increasingly normalized because of the unfortunate pandemic that hit the world. Crowded offices and face-to-face interaction are limited so managers and workers alike need to work and collaborate in the comfort of their homes. And with the help of Google Chrome extensions for remote teams, productivity is guaranteed. 

The work-from-home setting can be quite daunting for managers who want to ensure the productivity of their team. After all, the home is a comfortable space, and without supervisors constantly checking in, getting distracted is as easy as 1,2,3. 

This is why productivity apps and software have been in-demand ever since the work-from-home setting has been encouraged. Managers highly recommended their employees install these software and extensions to help fix poor working habits and to increase and maintain productivity. 

The Best Google Chrome Extensions for Remote Teams

Your Google Chrome browser is the portal to another realm of distraction but it also serves as a medium for you to keep track of work, maintain productivity, and keep the organization top-notch. 

In this article, we’ve rounded up the best Google Chrome Extensions for remote teams to fully use to assure productivity throughout the day. 

Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a time tracking tool and is ultimately one of the best Google Chrome extensions for remote teams. With a click of a button, it starts recording the time you spend on a task, as well as monitor your browser activity. At random intervals, it takes screenshots of your screen. Usually, remote managers appreciate this kind of feature as it helps ensure that work-from-home employees are doing their jobs. 

Time Doctor syncs up with different project management and accounting tools, making recording logs of the team easier. 

ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management tool and one of the few rare ones that have a Chrome extension. It’s an all-rounder app that can do the tasks of multiple extensions combined and all in one platform. Forget installing tons of extensions for specific activities when you have one ClickUp extension that can perform the majority of them. 

ClickUp allows you to create tasks from your Chrome browser and assigned them to your team members. You can also bookmark websites into the tasks and take screenshots that you can edit and annotate to make explaining easier to your team. Instead of going on and on about a specific project, you can easily show pictures that are quickly digestible. 

It has a time tracking feature as well but it smoothly integrates with Time Doctor so you can keep track of the time spent if you have subprojects. 

Forest

The Forest app is not made for remote managers but rather something you want for yourself. Working-from-home means manager-free and multitudes of distractions at close proximity, this includes social media accounts that you can freely open on your phone and browsers.

And while Time Doctor can keep you (and your remote team) in check, it is infinitely better that you keep yourself in check too by other means. It is also a great study app for college students who want to focus and improve their productivity.

The Forest app is a time management Chrome extension that prevents you from visiting social media websites. The most interesting thing about Forest is it allows you to plant a seed that becomes a tree after 30 minutes in a new tab. Once you give in to temptation and visit social media websites while your tree is growing, it dies and goes back to being a seed. 

It’s also available for your smartphones where you are not allowed to exit the Forest app, if you do, your tree dies. So if you want to scroll down your Facebook timeline, if you do, you have to see a part of your forest die first. 

Evernote Web Clipper

If Evernote is a team staple, then the Evernote Web Clipper is a must-have extension. It is a handy web clipping tool that allows you to take screenshots of websites and annotate them as needed. This is extremely useful for remote teams who need to collaborate and want to explain or present an idea or concept visually. 

The files and screenshots are automatically saved in your Evernote account so you can access them on other devices. 

The Great Suspender

Google Chrome is (undeniably) the most popular web browser due to its smooth integration with Google accounts. However, it is also notably famous for using up too much RAM which ultimately slows down CPU performance. 

This might be a total turn-off for some and switching to another browser might seem like a very good idea at this point, but there is a Google Chrome extension that will instantly solve this problem. 

The Great Suspender suspends open tabs that haven’t been viewed in a while. This usually happens when you struggle with multiple tasks at one time or when you’re researching and have loads of irrelevant sources opened. 

The extension automatically detects tabs that are playing music or those that have forms and keeps them running so there’s no need to worry if you are playing music or you have an ongoing form you need to answer. In addition, you can also whitelist URLs so the Great Suspender is prevented from suspending them. 

TIM

The work-from-home settings may have eliminated face-to-face meetings but it didn’t completely get rid of unnecessarily long online meetings. However, TIM makes online meetings bearable. This is a free Chrome extension that manages the time and flow of online meetings. It is created with the thought that every minute in meetings is valuable and should be well accounted for. 

TIM makes online meetings more time and cost-efficient by creating time schedules and assigning time slots to each participant, calculating how every online meeting is costing the organization, as well as displaying countdown alerts to notify participants. 

It can be used on any video conference platform.