I spent three hours last Tuesday trying to find a research paper I’d read two weeks earlier. I knew I’d read it. I remembered specific details from it. I just couldn’t remember where I’d seen it, what it was called, or how to find it again.
After searching through my browser history, three different bookmark folders, two “read later” apps, and approximately seventeen open tabs that I’d been meaning to close for a month, I gave up and asked a colleague. They sent me the link in thirty seconds.
That’s when I realized: I wasn’t using the internet. The internet was using me.
Your browser is supposed to be a tool that makes online work easier. But for most of us, it’s become a source of constant friction. Too many tabs. Scattered bookmarks. No easy way to focus. Constant distractions from notifications, auto-playing videos, and that one website that always loads slower than everything else.
The right Chrome extensions can fix this. Not by adding more complexity, but by removing the friction that’s slowing you down. Here are fifteen extensions that actually changed how I use the internet, organized by the specific problems they solve.
For Killing Distractions and Staying Focused#
1. uBlock Origin: The Only Ad Blocker You Need#
Let’s start with the obvious one. If you’re still browsing the internet without an ad blocker in 2025, you’re experiencing a fundamentally different (and significantly worse) version of the web than everyone else.
uBlock Origin isn’t just about blocking ads, though it does that brilliantly. It’s about reclaiming your attention and your bandwidth. Auto-playing videos, tracking scripts, popup overlays, cookie consent banners that follow you around. Gone.
The internet becomes faster, cleaner, and dramatically less hostile to human attention. Studies show that ad blockers can reduce page load times by up to 40% on ad-heavy sites.
Why it matters: Every ad you don’t see is cognitive bandwidth you’re not wasting. Every tracking script you block is loading time you’re saving. This isn’t about principle. It’s about making the web usable.
2. News Feed Eradicator: Social Media Without the Scroll#
Here’s a radical idea: what if you could use Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn for their actual useful functions (messaging, events, professional networking) without getting sucked into the infinite scroll?
News Feed Eradicator replaces your social media feeds with inspirational quotes or blank space. You can still access everything else. You just can’t mindlessly scroll.
The first time you open Facebook and see nothing to scroll through, it’s disorienting. Then it’s liberating. You remember what you actually opened the site to do, you do it, and you leave. Revolutionary.
Why it matters: Social media feeds are designed to capture your attention. This extension gives you back the choice of whether to engage or not.
3. LeechBlock: When You Need to Lock Yourself Out#
Sometimes willpower isn’t enough. Sometimes you need the digital equivalent of giving your credit card to a friend before going shopping drunk.
LeechBlock lets you block specific websites during specific times. Need to avoid Twitter during work hours? Block it from 9 to 5. Find yourself doom-scrolling news sites at night? Block them after 9 PM.
You can make these blocks as flexible or rigid as you need. Set time limits, create schedules, even add delays that make you think twice before accessing a site.
Why it matters: The best productivity system is the one that removes temptation entirely instead of relying on your discipline at 2 AM when you’re tired and stressed.
For Managing Information Overload#
4. OneTab: The Tab Hoarding Intervention You Need#
If you currently have more than 20 tabs open, this extension will change your life. OneTab takes all your open tabs and converts them into a list on a single tab. Click any link to restore it. Export lists to share with others. Save tab groups for different projects.
Your browser becomes dramatically faster. Your mental load decreases. You can actually see what you have open instead of squinting at tiny favicons.
The magic isn’t just in the tab management. It’s in how it forces you to be conscious about what you’re keeping open and why.
Why it matters: Every open tab is a tiny decision you haven’t made yet. OneTab lets you defer those decisions without grinding your browser to a halt.
5. The Great Suspender: Keeping Tabs Without the Memory Drain#
Can’t bring yourself to close tabs but also can’t afford the memory drain? The Great Suspender automatically suspends tabs you haven’t used in a while, freeing up memory while keeping the tab available to restore instantly.
It’s like having your cake and eating it too. You keep the tabs open for “just in case” while your computer doesn’t grind to a halt.
Why it matters: The compromise between keeping everything accessible and not destroying your computer’s performance. Sometimes the best productivity hack is just making your tools actually work.
For Better Reading and Research#
6. Reader View: Stripping Away the Noise#
Every website has a different layout. Different font sizes. Different color schemes. Sidebars, popups, related content widgets, newsletter signup forms.
Reader View strips all of that away and gives you just the text in a clean, readable format. Same font. Same layout. Every time.
Reading online becomes actually pleasant instead of a constant battle with bad design decisions and attention-grabbing elements.
Why it matters: The goal of reading online isn’t to experience each website’s unique design choices. It’s to absorb information efficiently. Reader View optimizes for that.
7. Hypothesis: Highlighting and Annotating the Entire Web#
Remember how in college you could highlight textbooks and write notes in the margins? Hypothesis lets you do that for any webpage.
Highlight important passages. Add notes. Share your annotations with others. See what other people have highlighted on the same page.
It transforms passive reading into active engagement. Instead of just consuming content, you’re thinking about it, marking what matters, creating a trail of your thinking.
Why it matters: We remember things better when we engage with them actively. Annotation is engagement.
8. Liner: Highlighting That Actually Syncs#
Similar to Hypothesis but with a focus on personal use, Liner lets you highlight text on any webpage and have it automatically saved and searchable.
The killer feature? You can search your highlights across all websites. That thing you highlighted three months ago on a random blog post? Instantly findable.
It’s like building a personal database of everything you found interesting online, without any extra effort beyond highlighting.
Why it matters: Information is only useful if you can find it again. Liner makes sure that interesting insight you found doesn’t disappear into the void.
For Organizing and Saving Content#
9. SingleFile: Saving Web Pages That Actually Work Offline#
Bookmarks break. Websites disappear. Content gets removed or paywalled. SingleFile saves the complete webpage (images, styling, everything) as a single HTML file you can open offline.
It’s digital preservation made simple. That important article? Save it completely. That tutorial you’ll reference later? Save it before it moves behind a paywall.
Why it matters: The internet is more ephemeral than we like to admit. Saving content you care about means you’ll actually have it when you need it.
10. Pocket: Reading Lists That Don’t Disappear#
Pocket has been around forever, but it’s still one of the best solutions for “save to read later” that you’ll actually read later.
The key is the clean reading experience and the mobile app that syncs perfectly. Save articles on your laptop, read them on your phone during lunch, archive them when done.
It gets reading material out of your tabs and into a dedicated space where you can actually engage with it.
Why it matters: Having a single place for “things I want to read” reduces the cognitive load of managing reading material across multiple contexts.
For Smarter Navigation and Workflow#
11. Vimium: Keyboard Navigation for Speed#
Once you learn to navigate Chrome with keyboard shortcuts, using a mouse feels absurdly slow. Vimium adds vim-style keyboard shortcuts to Chrome.
Hit ‘f’ to see shortcuts for every clickable element on a page. Use ‘J’ and ‘K’ to move between tabs. Open links in new tabs, navigate history, search bookmarks. All without touching the mouse.
The learning curve is real, but the speed improvement is worth it.
Why it matters: Every time you reach for the mouse, you’re slowing down. Keyboard navigation makes browsing dramatically faster once you build the muscle memory.
12. Toby: New Tab Pages That Don’t Suck#
Your new tab page is prime real estate. Toby turns it into a customizable dashboard of your most important links, organized into collections.
Instead of seeing Chrome’s default “most visited sites” (which is usually just wherever you procrastinate most), you see the links you actually need for your work.
Different collections for different projects. Visual organization that makes sense. Your new tab becomes a launching pad instead of a distraction.
Why it matters: You open new tabs constantly. Making that moment useful instead of default changes your entire browsing experience.
For Privacy and Security#
13. Privacy Badger: Blocking Trackers Automatically#
Even with an ad blocker, you’re being tracked across the web. Privacy Badger learns which domains are tracking you and automatically blocks them.
It’s not about paranoia. It’s about the basic digital hygiene of not leaving a trail of behavioral data everywhere you go.
Why it matters: The less you’re being tracked, the less your browsing behavior is being monetized by data brokers you’ve never heard of.
14. Bitwarden: Password Management Done Right#
If you’re still reusing passwords or storing them in a text file, stop. Bitwarden generates, stores, and auto-fills strong, unique passwords for every site.
Free, open-source, and works across all your devices. Security done right without friction.
Why it matters: Password breaches happen constantly. Using unique passwords for everything is the single most important thing you can do for account security.
For Better Link Management and Sharing#
15. Copy as Markdown: Sharing Links That Don’t Suck#
When you copy a link to share with someone, you probably paste a raw URL that tells them nothing about what they’re clicking on. Copy as Markdown formats the link with the page title automatically.
Small thing, but it makes sharing resources dramatically more useful. People know what they’re clicking on before they click.
Why it matters: Communication clarity. Every link you share becomes more useful when it has context attached.
The Extension Paradox: More Tools, Same Problems#
Here’s the uncomfortable truth about browser extensions: they solve problems, but they can also create new ones.
Too many extensions slow down your browser. They increase complexity. They create new things to manage and maintain. And if you’re not careful, you end up with a toolbar that looks like a teenager’s bedroom floor.
The goal isn’t to install all fifteen of these extensions. It’s to identify which specific problems you have and solve them with targeted tools.
My actual setup uses about eight of these regularly. The others I’ve used at different times for different needs. Your mileage will vary based on how you actually use the internet.
What Extensions Can’t Fix: The Organization Problem#
Extensions are great at solving workflow problems. They’re terrible at solving organization problems.
You can block distractions, save articles, and navigate faster. But you still need a way to organize all the valuable links and resources you find online.
This is where extensions hit their limit. They’re built for specific tasks, not for creating coherent knowledge systems. You need something that thinks about link organization from the ground up.
This is actually why I built stashed.in. Browser extensions are amazing for workflow improvements, but they don’t solve the fundamental problem of organizing and sharing the resources you find valuable.
Instead of scattering links across different tools and extensions, you can create visual stashes with headers that actually tell you what’s inside. Organize by project, interest, or purpose. Keep some private, share others with your team, make curated collections public when you’ve built something worth sharing.
Extensions optimize individual actions. Good organization tools optimize the entire system of how you capture, organize, and use information.
The two work best together. Extensions remove friction from browsing. Organization tools like stashed.in remove friction from actually using what you find.
How to Actually Implement These Without Chaos#
Installing fifteen extensions at once is a recipe for confusion and abandoned tools. Here’s a better approach:
Start with the pain points. What actually frustrates you most about browsing? Too many distractions? Information overload? Slow page loads? Pick extensions that solve those specific problems first.
Install one at a time. Give yourself a week to actually use a new extension before adding another. See if it fits your workflow or just adds complexity.
Be ruthless about removal. If you haven’t used an extension in a month, disable it. You can always re-enable it later if you realize you miss it.
Create an ideal setup, not a perfect one. The goal isn’t to optimize every possible aspect of browsing. It’s to remove the biggest sources of friction in your workflow.
Check permissions. Some extensions require access to everything you do online. Make sure you’re comfortable with what you’re granting access to.
The Extensions I Actually Use Daily#
Everyone’s workflow is different, but since you asked (you didn’t, but I’m telling you anyway), here’s my actual daily setup:
uBlock Origin (non-negotiable), News Feed Eradicator (saves hours), OneTab (sanity preserver), Pocket (actual reading happens here), Vimium (speed is life), Bitwarden (security basics), and occasionally Hypothesis when I’m doing serious research.
That’s it. Seven extensions total. Everything else is situational based on specific projects or needs.
The rest of my link organization happens in stashed.in, where I curate resources by project and can actually find things later.
Less is genuinely more when it comes to browser extensions. The fewer you have, the more likely you are to actually use them effectively.
What Actually Matters#
Extensions are tools, not magic bullets. They make specific things easier, but they don’t fix fundamental workflow problems or organizational chaos.
The real productivity win isn’t finding the perfect extension. It’s being intentional about how you browse, what you save, and how you organize information.
Extensions can support that intentionality. They can remove distractions, speed up common tasks, and reduce friction in your workflow.
But they can’t replace the basic work of deciding what deserves your attention, organizing what you find valuable, and building systems that actually serve how you work.
Start with being intentional. Then add tools that support that intention. Not the other way around.
Your Browser, Your Rules#
The internet doesn’t have to be overwhelming, distracting, and hostile to focused work. Most of those problems are design choices made by platforms optimizing for engagement rather than your wellbeing.
Chrome extensions give you back control. They let you reshape the web into something that actually serves your needs instead of someone else’s business model.
But control comes with responsibility. You have to actually use these tools intentionally. You have to maintain your setup. You have to be honest about what’s working and what’s just adding complexity.
The goal isn’t to turn your browser into a Swiss Army knife with fifty extensions. It’s to solve the specific problems that slow you down or distract you most.
Pick three from this list. Just three. Install them. Use them for a week. See what actually improves your browsing experience.
Then decide if you need more or if those three solved 80% of your problems.
Most likely, you’ll find that a handful of well-chosen extensions make a bigger difference than a toolbar full of tools you barely use.
The best browser setup is the one you’ll actually use. Not the one with the most extensions, the most features, or the most optimization.
Start simple. Solve real problems. Build from there.
Your browser can be a tool that works for you instead of against you. These extensions are how you make that happen.
