Seven Google Chrome keyboard shortcuts and extensions for productivity

Executive overview

Most Chrome users rely on the mouse for basic tab management and browsing, losing time on actions that have faster keyboard equivalents. Seven shortcuts and six extensions eliminate the most common time-wasters.

The fastest productivity gains come from replacing mouse clicks with keyboard shortcuts and blocking the browser features designed to distract you.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Cmd+T — open new tab
• Cmd+W — close current tab
• Shift+Cmd+T — reopen last closed tab
• Cmd+Y — open history search
• Cmd+1–9 — jump to tab by position; Cmd+9 always goes to the last tab
• Cmd+R — reload page
• Shift+Cmd+N — open new incognito window

Chrome extensions

1. SiteBlock — block distracting sites (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit) by time of day
2. Leo (leoh.io) — replaces new tab with time, weather, and a clean background
3. The Great Suspender — suspends inactive tabs to free up memory and speed up the browser
4. AutoPatchwork — auto-loads the next paginated page as you scroll, removing wait time
5. Pixel Block / Ugly Email — blocks email tracking pixels for privacy
6. News Feed Eradicator — removes the Facebook newsfeed, leaving only messages and notifications; YouTube Distraction Free does the same for YouTube
7. Save to Pocket — saves articles and links for distraction-free reading later, strips ads, syncs to mobile