When you look at the very top of your web browser, does it often look a little like this, a mess of different tabs, which can often be confusing and waste a lot of your time as you're trying to find that website or that application that you need right now?
Well, what if instead, you could simply drag your cursor to the left of the screen and have access to all of your favorite productivity apps, including access to all of those tabs, but in a much easier manner? Well, in this video, I'm going to show you a free Chrome extension that does all of this and so much more.
Hello, everyone. Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and to enjoy less stress.
And it's a fact that most of us spend much of our day here within our browser, going between apps and websites and other tools that we need to get things done but we can often waste an awful lot of time by trying to find that particular tab or that particular app that we are looking for.
Instead, wouldn't it be easier.if we just had one-click access to everything that we need here on the left-hand side? Well, with the Manganum Chrome extension, we can do just that.
Not only can we access all of our open tabs, our recently closed tabs, and our full history, but we can create a custom space just for us so we can have our most-visited tabs, our favorites, and, yes, our bookmarks, so if we'd like to gain even more viewing room, we could get rid of the bookmarks bar here and access them here on the left-hand side, but it's so much more than just a tab or bookmark manager.
We also have direct access to our calendar, our tasks, our notes, and even our text messages. So let's take a look at these features and see how they can help you to be more productive. Now, if you're already a Google Workspace user, you're probably familiar with the Google side panel.
So here when I'm within my Gmail account, I can also access my calendar on the right-hand side. I can also access things like my notes and my tasks. But you know what? I only spend a small portion of my day within Gmail or within a Google app.
I'm spending so much more time in other tools that help me get things done, and I don't have that side panel available. But with the Mangano extension, we always have access to our calendar, our notes, and our tasks here on the left-hand side, so I can see, at a glance, what is coming up in my day.
I can also choose to be notified when a meeting is upcoming. So for example, here you can see there's a little one-hour indicator, meaning that my next meeting is happening in about an hour, giving me a subtle hint that perhaps I need to prepare and make sure that I don't miss that call.
But you're probably saying, "What if I want access "to all of these things at all times, "and I don't want to just reveal it "by dragging my mouse to the left-hand side?" Well, good news because with Manganum, we can do just that.
Here in the top right-hand corner of our Chrome browser, we can choose to show the side panel, and now we have access to all of Manganum's features at the click of a button, and no, they won't go away when we switch tabs or if we're doing something on the active screen.
Here, I have access to all of my Google tasks, so no matter what I'm doing on the active screen, I can check things off here on the right-hand side, or in the moment, I can quickly add a task as well, all without never having to leave the page that I'm on.
And perhaps I'm referencing something here as I'm adding that task. But what if you don't use Google Tasks and you use another popular app such as Todoist or TickTick? Well, good news, if we come up here to the dropdown, you can see that you can integrate Manganum with both of those apps as well.
So regardless of your to-do list preference, you can have access to all of those tasks here on the right-hand side. Next up, we have access to Google Keep, which, again, is great because I'm usually taking my notes outside of a Google application.
Not only can I reference all of my existing notes, but at the top of the screen, I can easily take a new note and copy and paste and bring in data from the screen at hand.
But one of the newest additions to the Manganum extension also might be one of the most helpful, especially if you're a Google Drive user.
Here I am within my Google Drive account, and yes, I have access to some other apps on the side panel, but what I always find frustrating with Google Drive is if I come here and want to open up this file, it's going to open it up in a new tab, and then I have to go back to the original tab, and I'm going to open up this file.
Okay, now I've got two drive files open, but I also have the drive screen open as well. Before I know it, I have seven new tabs available to me, and I'm not interested in many of them.
But here within Manganum, if we click on the Drive tab, not only do I have the ability to search for any of my Drive files, but when I click on one of these files, it opens it up in the exact same tab so I can quickly go between these different files
without adding any new tabs, without adding any extra baggage to my browser.
I can go back and forth between the files that I need to or I can view my file structure here from the side panel as well. Now, at this point, some of you might be saying,
"Scott, aren't there other browsers "that have much of this same functionality,
"including the ability to quickly access other apps "and have a side panel, "and it's built right into those browsers?" And the answer is, yes, you're correct. In fact, a browser like Vivaldi would be a good example of a tool that does include many of these features.
However, if you're already happy with Google Chrome, you already have all of your extensions set up, and you have your bookmarks listed in the way that you like.
In addition, you're using Chrome across multiple devices, including your phone and tablet, and perhaps others, do you really want to switch to a brand new browser across multiple devices and have to relearn its functionality when you can add a few new superpowers by installing a free extension? Of course, the answer is going to be different for everyone, and you'll have to answer that for yourself.
But if you're already happy with Chrome, if you already have it set up across your devices,
adding this free extension is going to cause the least disruption to your workflow
and to your productivity. So if you'd like quicker access to all of your tabs, websites, and favorite productivity tools, install the Manganum extension for free at manganum.app, or click the link in the description down below. And if you have any questions about this app or other extensions, be sure to let me know down in the comments.
Thank you so much for watching this video, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
