For a long time, I was obstinate to use safari, I guess because I liked the clean aspect of it. But when time comes to customize it or install dream plugins, it’s really disappointing. As Safari didn’t meet my requirement so far, I lit a candle, hoped that Tim will one day forgive me, and I switched for, you get it: Chrome.

When I started to configure it, I wanted to

Have a clean interface, free of distractions

Be able to manage my bookmarks

Install some essential plugins

1. Remove all your bookmarks and use Raindrop.io

It’s going to be game changing for you. With raindrop I am able to manage my bookmarks like a pro. I save a lot of content online, and I want to be able to retrieve them easily. With raindrop, you can create all the categories you want, add labels to your bookmarks and change their descriptions. They also provide tools like a search engine to find among your bookmarks.

Raindrop is free but you can unlock few feature for less than 3$. I’m a pro member, more to support the project than for the extra features. The free version is really complete.

To take full advantage of Raindrop, you’ll need:

To export all your chrome bookmarks. How to ? Install Raindrop for chrome Import your Bookmarks. How to ? Hide the chrome bookmark bar to gain space on your screen: View > Always Show Bookmark bar Overwrite the default chrome shortcuts cmd+D or ctrl+D to save new bookmark. Scroll down on the chrome://extensions/ page. Then click on “Keyboard Shortcuts”. Find Raindrop.io and define a new shortcut.

2. Pin Tabs

If like me, there are some websites you use everyday, just pin them. This will free some space. right click on your tab > pin tab

Slack / ForestAdmin / RescueTime / Dropbox paper

If you have too many apps to pin in your browser and it slows down your productivity or visibility, I recommend you to take a look at the Station app. Its goal is to create a single place for all of your work applications, and keep your default browser for… browsing.

3. Install Plugins

Forest ( install )

Provides a solution to save you from Internet addiction. You can plant a seed in Forest. In the next 30 minutes, this seed will gradually grow into a tree. However, if you cannot resist the temptation and start to browse the websites on your Blacklist, your tree will wither away.

Pinterest Save Button ( install )

Save any idea you find around the web so you can easily get back to it later.

Mercury Reader ( install )

Removes ads and distractions, leaving only text and images for a clean and consistent reading view on every site.

Toby ( about) ( install )

“I don’t want to have 3,000 tabs open anymore” – from a new Toby user

Toby helps you organize your browser tabs into one so you can access key resources in one-click. I use Toby mini because I want to keep Raindrop in the “new tab”, but I use Toby for temporary tabs, for example when I’m doing researches about a subject and I want to keep everything in one place.

Toby

I also use: WhatsRun / FontFaceNinja and Augury for my job related use.

The theme I use is: Material Dark

I hope you’ll find it useful. Let me know if you have any suggestions.