2 Free Digital Tools To Get Your Tabs In Order
How many tabs do you have open right now. I bet it's a lot! Today's tools will help.
Having too many tabs open is stressful — and so commonplace it’s become a meme.
We’ve all been there: open a tab, get distracted, open another… and then another. Before you know it, your browser looks like this:
I use two browsers (Firefox and Chrome) each with multiple windows. I have two monitors, each with numerous desktops. I’m constantly jumping around between a ton of projects.
And each desktop — and each monitor — has many tabs open all the time. And they’re all constantly screaming for my attention.
Or rather, they were.
Because I found some really helpful free tools to help me organize them, hiding right in plain sight.
Let’s dig in.
Know anyone who might appreciate what we’re doing here? Invite them to join us! As you know, we’re all really nice, and cool, and we all LOVE free digital tools!
Pinned Tags
Tool type: Browser Feature
I discovered pinned tabs about a year ago, and they’ve been a game-changer. This feature is available in Chrome and Firefox for sure, and likely in most other browsers.
How it works:
Right-click on a tab and select “Pin tab.”
The tab shrinks and moves to the left.
Repeat as needed.
I just counted. I have a dozen pinned tabs on Firefox. And even more on Chrome. These are things I always need open, like email, social accounts, Notion, ad managers, and calendars…
The rest? They stay big, reminding me to deal with them.
When they’re all spaced out, they look like this:
But here are those same tabs, with my primaries pinned:
(I know those images are a bit hard to see, but hopefully you get the idea.)
It’s a small change, but it brings a surprising sense of calm to my browser.
FREE or FREEmium: Free!
Right-click and start pinning.
Group Tabs
Tool type: Browser Feature
After discovering the joy of pinned tabs, I stumbled upon the magic of grouping tabs. Instead of minimizing, this feature lets you collapse multiple tabs into one small, movable tab that you can expand or collapse as needed.
It’s a very similar concept, except instead of minimizing tabs and moving them to one side, it takes a group of tabs and folds them all into a single small tab that can be moved around, expanded and collapsed as needed.
I’m always working with a bunch of clients at any given time. (Need help winning the internet? Let’s chat!)
I have Google Docs and spreadsheets and… so many other things open for so many clients.
Even pinning primary tabs, my desktops still felt cluttered.
But where Pinned Tabs end, Group Tabs start!
Now whenever I have client work I’m working on regularly throughout the week, I open all those tabs, group them into a single folded tab and then I can access (or ignore!) them as needed.
When I’m ready, I click on the group, expand it, and get to work. And then when I’m done, I minimize it and get it the heck out of the way.
This was another game-changer for me!
Unfortunately, this doesn’t work in Firefox (I’m sure there are plugins, but no native option). But it works great in Chrome.
According to a quick Google search, it appears to work in Safari, but I haven’t tested it myself. (I use Safari on mobile, and Firefox and Chrome on desktip.)
FREE or FREEmium: Free!
Right-click (in Chrome) and get your group on.
Have questions? Just want to chat? Hit reply.
I hope these tools help bring a bit more zen to your digital life, just like they have to mine.
If you like Free Digital Tools, you probably know others who will too. Invite them to join us. They’ll appreciate it… as will I!
See you in a fortnight.
Josh
joshklemons.com